Pictured Above: Kaylen Alvarez is working towards a Master’s in Digital Journalism and Design at USF St. Petersburg.
Courtesy of Kaylen Alvarez
By Baron Reichenbach
For graduate students like Kaylen Alvarez, becoming a teaching assistant is an ideal way to enhance the graduate experience.
“I feel like I’m always learning along with (the students), so it’s always like a good refresher to hear the lectures and to read certain things and being able to look out for certain errors…it has helped me catch them in my own writing,” Alvarez said.
Alvarez was hired as a TA in the fall 2020 semester. While applying for the graduate program, she got in touch with Mark Walters, the graduates program director. The two discussed Alvarez’s aspirations to work toward a master’s in digital journalism and design.
A graduate from the mass communications undergraduate program at USF Tampa, Alvarez has previously worked on online, radio, and TV reporting for media outlets in the Tampa Bay area.
She was notified that she got the job in April, and in August, she attended her first staff meeting. There, she was assigned as a TA for the beginning and advanced reporting classes.
As a TA, Alvarez is responsible for grading and giving feedback on students’ discussion assignments and stories.
“I like to go line-by-line and annotate,” she said. “I know I really would have appreciated that as a student myself.”
Her other responsibilities include helping make tests and quizzes and moderating guest lectures.
Alvarez offered her insight on the professional paths opened to her as a result of her job as a TA.
“I think it’s really good to have this experience, because with a master’s (degree) I could one day teach myself,” she said. “So if that’s something I’d want to do I kind of have this experience.”
“I think… (for) whatever field you’re interested in, it’s just a really great experience.”
Alvarez hopes to continue her job as a TA into the next academic year.
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