Congratulations to WGSI PhD Students Samantha Dolores Sanchinel and Bennette Baguisa on receiving the 2024-2025 June Larkin TA Award.
The award recognizes outstanding graduate student contributions to undergraduate teaching and mentorship demonstrated through creative approaches to teaching and student engagement.
Samantha’s nomination was supported by her faculty supervisor, S. Trimble who wrote: “Sam brings enthusiasm for everything we do and encourages me as much as the students to keep trying new things. Whether it’s a 2-minute ‘movement break’ in lecture that had all of us grooving to a Backstreet Boys song, reading recommendations to augment and diversify my syllabi, or shouts of encouragement as I’m trying a new physical activity in the company of students, Sam elevates my courses in a hundred small ways.”
Bennette’s nomination was supported by her faculty supervisor, Barbara Ferguson, who wrote, “She infused her students’ learning with attentive, generative discussion,” and “her knowledge of transnational and diasporic queer feminisms richly supplementing course materials.” Prof. Ferguson’s letter also reinforced Bennette’s own thoughtful narrative of her pedagogical growth: “I fully expect Bennette’s coming years of TAship for our department, and her potential career in academia beyond graduation, to continue to enrich student understanding of feminist theory through not just her critical expertise but the thoughtfulness of her own praxis.”
Support and learn more about the June Larking TA Award here.