teaching

Teaching Awards and Nominations

• 2023 Graduate Student Teaching Award, Department of Economics
• 2024-2025 College Teaching Awards Nominee

Teaching Statement

Since I first began considering a PhD program, I have wanted to teach. I found tutoring other students as an undergraduate so rewarding that I tutored many students in economics for free. My passion for teaching has only grown while teaching students at LSU. I started by teaching recitation sessions for ECON 2030 “Economic Principles”. On several occasions, I found out students registered in other sections walked into my class because they wanted to hear my explanations of the examples. The same thing happened when I moved on to teach ECON 2010 “Principles of Macroeconomics” as instructor of record. In 2023, I was honored to receive a department award for excellence in teaching, and I just received notice that I have been nominated for the 2024-2025 College Teaching Awards. This Fall, I started teaching ECON 2035 “Money, Banking, and Macroeconomic Activity”. I will graduate in May with 5 years of teaching experience—three as instructor of record.

When I think about teaching philosophy, a few key desires come to mind: I want my students to know I care about their academic, professional, and personal success. I want students to feel they are treated fairly, that I respect their time, and that the goals I set for them are reasonable and achievable. I want students to feel that they can come to me with any questions or concerns and to discuss their academic interests and goals. To cultivate that kind of environment, I attempt to do the following: (1) Set reasonable deadlines and expectations. I keep the due dates of homework assignments consistent and I promise my students ample time to complete homework sets. Whenever possible, I hold review sessions prior to exams. Many of my students have told me in person that review sessions have been extremely helpful in planning their studying. (2) Ask for feedback. I emphasize to students on the first day of class that I value their feedback—whether it comes in the form of questions or answers to questions I’ve asked or nonverbal feedback like shaking heads. I tell my students their response is valuable whether they have answered correctly or not, because it helps me gauge the class’s level of understanding and helps other students who may be too shy to speak up. I encourage my students to make use of office hours and I ask students who come to my office hours how homework sets are going and how I can improve lectures. (3) Be kind and avoid pre-judgements. I avoid making assumptions about why a student has displayed poor academic performance. There are dozens of reasons students might fall behind, from mental and physical health issues to family troubles to learning disabilities to money troubles. While I always follow department policy regarding late work, I do not shame students who come to me for help after falling behind. We work together to see how we can get them back on track. (4) Adapt explanations to students learning styles, backgrounds, and disabilities. It is important to me that every student feels they have the tools to learn in a welcoming environment. I have had the opportunity to teach economics to the blind as a tutor and college instructor and welcomed the opportunity to grow my communication skills. As a tutor, I created tactile graphs that my students could manipulate themselves using push pins, cork boards, and rubber bands. As an instructor, I improved digital accessibility and stepped away from using graphs as a crutch to convey ideas. I now supplement every graph I encounter in required texts with a non-graphic explanation of the same concepts. Understanding economic models not just through visuals but by following logical steps helps other auditory learners and has helped me stretch my understanding of economic concepts.

One of my overarching goals as a teacher is to emphasize topics and skills that students would do well to carry with them for the rest of their lives. Since I’ve been teaching macroeconomics courses, I have ended each semester with a final exam that focuses on topics that help my students understand financial news and economic aggregates. I also like to provide supplementary examples and data that interested students can explore on their own or that I can show in class when we have extra time. For example, when I taught “Principles of Macroeconomics”, I liked to post graphs of economic aggregates made with FRED and other online data visualization tools. While teaching “Money, Banking, and Macroeconomic Activity” this semester, I posted a video about the Theranos scandal after we discussed the principal-agent problem faced by shareholders, and after discussing Federal Reserve independence, I posted Jerome Powell’s recent statements about Donald Trump not having the authority to force him to resign as Fed chair. I hope using recent examples helps students put the importance of the topics we’re covering in perspective and that illustrations help anchor these topics in their memories. Economics is ripe with opportunities to develop cross-discipline skills like reading data, understand statistical concepts, and critically analyzing research and policy. I try to help my students develop these skills further. Thinking in systems instead of memorizing is challenging for many students at the early college level, but I hope that introducing my students to these skills plants a seed that helps them learn more efficiently and effectively going forward.

As I continue to develop my teaching skills, I plan to humbly incorporate feedback. I hope for opportunities to merge my love of teaching with my research areas by teaching microeconomics courses. I would also love to teach courses that introduce students to economic research and challenge them to develop statistical skills that grow their passion for economics and help them gain an edge in the job market.

Experience

Louisiana State University

Money, Banking, and Macroeconomic Activity (ECON 2035)

• Fall 2024 - Present

Principles of Macroeconomics (ECON 2010)

• Fall 2022 - Spring 2024 (four semesters)

Economic Principles (ECON 2030) - Recitation instructor

• Fall 2020 - Spring 2022 (four semesters)