Mariela Herrick receives 2020 Outstanding GSI Award in Public Health
The Graduate Division and Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) Teaching and Resource Center recently presented Mariela Herrick with the Outstanding GSI Award in Public Health. The Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor (OGSI) Award honors over 200 UC Berkeley GSIs each year and recipients are nominated from within their teaching department.
Mariela is a recent graduate of the City and Regional Planning masters program at UC Berkeley. Her research focused on displacement in housing, communities, and economic development. A graduate of UC Berkeley’s Undergraduate Social Welfare Program, Mariela worked at the Alameda County Public Health Department and YTH, an organization at the intersection of youth, tech and health, before returning to Berkeley for her professional degree.
Mariela was nominated for the award by Jaspal Sandhu, Faculty Lead for the Fung Fellowship. He praised her commitment to her students, especially those with underreprented backgrounds in higher education:
“Aside from being a knowledgable GSI with a passionate commitment to pedagogy, she has been a critical source of support for a number of our URM (underrepresented minority) students and our women, notably including URM women…Mariela is the sort of GSI that we should be celebrating for doing her job well and for going above and beyond that job to support our school’s mission of diversity and inclusion.”
A Fung Fellow also shared about Mariela in course evaluations:
“The students in the fellowship come from all sorts of ethnic and academic backgrounds, and for me, this was the biggest factor in creating a welcoming environment…Having an accomplished, intelligent woman of color in this position of authority is impactful! Representation truly matters, and this idea has only started to hit home after actually being in environments where I can see myself in the positions of authority.”
Here, we had the opportunity to catch up with Mariela and reflect on her teaching experience and what the award means to her.
How would you describe your teaching philosophy?
“I consider myself a facilitator of my students’ learning, as well as their advocate. Part of my teaching philosophy was rooted in my experiences as a community organizer, public health practitioner, and city planner. For example, in my work, I believe that every stakeholder and community resident is a leader and expert in their own experiences. In the classroom, I brought that same ideology. All of my students had unique expertise and as their GSI it is my job to support that. I found it important for my students to bring their lived experience into the lessons of our class, and tried to support them in being their full selves in the classroom. Also, we played a lot of games. I think it’s important to gamify the classroom and push the boundaries of how we typically create lesson plans.
What are some lessons you’ve learned or challenges you’ve faced through teaching?
I learned a lot from my students. They taught me to be more aware of facilitating and presenting information in a variety of platforms to better support all students. I also learned that as a GSI you are a coach inside and outside the classroom. A lot of learning happened during office hours. Various students would come to my office hours and we would talk about things related to the class.
We discussed managing a lot of priorities, imposter syndrome, or even finding ways to self-advocate. As a woman of color, I learned that a lot of the things that I was challenged by when I went to Berkeley for my undergraduate degree are still challenging students, particularly students of color, today. That was disheartening, but at the same time I learned about how my students were doing amazing things to challenges inequities on campus and off-campus. To me, it was beautiful to see and learn from my students who were persevering and thriving on campus despite the obstacles, especially during this semester with COVID-19.
What does this award recognition mean to you?
This award means a lot; I was not expecting it all. I think imposter syndrome can always lurk its ugly head and this award helped me feel strong! Particularly when we went remote, I felt like it was important to be agile and listen to students; there was a lot of work that went into this semester that was very different than last semester. So this reward felt really good.
Is there anything additional you would like to share?
I am really thankful for this award and to my students for giving me the opportunity to teach and learn with them. I also want to thank the Fung Fellowship, Jaspal Sandhu, Adrienne Greer, and Jennifer Mangold for their support.”
“All of my students had unique expertise and as their GSI it is my job to support that. I also found it important for my students to bring their lived experience into the lessons of our class and tried to support them in being their full selves in the classroom.”
Edited by Lauren Leung.
Connect with Mariela or read her feature from earlier this year.
Applications for the Fung Fellowship are now open for the UC Berkeley transfer class of 2022 until July 31, 2021.
Learn more about the Fung Fellowship at fungfellows.berkeley.edu.
