While the chief duty of all graduate students is to see to their studies with the utmost in diligence and care, they are better known to most common people through their day-jobs as teaching assistants. For most, the idea of being a T.A. just seems like a way to make ends meet, but that's not how Columbian College of Arts and Sciences senior Leonard Colt feels about it.
In the fall, Colt plans to become a graduate student at New York University and from there secure a permanent position as an assistant to the teacher.
"I feel like this is the best path for me," Colt told us. "I'll get to teach, I'll get to learn, I'll get to continue living on a shoestring budget, it's the sweet life."
Colt's intended path is certainly the one less followed, but it isn't one he walks alone. A little digging uncovered Jane Calceman, who graduated from the George Washington University in 2013 with degrees in both chemistry and classical studies. Calceman recently signed a five-year contract to serve as a T.A. in the Rutgers University Department of Chemistry.
Calceman described her still-evolving career niche by saying, "the TA gig isn't just a means to an end for me, it's the goal itself."
She went on to explain that there is a certain satisfaction which comes along with savagely grading and intensely judging the work of people an outside observer could easily mistake for her peers.
Leonard Colt echoed these sentiments, adding that he was looking forward to being seen as an authority in a field to which he is still a relative newcomer.
No new details on this story have emerged at presstime, but we at the GW Ax wished to extend our best wishes to all T.A.s, whether amateur or professional, and hope that they look favorably upon us all when finals season arrives.
