My Student Experience: Graduate Student Assistantships Prepare College of Education Students for Future Careers

From teaching and supporting pre-service teachers, to assisting with recruitment and programs like Teaching Fellows and Students Advocating for Youth (SAY) Village, graduate students in the College of Education are making an impact while receiving funding for their degrees and gaining valuable, hands-on experience through graduate assistantships. 

Below, three graduate students within the College of Education share what they do in their graduate assistantship and how this work is preparing them for their future careers. 

The following interviews have been edited for length and clarity. 

Emily Grace ’22MED: ‘The Impact of Being a Graduate Assistant is That it Has Made Me a Far Better Educator’

A doctoral student earning a Ph.D. in the Teacher Education and Learning Sciences social studies education concentration who also holds a Master of Education in New Literacies and Global Learning from the College of Education, Emily Grace ’22MED is using what she’s learned in her coursework to better teach undergraduate students and to better understand how to help and support future teachers. 

Through her graduate assistantship role with the Students Advocating for Youth (SAY) Village, she helps facilitate activities and learning experiences for undergraduate students as they work with local elementary school students and oversees student staff members. She also teaches ECI 204: Introduction to Teaching, which students take in conjunction with their first classroom observation experiences in K-12 schools. 

On the impact of being a graduate assistant: For me, the impact of being a graduate assistant is that it has made me a far better educator than I ever could have dreamed of being. I’m a better communicator, I understand how people learn better and I understand both how to translate research into practice and what that can look like logistically. I think that’s so, so important for us as future scholars and future practitioners; we really need to know how to translate research into practice, and being a graduate assistant is the best way to get hands-on experience with it before you graduate. 

On what it’s like to be a graduate assistant in the College of Education: Being a graduate assistant in the College of Education is one of the most fun, exciting and rewarding experiences I’ve ever had. I love getting to interact with undergraduate students, and watching them connect course material to real life and their future teaching practices is just such a fun and satisfying experience and I’m so happy I get to be a facilitator of that for them. 

Owen James: ‘Being a Graduate Assistant in the College of Education is Enriching’

A first-year master’s student in the higher education administration program, Owen James supports undergraduate recruitment activities for the College of Education. From assisting with visits from high school students and helping College of Education applicants understand the process to contributing to planning admissions and recruitment events like Experience NC State, his experience as a graduate assistant is helping him practice real-world applications of the lessons he learns through his coursework 

On how graduate assistantship is helping prepare him for his future career: One of the most valuable aspects of graduate assistantships is it provides graduate students with direct experience while at the same time funding their education. What that means is that it increases accessibility while at the same time providing knowledge about different functional areas and how they operate. In the future, this serves us so well as we go onto our careers and we find out what offices we enjoy, which ones make us feel like we are having that impact and, in the end, it helps the students see the interconnectedness of higher education and how all these different offices work together to support and serve students and ultimately create enriching, supportive learning environments.

On what it’s like to be a graduate assistant in the College of Education: Being a graduate assistant in the College of Education is enriching. You get to learn about how to practice and, at the same time, you get to practice what you learn. It’s that balance between learning and experience that makes it so, so valuable to get to practice a lot of what I learn in the classroom and see how it applies in the real world. 

Alicia Whitley: ‘Being a Graduate Assistant in the College of Education Means Having an Excellent Support System’

A doctoral student in the Teacher Education and Learning Sciences literacy and English language arts education concentration, Alicia Whitley is able to translate what she is learning in the College of Education into her role supporting Teaching Fellows at NC State. 

Not only does she support administrative functions of the Teaching Fellows program, but she supports students by scheduling events and professional growth opportunities, connecting them with resources across the college and providing guidance as they pick classes and navigate their studies. 

On what role graduate assistants play in the College of Education: First of all, the position itself is kind of like an apprenticeship, especially if you want to get into academia or you want to get into higher education. It functions as a way for you, as the student, to practice your craft before you leave school. But, we also serve an important role within the school community itself. We are the ones who are helping keep the College of Education running. There are graduate assistants everywhere you look who are pitching in behind the scenes and helping to make the College of Education a welcoming space for all students. 

On how being a graduate assistant is preparing her for her future career: Being a graduate assistant in the College of Education means having an excellent support system as you are working your way towards your future career. It means that you can actually be doing a job that helps you through school while you have the support of friends, coworkers, mentors and advisors to help you transition into the position that you want to have post-graduation. For example, I came from teaching high school and I wanted to teach teachers, but there needed to be a step in between. This is my half-step, in which I take all of the knowledge I gained being a high school English teacher for 15 years and then I am able to, in a safe setting, work with pre-service teachers—the same pre-service teachers I hope to work with after I leave school.

This post was originally published in College of Education News.