Excellence in Student Teaching
Arielle Gaudiello, UCF Mathematics Graduate Teaching Assistant and doctoral candidate, has been chosen to receive the 2015-2016 university award for Excellence in Graduate Student Teaching by the UCF Graduate Council. This award recognizes Arielle’s teaching ability and her exceptional academic contribution.
Arielle started graduate school in Fall 2013, where she worked in the Mathematics Assistance and Learning Lab (MALL) and in Fall 2014, she began working for the EXCEL and COMPASS Programs. Arielle explained that “[b]efore graduate school, I had no experience teaching. I only tutored my friends when they needed help.”
She has been teaching her own courses for a year now. In Spring/Summer 2015 she taught Calculus II, in Fall 2015, College Algebra, and currently she is teaching Mathematics for Calculus which is a combined pre-calculus and trigonometry course. She also TA’ed for Calculus II and College Algebra courses.
“I’m truly honored to be receiving this award. Mathematics is such a beautiful subject, and I love having the opportunity to reveal that beauty to the next generation.” Arielle thanks associate instructor, Lori Dunlop-Pyle, “who has helped me tremendously throughout this journey as my mentor, as well as Qiyu Sun, Ph.D. for nominating me for this award, Melissa Dagley, Ph.D., for her guidance, my advisor Zhisheng Shuai, Ph.D. for always giving great advice and the entire mathematics department as a whole.”
In Spring 2013, Arielle won the Professor Lee H. Armstrong GTA Award for Distinguished Teachers. She also won a Teaching Excellence Award in the fall for the Math Department and this past year Arielle was selected to be a mentor for the L.E.A.R.N. Program through the Office of Undergraduate Research.
She is currently enrolled in the Mathematics Ph.D. Program, and plans to graduate Summer 2018. “After graduation I would like to become a professor at a college or university. I absolutely want to focus on teaching, and then continue researching on the side.”
The University of Central Florida Graduate Council recommended Arielle for this award based on her extensive credentials that demonstrate the significant contribution she has made as a student teacher in the mathematics department.
Arielle exemplifies the dedication, commitment, and excellence that this award was established to honor. “Big thanks to everyone at UCF for providing me with such neat opportunities! Knowing that my students are enjoying classes that can be considered dull or boring makes all the effort worthwhile. I hope I can continue to make mathematics fun for years to come!”