Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award
Attention Graduate Coordinators: The 2025 OTA nomination portal is now open! Nominations should be submitted by (or before) 11:59 p.m. on Monday, December 2, 2024.
The Center for Teaching and Learning administers the Outstanding Teaching Assistant (OTA) award, sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Instruction. This award recognizes teaching assistants who demonstrate superior instructional skills while serving in the classroom or laboratory.
OTA Nominations
Nominations for this award are accepted during the Fall semester. Graduate Coordinators* are invited to nominate up to 10% of their TAs from the past year for this award (1-10 TAs = 1 nominee; 11-20 TAs = 2 nominees, etc.).
Winners of this award are celebrated at our annual Spring GradTeach Teaching Celebration, where they are also invited to pick up their OTA certificate.
*If you do not have a graduate coordinator but would like to nominate a TA for this award, please reach out to us via GradTeach@uga.edu to discuss. Exceptions are typically made for programs that employ several TAs from outside departments.
Eligibility Criteria
This award is intended to recognize graduate students who have demonstrated superior teaching skills while serving in an instructional role at UGA. Additional eligibility criteria for student nominees include the following:
- The nominee must not have previously won this award.
- The nominee must be registered as a full-time student during the semester of nomination for the award.
- The nominee must have met all TA Policy requirements for training and demonstration of language proficiency.
- The nominee must have had significant teaching responsibilities at UGA for at least two semesters. One of these semesters must have occurred during the Fall semester of nomination, or in the academic year (including summer) preceding nomination. For example, 2025 award winners must have had significant teaching responsibilities at least once from August 2023 – December 2024.
Follow this link for more information about Teaching Assistant recognition at UGA, and for lists of past OTA winners.
Questions? Please contact us via GradTeach@uga.edu.