Great teaching does not happen only at the front of the classroom. Teaching assistants play an essential role in helping students understand challenging material, navigate their courses, and feel supported along the way. That impact is at the heart of the Vijay Bhagavan Teaching Assistant of Distinction Award, which in 2025 recognized two graduate students: Bijesh Gyawali and Ana María Ospina Tobar.
Established in 1998, the award has been a cornerstone of the department for almost three decades. It is endowed through the generosity of Anuradha and V.S. (Manny) Bhagavan in memory of their beloved son Vijay, who was a graduate student here and a teaching assistant himself. Each year, it recognizes graduate students whose dedication to undergraduate teaching reflects the care and commitment Vijay brought to his own work with students. This year's recipients were celebrated at a department gathering on December 5, 2025. Dr. Bernie Morzuch, who spent more than 40 years on the department faculty before retiring in 2022, returned to campus for the occasion to trace the award's history and share his memories of Vijay.
Bijesh Gyawali
A PhD candidate in Resource Economics, Bijesh Gyawali is originally from Kathmandu, Nepal. He has been a teaching assistant for ResEcon 213, Intermediate Statistics for Business and Economics, and ResEcon 386, Health Economics, and taught ResEcon 213 as a sole instructor in Summer 2025.
"Great teaching means meeting students where they are," he says. "Students arrive at university with different educational opportunities, prior knowledge, and levels of support." That philosophy shapes his Friday recitation sessions, where he connects statistical concepts to students' experiences: using their screen-time habits to introduce analysis of variance, drawing on department research, and running Kahoot quizzes to keep sessions interactive.
Bijesh has earned near-perfect SRTI scores, ranging from 4.5 to 5 out of 5, and a faculty member who has worked with him for several years calls him "the best TA I've worked with." One student wrote that "there honestly has not been a TA I've felt has been this helpful in my academic career this far." His ability to combine strong teaching with genuine care for students is exactly what the Vijay Bhagavan Teaching Assistant of Distinction Award seeks to recognize.
For Bijesh, supporting students goes beyond helping them master course material. As a first-generation college student, he understands that uncertainty about asking questions or finding a sense of belonging can matter just as much as difficulty with coursework. That perspective also shapes his research on first-generation students' success in STEM. He is part of the inaugural cohort of UMass Amherst STEM Leadership Fellows and the 2022 cohort of REAL (Research Enhancement and Leadership) Fellows.
His advice to students reflects the same message he works to communicate in his teaching. "Don't wait until you're struggling to ask for help. Go to office hours, ask questions, and connect with your classmates - seeking support is part of learning, and you don't have to figure everything out on your own."
Ana Maria Ospina Tobar
Before graduate school, Ana worked at the Cali Chamber of Commerce and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture in her native Colombia. She earned her BSc in Economics from Universidad del Valle in 2017 and a master's in Resource Economics and Policy from the University of Maine before joining the department as a PhD student in 2023.
In Fall 2025, she served as a teaching assistant for ResEcon 102, Introduction to Environmental Economics, a course with roughly 100 students. "Understanding the students' needs and individual progress, and how to engage them in the learning process," she says, is what great teaching comes down to. "It's also important to be responsive and empathetic to develop trust and thus increase their engagement."
That philosophy was evident in the many behind-the-scenes responsibilities she took on to keep the large course running smoothly. Ana monitored weekly Canvas modules, arranged make-up exams, responded to student questions, and reviewed draft exams for difficulty and clarity before they reached students. Her nominator describes her as an important partner in ensuring that the teaching team was meeting students' needs. With a course of that size, the teaching assistant can become the first person students contact when something goes wrong. Ana was consistently prompt, polite, and professional while also maintaining course deadlines and academic standards.
She was equally attentive to students whose challenges went beyond the classroom. Ana recalls one student who was struggling in the course for reasons unrelated to the material. "I pointed this case to the professor, who immediately found a way to help the student to complete the course successfully," she says. "Education should feel as a comfortable place where they can forget about their issues and learn interesting things, instead of feeling as an extra burden."
Her enthusiasm for teaching also extended beyond her formal TA responsibilities. Ana delivered a guest lecture in ResEcon 102 and another, together with Bijesh, in ResEcon 106. She credits Nathan Chan, who taught ResEcon 102, with helping her develop strategies for engaging students and communicating clearly.
Her advice to current Resource Economics students is rooted in the same persistence that has shaped her own journey: "Remember all the work you have done to be where you are right now and admire yourself. Grounding back with your trajectory and the reasons why you choose this path can be a helpful incentive to keep going."
Bijesh and Ana might approach their work differently, but their students this year got the same thing from both: someone reliable to turn to when the material or the semester got hard. We are grateful for what they have given, and we look forward to what they do next.
Congratulations, Bijesh and Ana!