Dear friends:
Our student spotlight focuses on Pingping Tang, an operations and management science doctoral student who volunteered her precious time on behalf of fellow students and the local community last spring. After passing three exams to become an IRS-certified tax preparer, Pingping spent every Saturday afternoon for nine weeks volunteering for the WSU VITA program, which provides free tax assistance to students and community members earning below a specified income threshold.
Pingping rather nonchalantly told me that she believes WSU has taught its graduate students not only to work hard on developing research skills but also to take care of others in need and serve the community. In that spirit, she decided to commit to the WSU VITA program to help students struggling with their tax returns. As an international student herself, she is particularly motivated to aid international students. I am awed by such a selfless act from a student going through a challenging PhD program.
Over the years, I’ve witnessed numerous PhD students going above and beyond their expected teaching assistant roles to provide individualized help for struggling undergraduate students. Despite no specific request from their supervising professors, these PhD students will frequently provide one-on-one tutoring outside of regular office hours. I have also seen them respond to student emails at all hours of the night and on weekends. Some TAs have volunteered to provide extra help sessions or office hours prior to big exams. I’ve seen others reach out when a student seems to have “disappeared” from the course.
Not all assistance is course related. Many undergraduate students feel more comfortable opening up to their TAs than to the older, more intimidating professors. I’ve overheard many conversations over the years where our TAs are providing advice on career planning, time management, and more.
Mentorship can be a big part of the PhD student experience. Senior students provide all sorts of guidance to their juniors, ranging from which courses to take, to which faculty to seek out, and how to study for comprehensive exams. Perhaps the biggest impact comes from sharing job market experiences while these senior students obtain faculty positions across the world. These mentorship activities emerge informally, but they provide a critical mechanism for knowledge and PhD culture to be passed through the generations of students moving through the program.
Our doctoral students form a core value of giving back to others, especially via their TA work and mentoring of their younger peers. Once they become faculty and have some extra time, we see these young professors donating their academic talent to their communities in numerous ways, from coaching K-12 math teams, to acting as treasurer for the neighborhood homeowner’s association, and serving on nonprofit boards of directors. Such service commitments arise naturally because the role of a teacher, at any level, is to go the extra mile to help others grow and succeed—one student at a time.
Chuck Munson,
PhD Program Director