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MEANINGFUL EMPLOYMENT AND A HISTORY DEGREE
Utah State University, as a whole, and the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, in particular, have set an example for universities nation-wide in providing opportunities for meaningful academic employment. Smart, motivated students can learn through experience what it means to be a college teacher or a departmental advisor. They can improve their own learning strategies by tutoring others in a variety of basic skills: how to take notes during lectures; how to read textbooks, articles, and monographs; how to prepare for exams; how to write critical essays and research papers; and how to select the courses for their major that will bring them an optimal amount of learning in a reasonable amount of time.
Interested students may choose from a number of employment opportunities, each of which makes an excellent addition to one's resume as well as providing a monetary stipend.
Undergraduate Teaching Fellows. The Department of History has hired as many as eighteen undergraduate students to work as UTFs during the academic year. Each UTF is assigned to a faculty member in a specific undergraduate course, and each helps out mostly in the area of classroom management. The UTF may operate the audio-visual equipment, keep track of hand-outs, take attendance, and maintain the grades. An undergraduate teaching fellow may be responsible for recording who has done what work in the course but not for determining how well that work has been done. In other words, a UTF cannot function as a grader, especially in determining grades on essays.
If you are interested in applying to be a UTF in the future, you must normally maintain a grade point average of 3.3 in your history courses. Since you will be expected to work in a course that you have actually taken as a student, you should notice whether the history courses you are currently enrolled in employ a UTF and what tasks the current UTF performs. Be sure to speak to the professor about the possibility of working in the course in the future.
Nearly all UTF assignments are made in the spring semester for the following academic year. Speak with Prof. Frances Titchener if you have any questions, and be sure to start applying for a position in February or March for the upcoming academic year. Click here for the UTF application form.
Rhetoric Associates. This program enables students in a wide range of courses across the University to receive assistance in presenting written papers and oral presentations. The assistance come from "rhetoric associates" who must be nominated by a member of the faculty, complete a formal application, and go through a rigorous training program. Since 2001, several of our history majors have worked as rhetoric associates. For more information, click here.
Supplementary Instructors and Academic Tutors. The Academic Resource Center provides a number of programs for new and struggling students, and these programs employ advanced undergraduate students to do the teaching and tutoring. Because of the large numbers enrolled in the American Institutions courses, supplementary instructors are often hired to work with the students in these courses. The SI's hold "help" sessions a few times a week, to answer questions about the course and to assist students in learning how to learn. For more information, check out http://www.usu.edu/arc/training/index.htm.
Mark
Damen designed this web site and Diane Buist is the current web master.
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