The Graduate Division and Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) Teaching and Resource Center recently presented Callie Rhoades with the Outstanding GSI Award in Engineering. The Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award honors over 200 UC Berkeley GSIs each year for their outstanding work teaching on the UC Berkeley campus. Callie was nominated by the Fung Institute and received this award for the E295: Communication for Engineering Leaders course.

When she’s not teaching, writing, or pursuing her master’s degree in UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, Callie can be found hiking, exploring California, and hanging out with her cat, Winnie. Her journalism background, along with her passion for science, health, and environmental communication, made Callie the perfect fit to be a graduate student instructor for E295: Communication for Engineering Leaders, one of the many courses in UC Berkeley’s Master of Engineering (MEng) program. Here, we had the opportunity to catch up with Callie about her work with the MEng program as well as what it means to be recognized as an Outstanding GSI in Engineering.

How would you describe your teaching philosophy?

My teaching philosophy is to come into each class with understanding and empathy. I think it is important to let students know that you are there to listen to them. I want my students to know that I am there to work with them on each of their individual needs, interests, or concerns about the course and its content.

Does your journalism background help with teaching engineering students and if so, how?

Definitely! I focus the majority of my reporting on science and environmental topics, so I am passionate about taking complex subjects and breaking them down to be engaging and understandable to a varied audience. A lot of what we do in E295 is help students relay their engineering projects to both technical and non-technical audiences. I talk with my students frequently about how we can keep the necessary technical information while also presenting it in a narrative format to help keep audiences engaged.

What have you learned from teaching?

I’ve learned a lot of lessons through teaching, but I think the most important one is that each person is coming into a learning environment from a different background, and they bring their own unique skills and knowledge with them. I think in any environment — teaching and otherwise — it’s vital to work collaboratively and understand the range of perspectives that people bring to a given situation. Teaching, in my opinion, shouldn’t be a one-way conversation. I think it’s necessary to talk with students to understand their specific skills and work with them to apply those skills to the course’s content.

What does it mean to you to receive the 2022–2023 Fung Institute/MEng Outstanding GSI Award?

It means so much to me to receive the 2022–23 Fung Institute/MEng Outstanding GSI Award. It’s been a wonderful experience working for the Fung Institute for three out of the four semesters I have been in graduate school at UC Berkeley.

I take a lot of pride in being a GSI and I am honored to be recognized for my work.

Connect with Callie. Edited By Veronica Roseborough.

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Callie Rhoades awarded 2022–23 Outstanding GSI Award in Engineering was originally published in Berkeley Master of Engineering on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.