This spring, faculty, staff members and graduate teaching assistants were honored for excellence in teaching, mentoring and advising, collectively known as Campus Awards for Excellence in Instruction. Congratulations to our Department of Mathematics Campus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching recipients:
Professor Zoi Rapti creates “an inviting, nurturing environment where students are encouraged to ask questions, and where she makes every attempt to make the material accessible. This is a result of obvious careful attention to detail in lecture preparation and delivery, but more importantly, keen awareness of the students’ level of understanding.” She supervises a diverse group of undergraduate students on various research projects nearly every semester, and also leads independent reading courses to help students comprehend the relevant material.
Lecturer Aldo Manfroi breaks through barriers to freshman and sophomore students’ full participation in class by using a variety of techniques. He makes it a point to relate to his students on a personal level, greeting and conversing with individual students and engaging them throughout the lecture. Manfroi encourages students to ask questions – which he welcomes in a number of formats – and provides ample time to address those questions in a thorough and caring manner.
Teaching assistant Elizabeth Field made contributions through taking on the administrative responsibilities in classes of more than 1,500 students; mentoring undergraduate students in research projects; designing instructional material and teaching students incarcerated at Danville Correctional Facility; and designing and running training sessions for over 140 mathematics teaching assistants. “Elizabeth’s dedication to mathematics education inside and out of the classroom and at a variety of levels is unparalleled. She is the embodiment of excellence in undergraduate education.” She served as head TA for three semesters.
Read the full article → news.illinois.edu/view/6367/808778.