ICMA Centre PhD wins Teaching award for the 2nd year in a row

Wenyi (Emma) Sun, has been selected by Reading University Students Union (RUSU) for the Graduate Teaching Assistant Excellence Award! This marks the second year in a row where a PhD Student from the ICMA Centre has won the award, with Dina Ghanma winning previously.

The award is part of the RUSU Excellence Awards, designed to recognise University of Reading staff who display excellent and innovative teaching practice. Students are invited to nominate staff who they believe have gone above and beyond expectations, tirelessly working to improve the delivery of their teaching and learning experience.

When asked about the award, Wenyi said "It is a great pleasure and honour to receive this award. I am very grateful that my work has been supported and recognised."

She went on to say "Teaching as an assistant is a wonderful part of my PhD journey - I truly enjoy spending time with my brilliant students. The aim of my teaching is to guide them on how to think pragmatically and to connect the knowledge from books to the real world".

Dina shared a similar view, saying "Winning RUSU’s teaching award last year was a truly humbling experience. Knowing that my students appreciated the effort I put into their seminars and reading everything they said in their nominations made me realise how much of an impact we can make on their education, even as PhD students"

Reflecting on the year since she won the award, Dina continued "This year, I taught two more modules, both of which were postgraduate. RUSU’s award definitely gave me a confidence boost for that challenge." She went on to congratulate to Wenyi for winning it this year, hopes the ICMA Centre PhDs can keep the streak going in the future!