By Aubrey Drohner, Meghan Finger, & Mackenzie Morey
Communication students at the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay know all about working together and building relationships. The courses offered and the professors’ expertise allow students to flourish in their communication skills. Some students may want to gain that extra resource or engage in certain subjects more. They can achieve these goals by becoming a teaching assistant for various courses offered in the Communication department.
Having a teaching assistant is beneficial for not only the entire class and the professor of the course. Dr. Phil Clampitt, Blair Endowed Chair of Communication at UWGB, speaks highly of those students who are teaching assistants. “I think they (teaching assistants) can explain certain ideas or projects better than I can because they have recently gone through the process. I can bounce ideas off of them, and I appreciate the opportunity to help them grow even further.” This semester, Dr. Clampitt had one teaching assistant for COMM 480 Cases in Communications and Media Management.
Liz Cichowski, a UW – Green Bay Communication senior, a current Teaching assistant for the in-person Communications course “Cases in Communications and Media Management” taught by Professor Clampitt. Cichowski says, “Having a good relationship with Phil Clampitt and knowing what I wanted to do moving forward in my career led me to want to be a TA for that class.”
As a student, the ultimate goal is to reach the number of credits necessary for one’s specific program. Being a teaching assistant, students receive experience, teaching skills, and three additional credits towards their degree. Cichowski says how different the learning style is when you are a teaching assistant in a classroom setting, “When you go in as a TA, you look at all the materials differently, you have to analyze it a bit differently, and you have to be able to answer questions at the drop of the hat because now you’re helping people with the same materials that you learned before.”
Matthew Knoke, a UW – Green Bay Communication senior, explains some of his benefits since becoming the teaching assistant for Professor Joseph Yoo’s Digital Journalism course. “Ultimately, the reason why I became the TA for Digital Journalism was that I plan on going into journalism,” states Knoke. “I wanted that experience. I wanted to give students feedback and get more out of the journalism department.” Like other students, Matthew got to explore more aspects of journalism by being a teaching assistant.
There are so many opportunities to be involved in your education, especially within the UWGB Communication department. Students can dive deeper into various areas of communication by becoming teaching assistants.
