As a show of appreciation for our volunteer Instructors and Team Leaders, the Center for Academic Enrichment, the Team Leader Advisory Board (TLAB), and the GT 1000 Ambassadors host a celebratory reception each year for GT 1000 & 2000 instructors and TLs.
The event is an opportunity to celebrate the dedication of our Instructors and Team Leaders and to thank them for all of the hard work they've put into the GT 1000 & 2000 programs throughout the year. The GT 1000 & 2000 programs couldn't exist without the Instructors and Team Leaders who volunteer their time to help our first-year students thrive during their transition to Georgia Tech.
This year’s GT 1000 & GT 2000 Appreciation Reception was held on November 9, 2017 at the Bill Moore Student Success Center. During the reception, we distributed awards to Instructors and Team Leaders who have demonstrated effective teaching and mentoring practices in the classroom. All award winners were nominated by GT 1000 students, TLs, and Instructors, with the recipient in each category chosen by TLAB.
The 2017-18 Award Winners are:
Instructor of the Year: Karen Yiu, GT 1000 DIV (Diversity, Inclusion, & Social Justice Section)
Karen Yiu is an experienced GT 1000 instructor who was nominated by several students and TLs in her section. Students in her class praise Karen’s ability to “make everyone feel comfortable in their own skin, regardless of how they identify,” as well as her commitment to first-year student success, her engaging and inspirational teaching style, and her positive attitude.
Team Leader of the Year: Olivia Cote, GT 1000 E14 (General Section)
Olivia Cote is a first-time Team Leader who was nominated by multiple students in her section. Throughout the semester, Olivia has shown the students in her class “what it means to be an excellent student by also being an excellent leader.” Olivia has served as a source of support and guidance to first-year students, by showing her students how to be engaged in the campus community, telling them about essential resources, and overall “representing what it means to be a Yellow Jacket.”
Team Leader Group of the Year: Celine Apollon, Elizabeth Balinao, Taylor Poole, & Nicole Schuster, GT 1000 IA2 (Ivan Allen College Section)
Celine, Elizabeth, Taylor, and Nicole serve as the Team Leader group for the Ivan Allen section of GT 1000 taught by Leslie Ross. The TL group is praised for their teamwork, initiative, and leadership skills. This group of Team Leaders also provided to be an invaluable resource to the students in the class by sharing their own struggles, challenges, and successes. Celine, Elizabeth, Taylor, and Nicole have each “gone above and beyond the call of duty to be a friend and a mentor” to the students in their class.
Friend of the First-Year Seminar: Leadership Education and Development (LEAD)
For the past three years, LEAD has partnered closely with the GT 1000 program to develop curriculum for student leadership development in the first-year seminar. Instructors, team leaders, and students have all benefited from the leadership curriculum in GT 1000, and LEAD has continued to support the GT 1000 and 2000 programs by working closely with the Center for Academic Enrichment to incorporate leadership skills development in our courses.