Nitika, a doctoral student in Biological Sciences, and Caroline Brinegar, a master’s student in Geography, were designated UNC Charlotte’s Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistants (TA) for 2020.
The pair, who were recognized remotely due to the University’s effort to fight the coronavirus pandemic, were awarded $1,000 and a plaque.
The Graduate School presents the Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award annually to honor top TAs nominated by faculty supervisors. The awards, presented at the doctoral and master’s levels, recognize outstanding and innovative teaching techniques.
Nitika, who is a fourth-year doctoral student, taught classes such as Genetics, and she has published nine high-impact peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals. Her research involves understanding the regulation of a key protein in cancer.
“She was the first student at UNC Charlotte to master CRISPR technology and now trains graduate students and PIs (principal investigators) from other labs in cancer genomes,” said Andrew Truman, assistant professor, Biological Sciences. CRISPR, or clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, refers to a family of DNA sequences found in the genomes of prokaryotic organisms such as bacteria and archaea.
Brinegar is a first-generation, nontraditional master’s student. She has worked as a teaching assistant as both an undergraduate and graduate student.
William Garcia, senior lecturer and associate chair of Geography and Earth Sciences, stated Brinegar “repeatedly receives the highest evaluations of her contemporary teaching assistants and has some of the highest evaluations of any teaching assistant I have supervised. The comments provided by students paint a picture of someone who cares about teaching and her students, provides a supportive and helpful classroom environment, is conscientious and respectful in her interactions with students, and is an excellent instructor.”
Graduate teaching assistants play an important role, helping department chairs, faculty members and other professional staff by performing teaching or teaching-related duties, including teaching lower-level courses, developing teaching materials, preparing and giving examinations and grading examinations or papers.
Photo: Nitika, left, and Caroline Brinegar were honored as top graduate assistants.