Daniela Draaisma Rodriguez is one of 207 teaching assistants currently working with students of the Department of Economics. She is also one of just 14 TAs shortlisted for the 2023-2024 TA Teaching Excellence Award. UofT employs roughly 6000 TAs at the St. George campus and about 8000 across all three campuses.

The Teaching Assistants’ Training Program’s (TATP) Teaching Excellence Award was created in 2003 to recognize the outstanding contributions of teaching assistants at the University of Toronto. The jury examines educational leadership, meaningful contributions to course and curriculum development, and the overall impact on student learning. The announcement of the final winner is expected at the end of April.

Draaisma Rodriguez has been a TA for ECO101 since she was a master’s student and currently serves at the head TA for Professor Nate Vellekoop’s section of ECO102, Principles of Macroeconomics.

“For inexperienced students to have a dedicated TA when they are beginning a difficult course full of completely new concepts is a true gift,” said Vellekoop. “It’s also a gift for professors who are delivering that course to know that your students are in good hands. The learning community is grateful to Dani for her hard work and, yes, that work is excellent teaching.” [Read more…]