Graduate School Presents 39 Outstanding Teaching Assistant Awards

Teaching assistants are essential to the educational enterprise at Syracuse University. To recognize their critical role and their valuable contributions to undergraduate and graduate education, the Graduate School annually presents Outstanding Teaching Assistant awards. The honor cites demonstrated excellence in instructional capacities. 

“We appreciate and understand the high value our teaching assistants bring to individual students, class sessions, teaching and learning outcomes and graduate scholarship and success across the University,” says Peter Vanable, dean of the Graduate School. “Our faculty and staff sincerely appreciate their contributions.” 

Candidates for Outstanding Teaching Assistant Awards are nominated by their departments. To be considered for the award, they must present a comprehensive teaching portfolio describing their work.

This year, 39 graduate students were recognized with the honor. They are:   

• Jeffrey Adams, English 
• Shreyas Aralumallige Chandregowda, civil and environmental engineering 
• Erika Arias, political science 
• Ana Juliana Borja, cultural foundations of education  
• Ava Breitbeck, physics 
• Brandon Charles, public administration and international affairs 
• Chun Chu, chemistry 
• Nelson Donkor, biomedical and chemical engineering 
• Neiva Fortes, economics 
• Siddharth Gavirneni, earth and environmental sciences 
• Taylor Harman, anthropology 
• Kellan Head, philosophy 
• Jianqing Jia, mathematics 
• Molly Joyce, art and music histories 
• Joumana Kalouch, languages, literatures and linguistics 
• Darzhan Kazbekova, social science 
• Leanne Kelley, biology 
• Christy Khoury, information science and technology 
• Daniel Kimmel, religion 
• Venkata Sai Teja Kotikalapudi, mechanical and aerospace engineering 
• Marie Kramer, mathematics 
• Qingyang Liu, human development and family science 
• Abigail Long, writing studies, rhetoric and composition  
• Ehsan Mohaghegh Dowlatabadi, economics 
• Katherine Mott, sociology 
• Sean Nalty, philosophy 
• Ocean Noah, English 
• Sadie Novak, chemistry 
• John Christoper Rodriguez, writing studies, rhetoric and composition 
• José Romero Reyna, languages, literatures and linguistics 
• Sourav Roy, physics 
• Chelsea Sato, mathematics 
• Morgan Shaw, English 
• Rachel Shepherd, biology  
• Xinyue Tao, communication and rhetorical studies 
• Kirin Taylor, political science 
• Dominic Wilkins, geography and the environment 
• Biyuan Yang, electrical engineering and computer science 
• Chongmin Yang, sociology