Spencer earns prestigious teaching award
Spencer Holtz earns the highest teaching honor the University of Wyoming confers on graduate students!
When Spencer joined the lab as a PhD student in 2020, he knew he wanted to study the evolutionary and genomic consequences of range expansion. However, he didn't realize how much we would enjoy mentoring undergraduates in the lab and working in the classroom as a TA. In fact, Spencer has increasingly gravitated towards teaching as a career goal and his enthusiasm and talents have been recognized by many in the department. When Animal Biology needed a substitute instructor for a semester, Spencer and another student were offered the position and Spencer spent have the semester teaching the class. Later, when the Animal Biology class needed a substitute lab coordinator for semester, Spencer was again tapped for the position. His accomplishments and passion for teaching were recently officially recognized by the University of Wyoming when it selected him as a winner of the John P. Ellbogen Outstanding Graduate Assistant Teaching Award, UW's highest honor for graduate student teaching! Spencer is planning to defend next spring and is hoping to find a job where he can continue his passion for teaching and mentoring undergraduate students.