Teaching Assistant

I was able to serve for two years as a Teaching Assistant (TA) for LSC 101: Critical and Creative Thinking in the Life Sciences, within the Life Sciences First Year Program. Serving as a TA has been a defining High Impact Experience that shifted my role from student to facilitator within the life sciences classroom. Supporting a 70-student course, I evaluate assignments, provide structured feedback, and guide discussions centered on critical thinking and scientific reasoning. Rather than delivering content, my responsibility is to help first-year students learn how to analyze information, construct arguments, and approach complex problems thoughtfully.

This experience has been impactful because it required me to model intellectual discipline, clarity, and fairness while mentoring students navigating the transition into college-level science. Acting as both evaluator and encourager reinforced that effective teaching is not about authority, but about cultivating independent thinkers. Serving in this role strengthened my communication skills, mentorship capacity, and appreciation for the responsibility that accompanies academic leadership.

Featured is Dr. Kuo (Kenny) and the best section of LSC 101's Teaching Assistants on our 'team poster' for the Fall 2025 semester.