‘You Belong Here’: 2026 Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Awards

Recognizing those who animate a university’s commitment to teaching involves more than looking to the efforts of its faculty.

It also means honoring individuals who, at the beginning of their teaching careers, already stand out for the impact they’re having as classroom instructors.

Sponsored by Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence and the Graduate School at Notre Dame, the annual Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Awards celebrate Notre Dame graduate student instructors and TAs who demonstrate excellence in the classroom or teaching laboratory. Awards are granted based on departments who offer their advanced degree programs through the Graduate School nominating up to five percent of their graduate instructors or TAs in a given year.

This year’s winners were recognized April 2 at a dinner in the Morris Inn’s Smith Ballroom emceed by Ashley Henry, program director for graduate student and postdoctoral development in the Kaneb Center. Each graduate student received a certificate from the Kaneb Center and Graduate School, a letter formally documenting the award, and a $100 honorarium.

The event featured remarks from Mitchell Olsen, the Richard J. Huether Associate Teaching Professor of Marketing in Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, where he also serves as the Department of Marketing’s director of undergraduate studies and assistant chair.

The recipient of several teaching awards at Notre Dame, Olsen shared three insights from his own teaching with the early career instructors in attendance:

• the importance of finding one’s own authentic voice and teaching style
• the benefits of cultivating a sense of joint ownership of the class between instructor and students
• the power of approaching teaching with love

With respect to the last, Olsen was referring to agape, the biblical sense of charitable and unconditional love, inviting teachers to treat the students in a class as whole, complex human beings while balancing their individual needs with the needs of the group.

“You belong here,” Olsen said to the honorees as he concluded his remarks. “There’s no better voice or style than your own. We have much to learn from our students. And let us have the courage to approach every new challenge with love.”

Following Olsen’s remarks, each of the 50 honorees was invited up to the stage, where Michael Hildreth, dean of the Graduate School and vice president and associate provost for graduate studies, presented them with their certificates.

2026 Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award-Winners

Originally published by ND Learning at learning.nd.edu on April 13, 2026.