In the summer of 2009, I ran the robotics section of a high school enrichment program called Andrew’s Leap. I wrote and taught the curriculum for the 7-week course. I had two TAs to assist me in-class and the wisdom of Professors David S. Touretzky and George Kantor to help me along. Teaching this course was a great experience that taught me lessons that I wouldn’t have easily found elsewhere.
Managing the two TAs allowed me to learn how best to manage “employees” the hard way; learning from my mistakes. I see the lessons learned through them as the biggest takeaway from my experience. On top of that, teaching high school students about topics that I know in-depth allowed me to refine my technical communication skills.
At the end of the course I received lots of positive feedback, which I am proud to have as an instance of taking on a new challenge in unfamiliar territory.