When students think of learning at Dartmouth, they might picture a professor at the board, writing out equations as rows of undergraduates frantically scribble notes. However, plenty of learning happens outside the lecture hall, whether it be late-night tutoring sessions, small lab groups or office hours run by peers only a year or two older than the students they’re helping.
These student educators, whether they are peer tutors, teaching assistants or teaching fellows, play a crucial role in facilitating learning across a variety of disciplines. Student jobs take on different levels of commitment. While peer tutors hold weekly tutorial sessions, teaching assistants might teach in class.
Through guided review sessions, answering cascades of emails and helping students navigate challenging assignments, student educators help tailor learning to students’ needs, all while managing their own coursework and deadlines. The opportunity to learn by teaching, and to share their love of subjects they are passionate about, draws so many students to these roles.
Joe Kuester ’27, a teaching assistant for the music department, took on his role to explore his creative passions.
“I’m passionate about music theory.” Kuester said. “I like being able to put my own spin on it.”
These roles also offer a way for students to pursue passions for academia and maintain a connection to the community. Colby Lish ’25, a Teaching Science Fellow in the chemistry department, was drawn back to the College for exactly that reason. Teaching Science Fellow positions are full time jobs that involve sitting in on classes, writing problem sets and hosting support hours, providing guidance on how to succeed at Dartmouth.
“I worked a lot at Dartmouth as a peer tutor, as a group tutor and as a lab TA. It was just wonderful,” Lish said. “When I found out about the Teaching Science Fellows Program, I just thought, ‘Well, I can do this full time and stay another year at Dartmouth. That’s just perfect.’”
While the roles offer a great opportunity, they are far from easy. Teaching, even for students who excelled in the classes themselves, comes with its own set of challenges. Sam Kang ’27, a peer tutor for Biology 11, described balancing responsibilities and answering unanticipated questions.
“Sometimes I would realize when people were asking me questions that were more in depth, that I didn’t know how to answer,” Kang said. “So, being okay with just saying, ‘Actually, I don't know the answer [to] that question.’ You can offer to reach out to the professor for them, because sometimes that can feel like a barrier for people.”
For Kuester, the struggle was adapting to the differing learning styles of students.
“Sometimes it can be hard for me to distance the way that I learned music from the way that some other people learn music,” Kuester said. “Mostly teachers teach in a more classical and very rule following setting. I kind of do my own things sometimes.”
On top of teaching challenges, these jobs come with their own logistical difficulties.
“This term has been very busy for me,” Kuester said. “This is my first time [TA-ing] so it can be very, very hard to balance it.”
For TSFs like Lish, the workload only grows more intensive.
“As a Teaching Science Fellow, you sit in on every single class, you have problem sets that you write for every week and you have individual student hours,” Lish said. “It’s a full time job.”
The intensity of the job has enabled students to gain valuable skills. Kang tailors her sessions to students’ needs, even if that means setting aside her original plans.
“If exams were coming up, maybe we should focus more on practice questions instead of just going through the content,” Kang said. “It’s trying to figure out what’s most helpful for them, not necessarily something else [I had] planned.”
Lish added that collaboration with other teaching fellows has helped him refine his own approach.
“Discussing different strategies with the other learning fellows is always a good way to broaden your teaching horizons,” Lish said. “[You] reevaluate what you’re doing and where you can improve.”
Collaborative improvement is common across roles. Kuester said that working with his professor prepared him for upcoming X-hours and how to deliver crucial lessons to students.
“Every single X-hour, we go and meet with him before,” Kuester said. “Sometimes they’ll even say ‘Hey, you guys practice on me. Practice giving these instructions.’”
The emphasis on collaboration not only benefits the students being taught, but also helps student-teachers grow. By working closely with peers and professors, they strengthen their own understanding of material, improve their personal approaches to learning and pave the way for their future academic goals, according to Kang.
“Being able to answer other people’s questions about something that I’m learning, or something that I have learned is a helpful studying strategy,” Kang said. “It’s easy to memorize something that’s given to you, but to be able to explain it in different ways was helpful for me. Sometimes I will do that with my friends now.”
Teaching can also be a transformative experience for those with goals in academia. As an aspiring MD-Ph.D student, much of what Lish has done as a teaching fellow lays the foundation for his career goals.
“I want to be in academic medicine and this is just a perfect step along the way,” Lish said. “There’s nothing like practicing teaching. The job is wonderful in that I get to practice teaching science and to learn science of my own.”
For students that wish to assume these roles, teaching positions emphasize that success doesn’t come from knowing everything, but instead from patience and a willingness to embrace the learning process.
“You don’t have to know everything, or be perfect in it to be able to be helpful,” Kang said. “I couldn’t answer everyone's questions, and that was okay. So just try it.”
Lish echoed this sentiment for future Teaching Science Fellows, saying that “the process of thinking is what this job is about.”
“It’s easy to feel like you don’t necessarily know enough,” Lish said. “It’s much more effective to help a student think through the process of learning than it is to reproduce word-for-word the professor’s lecture..”
Kuester emphasized the value of vulnerability and connection.
“Show vulnerability. You’re going to make mistakes,” Kuester said. “Just try and connect to your students the best you can because at the end of the day that’s what it’s all about.”
In the end, Dartmouth’s peer tutors, teaching assistants and teaching fellows do more than help students navigate challenging coursework — they shape learning on campus. In guiding others, they’ve discovered that the act of teaching is itself a path to growth, both academic and personal, all while contributing to the vibrant academic community on campus.
