The Purdue Teaching Academy and the CIE have selected Dr. Stylianos Chatzidakis as a Teaching Leadership Award Fellow. His proposal, “Enhance Teaching Effectiveness of TAs through Structured Mentorship and Training,” aims to strengthen the preparedness of teaching assistants in lab-intensive courses through a two-semester initiative. As student enrollment continues to grow, many new TAs begin their roles without structured guidance, while experienced TAs often lack the resources to effectively mentor them. To address this gap, Chatzidakis’ initiative introduces a structured TA mentorship program, where senior TAs provide hands-on support and guidance under faculty supervision.

The program will also launch an online teaching mentor network, featuring a dedicated Discord channel for real-time collaboration, and monthly interactive sessions covering topics such as learning strategies, inclusive teaching, assessment design, and syllabus development. In addition, an online repository of effective teaching practices will be developed to serve as an ongoing resource for current and future TAs. To broaden its impact, the program will feature university-wide events including monthly development sessions and end-of-semester teaching symposium, designed to foster cross-departmental collaboration and knowledge sharing.