Graduate Students—Teach During Summer Quarter

Summer quarter presents a unique opportunity for graduate students to gain experience as lead instructors—a rarity in other quarters. It also presents the opportunity to TA. We typically offer 135 courses from 40+ departments, and many lead instructors are Stanford graduate students.

Summer Session is Stanford’s 4th quarter. We serve 2,500 students —a mix of Stanford students and visiting students from around the world. All students take Stanford courses for Stanford credit. Instructors are a mix of faculty, lecturers, and graduate students, like you!

Summer Teaching Assistantships offer both salary and teaching allowance (TAL). For details about compensation, contact your department.

"[Teaching] gave me more confidence when envisioning myself on the job market."

"I’m emphasizing that I’ve worked with high school students through grad students in the same class when I talk about my teaching philosophy and in my teaching statement [for job applications]. I think that could be an asset for some of the jobs I’m applying for.”

PhD Student

Lead Instructor

Sociology 128D (designed own course)

Why Teach During the Summer?

Professional Development

Develop your teaching skills, to better stand out in the academic job market

Leadership Experience

Serve as the lead instructor for a course, a rare opportunity during other quarters

Real-time Support

Work on your teaching materials before and while teaching, with support from CTL

Foundational Teaching

Teach introductory and survey courses with wide appeal, that prepare you for the type of courses you’ll likely teach as an early-career academic

Connection

Build your community with a cohort of graduate student instructors across disciplines

Variety of Students

Teach a population of summer students that includes both Stanford students and visiting students, residential and commuter students, FLI students, and international students from more than 60 countries.

Compensation

Get paid to teach, as well as tuition allowance

Certification

Apply your teaching experience to the CIRTL@Stanford teaching certificate

Students sit on the stairs smiling at us. (Cayden Gu/Ethography for Stanford Summer Session)

"Diverse student population"

I really enjoyed the opportunity to teach a lot of visiting students from other institutions…I think it’s the most, maybe one of the most diverse [student populations] to teach.

PhD student
Political Science
Teaching Assistant

Next Steps

If you’re interested in teaching an existing course or TA-ing this upcoming summer, here are the steps:

Fill out this form to stay updated. Departments submit courses for consideration by mid-November, and typically hire instructors during Winter and Spring quarter, so it’s helpful to get on our mailing list ASAP.
Reach out to your faculty advisor to understand your department’s process for selecting instructors and TAs as processes vary.
Register for a Summer Teaching Info Session. Attend an info session to learn more about teaching and/or TA-ing a course in summer. Also hear from CTL about support for summer instructors! Look out for registration information in late September.
Visit us at GOALIE: Friday, September 19, 12:00-2:00pm at Canfield Courtyard. Can’t make the info sessions or want to talk to us in person? Meet Summer Session team members in person at the GOALIE tabling event.

Interested in developing a new course?

Some departments review new courses developed by graduate students. Check with your department to confirm their process.

Find out where to start

Departments with graduate students as lead instructors

Anthropology
Art and Art History
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Classics
Communication
Computer Science
CSRE
Electrical Engineering
English
History
Mathematics
Music
Philosophy
Religious Studies
Sociology
Statistics
Symbolic Systems