AATOP Student Spotlight - Meet Petra Rupert!
Bio: Petra Rupert is a graduate student in the Clinical Psychology program (advisor: Michael Pogue-Geile). Her research focuses on how genetic risk for schizophrenia may impact neural functioning, and her clinical interests are in providing recovery-oriented care for individuals with psychosis. She has been the instructor of record for eight courses (including Psychopathology, Introduction to Psychology, Learning and Motivation Lab, and Research Methods Lab) and has been a teaching assistant for two graduate level courses. She has taught in-person classes ranging from 20 to 90 students and has taught both in-person and web-based courses. For her AATOP project (mentor: Jenny Ganger), she surveyed undergraduate students and their instructors to learn more about how they communicate around the topic of mental health. She is currently the TA/TF Graduate Student Mentor for the Psychology Department.
1. What do you enjoy most about teaching?
The most enjoyable part of teaching is being able to connect with students on topics in psychology that they find interesting and to then help them dive deeper into that topic. This typically takes the form of longer discussions, either during class or office hours. However, I’ll also have students research their topic of interest at home and come back to our next class to share what they’ve learned. I’ve found that this really helps students feel involved in the course and find meaningful connections – and I often learn new things as well! Even when I’ve taught the same course multiple times, each class finds different aspects of the course interesting or inspiring, which renews my interest in those topics as well. It’s also always enjoyable when students tell me they’ve decided to pursue more classes or further education in psychology because of what they have learned in class.
2. How has the AATOP program fit in with your other graduate school requirements, duties, and milestones?
As a student who has taught frequently during my time in the program, AATOP has been instrumental in helping me feel prepared and confident as an instructor. There never seems to be enough time to do everything I would like in my courses, so being involved in AATOP has given me a framework to view teaching as a developmental progress that I can work on throughout my career. I became a part of AATOP in my second year of graduate school, and I have been able to slowly work on the requirements. Depending on my time commitments with research and clinical work, time spent on AATOP requirements has ebbed and flowed over the years. Because of the flexibility of the program, I have never felt over-burdened with the requirements (and a lot of the requirements were things I was already doing as a TA/TF!). Additionally, program requirements can really be geared towards your interests and goals as an instructor, which makes completing them enjoyable.
3. How can graduate students engage with the AATOP community without officially being in the program?
Attending the Teaching Program Lunch & Learns is a great way to engage with the AATOP community even if you aren’t an AATOP student! I’ve learned an incredible amount from faculty and graduate students who present during these lunch talks. It’s also a great way to meet faculty who are affiliated with other programs. Our teaching assignments as graduate students may not always line up exactly with our areas of expertise, and so knowing faculty members who do have that experience can be a great resource when putting together your own materials.