Assaf Avni is recognized with the Texas Exes' Teaching Award!

Each year students in the College of Communication nominate a teacher to receive the award. This year's winner is Assistant Instructor and Ph. D. candidate Assaf Avni.

Assaf didn't know he had won until his last class was interrupted by balloon carrying students announcing his triumph. This year Assaf is teaching ADV 316, "Creativity and American Culture", a class with over 250 students, many of whom probably remember him as the previous TA for ADV325/387, ADV316, and Portfolio 1.

When asked about the award, Assaf replied "Knowing that there's a bunch of students out there that appreciate my work and care about their faculty so much is way more rewording than any actual award. People might forget most of what you tell them or show them but they will never forget how you made them feel and for that, these guys will always be remembered!".

When asked about his teaching philosophy, Assaf said, "The adv dept tagline is "theory x practice" and no matter how theoretical we may get in the class, it is important for me that each class session will have at least one or two things each student can apply to their own lives. Although I'm teaching a big class of over 250 students it is also important for me to get to know as many of them on a personal level so each week I randomly select two students and invite them for coffee to talk about anything other than class-related things. It gives me an opportunity to learn from them about what's cool nowadays and to be able to use their stories and frame of reference later in class to explain theoretical concepts."

Join us in congratulating Assaf on his outstanding work preparing young minds to enter the world of advertising.

12/15/2006