Purdue Engineering Dean’s Teaching Fellowship

 

The Dean’s Teaching Fellowship provides an opportunity for senior graduate students to practice, establish and implement their own approaches to teaching undergraduates. Graduate student leaders can engage in this meaningful teaching experience and connect with other leaders across the College of Engineering.

Meet the 2024 Dean’s Teaching Fellows

Application Open Date: Fall 2024

Application Deadline: TBA, Fall 2024

Applicants must include an endorsement form from their School/Division (details below) and should allow time to secure this.

Program Structure

The CoE Teaching Fellowship is a two-semester program, which is awarded to four senior PhD students. Each recipient(s) will receive:

  • Half time TA for one semester (typically Fall)
  • Scholarship of $5,000 split across two semesters (Spring, Summer, and/or Fall)
  • $750 for personal purchase of technology/equipment for the classroom

During the first semester (Spring or Summer), the recipient will serve as an apprentice to a faculty mentor who is an experienced instructor and is teaching a listed undergraduate course. As an apprentice, the teaching fellow is expected to:

  • Attend lectures of the course being taught by the Mentor
  • Observe the instructor’s assessment strategies and preparation (homework, projects, exams).
  • Become familiar with grading in a large course, as applicable
  • Substitute for the instructor for 3-4 lectures during the semester and receive teaching feedback from the Mentor.

If an exceptional student has already completed the experiences of the apprenticeship semester while serving as a TA for a course, then in rare cases this could be substituted for the apprentice semester (at the discretion of the School and College). Please have schools indicate this on their endorsement form.

During the second semester (Summer or Fall), the recipient will teach one lecture section of the same course alone. When serving as an instructor for a section of the core courses in the second semester, the recipient will also be appointed at the level of a 50% Teaching Assistant.

During this semester as an instructor, the teaching fellow is also expected to:

  • Register for ENE 687 – Mentored Teaching in Engineering (1 Credit). If this course conflicts with instructorship position then another workshop/course can be substituted at the discretion of the School and College.
  • Attend one College of Engineering’s Future Engineering Faculty Workshop Series on becoming a competitive candidate for either a) R1 Institutions or b) Teaching Universities

The mentor can be the recipient’s advisor. However, a mentor other than one’s advisor is highly encouraged in order to maximize the recipient’s exposure to different perspectives and teaching practices in academia.

Eligibility

To be considered for the CoE Dean’s Teaching Fellowship, the applicant:

  1. Must be a College of Engineering PhD student from a participating school (see below for more info) who has passed their qualifying exam or equivalent for their program. Some schools may also require applicants to have passed their preliminary exam. Please confirm with your school contact listed below.
  2. International students must be certified to TA either through OEPT, ENGL 620, or TOEFL.
  3. Must have a graduate GPA of 3.3 or higher at the time of application submission
  4. Must be perceived by the student’s advisory committee chair as having high potential to be successful in academia.
  5. Must possess good communication skills.
  6. Cannot be awarded in the same year to a graduate student who has received a Teaching Fellowship through their own school.

Application Process

To apply for the CoE Teaching Fellowship, students must submit through the Qualtrics Link below no later than the deadline listed.

Your application should include the following:

  1. Letter of interest, including a statement of career plans
  2. Academic CV
  3. A ranked list of at least 3 courses in the student’s school that the student is interested in teaching. Please consider listing both large and small enrollment courses.
  4. A nomination letter written by the student’s major professor.
  5. The student should share their complete Dean’s Teaching Fellow application package with their School. Each participating school has a contact who should complete the attached endorsement form. Find School Contacts and Endorsement Form here. The endorsement form must be submitted along with your application. If a signature is not possible, an email from the contact stating his/her desire to sign the form is acceptable.

Any additional questions about the Dean’s Teaching Fellowship can be sent to mcbrid44@purdue.edu.

Review Criteria

In addition to the eligibility in the announcement attached, some criteria that thereviewcommittee will be looking at include (but is not limited to):

  • The student will have a positive impact on undergraduate student learning
  • The student possess good communication skills
  • The student shows the potential to be capable of juggling ateachingand research work load
  • TheTeachingFellowship will be beneficial in the student's training
  • Overall, the student's package reflects strong scholarly/service work and a strong potential for a faculty career

We highly encourage students from all backgrounds to apply for this opportunity.