UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A graduate student from the Penn State College of Education has been selected as one of this year’s 10 recipients of the Harold F. Martin Graduate Assistant Outstanding Teaching Award, which recognizes graduate teaching assistants for outstanding teaching performance.
Seongryeong Yu is a doctoral student in curriculum and instruction with a dual title in comparative and international education. She teaches a core elementary education course, Methods of Teaching Elementary Reading, and soon after being assigned to this course, she revamped the focus to bring her own cultural perspectives and experiences into the environment.
This, combined with the passion she brings for teaching, helped to refocus the curriculum on preparing students to teach in diverse and multicultural classrooms.
Yu said being presented with such a prestigious award means a lot to her.
“Receiving this teaching award is an incredible honor, and I am deeply grateful to be recognized for my contributions to undergraduate education,” Yu said. “As a previous elementary teacher and the current (teaching assistant), teaching has always been a passion of mine, and this award has given me renewed passion for my work in education.”
Yu said over the past four years, she has had the privilege of working with many talented and inspiring students.
“Receiving this award is an acknowledgement of the hard work and dedication that I have put into my teaching, and it is a testament to the impact that I have had on my students' learning and growth to become early childhood and elementary educators,” she said. “I am humbled by this recognition, and I am more committed than ever to continuing to contribute to the education of our future leaders.”
Yu regularly received high reviews from her students, with remarks referring to her as “one of the best professors I have had at Penn State” and “one of the best professors I’ve ever had.” Students also cited her “clear instruction and constant guidance” and “warm and positive energy that made each class enjoyable to attend” as reasons for giving such high scores.
One nominator also summarized Yu’s impact by saying, “Through organizing and guiding the day's class handouts and merging them with the discussion-oriented culture, she discussed how to support multicultural and multilingual students in reading education rather than imagine the classroom where the students are familiar with.”
Yu will complete her doctorate this spring. Prior to coming to Penn State, she earned a bachelor’s degree in Korean language education (reading education) with a minor in elementary education from Busan National University of Education in South Korea in 2014. In 2018, she earned a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction and Korean language education (reading education) from Korea University.
The Harold F. Martin Graduate Assistant Outstanding Teaching Award is part of the University’s annual graduate student awards, which recognize graduate students who demonstrate excellence in teaching, research, service and other academic activities. The program is open to graduate students who had served as graduate teaching assistants for at least two semesters within the past two years and were a registered student for the 2023 spring semester.
This award is sponsored jointly by the Graduate School, through the Harold F. Martin Graduate Assistant Outstanding Teaching Award endowment, and the Office of the Vice President and Dean for Undergraduate Education.