The wonderful Dr. Mendez at UT Austin invited me to TA three of her classes (LA 119, MAN 137C, MAN 237D) due to my exceptional mastery of the material in the Global Management Certificate program that she heads.
These three classes were primarily online, as the students were often studying abroad in Paris, Sydney, and other places. The classes also reused materials from when I took them, so little needed to be created for class activities or homework assignments. Therefore, my role was as a supplementary instructor; when students had questions or needed help with their work or logistics and fears while abroad, I was the first point of contact.
I often had to advise students on their situations abroad, based on my own experiences in vastly differing programs. I also had to be an expert on the material of the entire certificate curriculum, as students had specific questions that needed very well-explained answers to perform better. Dr. Mendez repeatedly stated that I was doing an exceptional job, but it was also wonderful to hear personal notes of thanks from the students.
My other task was my official one set by university payroll: I was a grader. This wasn’t simply feeding Scantron sheets through a reader! Each semester of each class (often overlapping, not to mention my own busy schedule) asked every student to write were essentially essays anywhere from 4-10 times. This amounted to hundreds of written responses that I had to assess qualitatively and grade according to a rubric. This could be very objective, so it required not only great knowledge of the material but also many other qualities such as consistency and detail orientation.
I loved it all! Feeling that I had mastered my own work, helping others, getting positive feedback, succeeding at a difficult task, and hearing all of the crazy and meaningful stories from students’ first steps in new countries was all part of an experience that little else in my career thus far could match.