Exceptional teaching assistance is critical to the educational mission of the Department of Criminal Justice and Temple University. Fourth-year doctoral student, Sarah Jones has won this year’s CLA TA (SR) Teaching Award! During Jones’ time with the department she has assisted five different instructors in 14 course sections, with total student enrollments of over 500 students. These comprise ten different courses, covering a broad range of difficulty. This alone speaks to the wide experience Jones has accumulated and her commitment to help undergraduate students succeed at all levels of their academic careers. Jones is not only an outstanding teaching assistant and instructor of record, but also an all-around outstanding PhD student, by all possible metrics. Jones has worked collaboratively with faculty members on several research projects and has accumulated an impressive list of publications and conference presentations.

It is clear to the department that Jones sees it as her mission that her students succeed, and she does everything in her purview to accomplish this mission. To round up her excellent teaching and research, Jones is also genuinely dedicated to our institutional goals and profession at large. Jones was nominated for this award by her academic advisor, Dr. Rely Vîlcică with support from other faculty members for whom she served as a teaching assistant.