Ryan Pollock Wins Teaching Award

Ryan Pollock recently won Penn State’s Harold F. Martin Graduate Assistant Outstanding Teaching Award. This is a university level award which recognizes graduate assistants for outstanding teaching performance. 

Ryan reports, “I am very pleased and humbled to receive this award. Teaching has been a process of trial-and-error for me, but through this experience nothing has been more important to my success than ensuring a student-centered classroom. I constantly strive to put myself in the shoes of my students and ask how I can best motivate them to engage with a subject that can at first be very abstract and intimidating.”

Ryan’s students greatly value his skills as an instructor. As one student writes, “Before taking Ryan Pollock’s philosophy course, I had no experience with the subject and worried that I would not be able to think critically on the level that was expected of me. Once I got to class, I immediately felt comfortable participating and asking questions when I needed to. Ryan’s humor and overall demeanor made him extremely approachable. He took the time to explain a difficult concept until we fully understood. Our in class lectures were easy to keep up with and complimented our assigned readings well. His course showed me that philosophy is not as intimidating as I once thought. This lead me to schedule more philosophy courses, as well as work towards it as one of two concurrent majors. Without my experience in Ryan Pollock’s class early on in my college career, I would have missed out on a subject that I now love and excel in.”

Congratulations Ryan for an award well deserved!