Centennial Teaching Assistant Awards
The annual Centennial Teaching Assistant (CTA) Awards recognize outstanding teaching assistants (TAs) for their tremendous service and dedication in providing excellent classroom instruction for Stanford students.
Photo credit Steve Castillo Photography
About the awards
Award recipients are selected from a wide range of individuals throughout the School of Humanities and Sciences, Doerr School of Sustainability (formerly Earth, Energy & Environment Sciences), and the School of Engineering.
The CTA Awards are administered by the participating schools in partnership with the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL). CTL provides orientation, training, and mentorship to teaching assistants in their capacity as instructors and hosts the annual awards ceremony, where deans of the participating schools present awardees with a certificate recognizing their accomplishment, along with monetary recognition.
The 2023 Awards Event
Photos: Steve Castillo Photography
Selection process
Psychology Professor Ewart Thomas established the program in 1989 during his tenure as dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences (H&S) to acknowledge and celebrate the important role that teaching assistants play at Stanford. Since then, half of the H&S departments are invited every year to select a designated number of graduate student teachers that will be honored by the Centennial TA title. The department or program’s size determines the number of TAs they may nominate. For Engineering and Sustainability, all departments are eligible to nominate TAs.
Departments are encouraged to seek the widest participation of their faculty and graduate students and use a broad range of information about teaching assistants' effectiveness and contributions. Student evaluations of TAs are also consulted. This is not meant to be a competition but rather a process that recognizes TAs with a record of outstanding contributions over time.
Funding
Endowment gifts for the CTA program in Humanities and Sciences were made by Stanford friends and alums Bill (’56) and Reva (’54) Tooley of Los Angeles, Joan and the late Melvin Lane (’44) of Atherton, and Marta S. Weeks (’51) of Miami.