What's a GSIC (and why should you apply to be one)?
Have you ever wondered how CRLT is able to offer individual consultations for anyone teaching at U-M, including hundreds of GSIs? We couldn't do it without our team of Graduate Student Instructional Consultants (GSICs). The GSICs are U-M graduate students, current and former GSIs representing a broad range of fields, who consult with GSIs across campus on teaching and learning. They also often facilitate workshops and contribute to our new GSI training programs. 
As the coordinator of the current GSIC group and a former GSIC myself, I know that the program has inspired many GSICs to pursue a career in educational development. As a result of my involvement in the group during my tenure as a graduate student at U-M, I discovered my passion for working with diverse instructors to enhance their teaching and improve student learning. I ultimately pursued a career as an instructional consultant, and many former GSICs have done the same.
Catharine Hoffman Beyer and her colleagues at the University of Washington provides research to back up what many of us already know from experience: most professors care deeply about teaching and continuously work hard on improving it. You can learn more about Inside the Undergraduate Teaching Experience (SUNY Press) from this
In Fall 2011 I spent a day at Oberlin College as part of the Rackham-CRLT Intercampus Mentorship Program. My interest in the program stemmed from my own experience as an undergraduate student at a liberal arts college (Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX) and my eventual goal to become a professor at a teaching-focused university. I chose Dr. Jan Thornton as my mentor because of our shared interests in hormones and behavior, and Jan enthusiastically agreed to meet with me for a very full day at Oberlin.
In line with U-M’s mission to develop internationally engaged and globally competent students, the Provost recently announced a new CRLT Grant for Internationalizing the Curriculum.
But as both students and colleagues report, Porter-Szűcs is beloved for his remarkable commitment to taking undergraduates seriously as intellectual interlocutors and key members of the History department’s academic community. In his undergraduate classes, he engages students as fellow thinkers by giving them primary documents along with a range of historical interpretations—often arguments with which he fundamentally disagrees—and asking them to come to their own conclusions. He uses class blogs to facilitate their interactions with one another’s analyses. And he inspires students to pursue their intellectual passions beyond the bounds of the classroom. Under his guidance as the department's first Director of Undergraduate Studies, the once-moribund History Club has grown into a vibrant intellectual community for undergraduate concentrators. And under his mentorship, a steady stream of students have proceeded to post-graduate study, many of whom who say they would never had thought of themselves as scholars before taking one of his courses. In short, students stand up and applaud Porter-Szűcs not because he entertains them but because he respects them as thinkers.
