Michael Barrus
Congratulations to Michael Barrus, a PhD candidate in the Laboratory of Molecular and Behavioural Neuroscience, for receiving the 2018 Demetri Papageorgis Teaching Assistant Award for TA Excellence. This award recognizes teaching assistants who make outstanding contributions to student education in the Department of Psychology.
“Working with the students was the highlight of my teaching career and I am grateful to them for the hard work they all put in to the course.”
“I was initially worried that TAing a course in research methods would be a burden during the last year of my PhD, as I was trying to wrap up experiments, write a dissertation and look for work, but it turned out to be one of the most rewarding experiences of my graduate career,” says Barrus, who was a Teaching Assistant for Dr. James Enns’ “Methods in Research” course (PSYC 366). “My role in the course was to work with the student as they completed a research project in a UBC psych lab, from finding a lab to writing a scientific paper detailing their findings.”
Barrus adds, “The students were exceptionally bright and working through each step of the process with them reminded me why I got involved in research in the first place. They helped me check my assumptions about science and gave me an opportunity to communicate some of what I have learned after a decade in academic research. Working with them was the highlight of my teaching career and I am grateful to them for all of the hard work they put in to the course.”
The Demetri Papageorgis Teaching Assistant Award is an internal award, established in 2001 in honour of Dr. Demetri Papageorgis. Papageorgis was a dedicated UBC Psychology faculty member who passed away in 1999. The award celebrates the passion for teaching demonstrated by Dr. Papageorgis and current teaching assistants who are following suit.
Please join us in congratulating Michael on this accomplishment!
