On the St. George campus, it’s rare for an undergraduate to hold a teaching assistant position. According to Professor of Economics Marcin Pęski the TA co-ordinator for the Department of Economics, only 12% of TA hours are completed by undergrads. That number is much larger at the UTM campus where tutorials are typically run by undergraduates.
New graduate Victor Popa Burca was one of those rare undergraduate TAs for Professor Joseph Steinberg’s course Introduction to Macroeconomic Theory.
“I was TAing ECO208 when I was in third year,” said the Innis College student whose convocation is next week. “I felt like I connected more closely to the students because I had taken the course just the year before. I brought a student’s approach to the course. I was like, ‘Guys, I was just where you are now. I’m here to help you. If I could do this, you can do it.’ I feel that people were more comfortable with me than with a sensei-type teaching assistant, you know?”
Burca gave students in his Macroeconomic Theory tutorial three key pieces of advice:
