Doctoral student Minha Ha takes her teaching seriously

Minha R. Ha is a Doctoral student from the Department of Mechanical Engineering whose work in the classroom has earned her a 2018 President’s University-Wide Teaching Award in the teaching assistant (TA) category.

Last year, working with Lassonde Professor Jeff Harris, Ha helped develop a new two-hour tutorial for his second-year course, MECH 2112 (Mechanical Engineering: Professionalism and Society). This year, she is the lead TA for the first-year Renaissance Engineering courses, ENG 1101 and ENG 1102, overseeing the work of 16 tutorial sections each time. Redeveloped or designed anew, her work is found in all the tutorials delivered this academic year.

“Tutorials are meant to train students in how to think,” Ha said. “I love drawing out students’ ideas and articulating them in a way that their contributions get integrated into something we all walk away with. Everyone brings his or her own intelligence and insights that add to classroom learning.”

Read more about Ha and her teaching philosophy on YFile.