In a new short video recorded as part of the UCLA Academic Senate’s recognition, Ph.D. candidate Caitlyn Fick (Srivastava group) explains how small, caring practices—like anonymous surveys—can build trust and help students feel supported in an intimidating subject like chemistry.
The 2025 Distinguished Teaching Awards were announced earlier this year and the recipients were recognized at the 2025 Andrea L. Rich Night to Honor Teaching at the Chancellor’s residence on October 23, 2025.
As part of the recognition, each recipient gave a short video interview. Fick’s video can be viewed below.
Fick works in Professor Samanvaya Srivastava’s lab in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department of the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science conducting polymer synthesis, specifically comb polymers. Her work is interdisciplinary and seeks to address common issues in human health, disease, and eventual diagnosis and treatment.
Excerpt from UCLA Teaching & Learning Center (TLC) announcement:
UCLA’s Annual Night to Honor Teaching Showcases the Impact of Educational Excellence
UCLA instructors with a commitment to innovative teaching practices and outstanding educational service were recently honored at the 2025 Andrea L. Rich Night to Honor Teaching annual awards ceremony. The awards are sponsored by the Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) and the UCLA Office of the Chancellor.
The Distinguished Teaching Awards are the university’s highest teaching honor and recognize instructors in three categories: senate faculty, non-senate faculty, and teaching assistants. Senate and non-Senate awards acknowledge a variety of pedagogical areas with profound impact on teaching and learning including the Practice of Teaching, Innovation and Impact, Community-Engaged Teaching, and Undergraduate Mentorship. Criteria, such as student success, use of innovative teaching methods, efforts to foster learning for all students, community engagement activities, and Student Experiences of Teaching (SET) surveys are all considered by the selection committee in determining the recipients.
This year’s Night to Honor Teaching also recognized recipients of the TLC’s Educational Innovation Grants, who are leading initiatives to enhance the learning experience at UCLA. The program awarded approximately $1 million during the 2024-2025 academic year to fund projects aimed at making instructional improvements for students, instructors, and departments.
See the full list of Tier 3 Catalyst and Tier 4 Transformation Grant winners for 2024-2025
By recognizing some of UCLA’s most impactful and innovative instructors, the Night to Honor Teaching underscores that instructional excellence remains a key priority on campus. Elevating excellent teaching is outlined in the UCLA for Life flagship initiative, a part of Chancellor Julio Frenk’s One UCLA campaign, and Goal 4 of the University’s Strategic Plan.
The ceremony’s speakers brought attention to the universal importance of educators’ work. Michael Levine, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Personnel, delivered remarks on behalf of Chancellor Frenk highlighting the key mentorship teachers provide to individuals across various levels of society.
“Teaching is the foundation of all professions”, Levine noted. “This is because every leader, professional, and engaged citizen was influenced and guided by educators. It is a discipline that reaches back to the ancient roots of humanity.”
Dean and Vice Provost Brian Kite from the Division of Graduate Education presented the Distinguished Teaching Assistant Awards. Professor Melissa Paquette-Smith, who serves as Vice Chair of the Distinguished Teaching Awards Selection Committee helped honor the Non-Sentate Faculty winners, while Professor and Chair of the Distinguished Teaching Awards Selection Committee Mark Goorsky presented the Senate Faculty Awards. TLC Executive Director Kem Saichaie recognized the Educational Innovation Grant recipients.
Overall, the Night to Honor Teaching celebrated the dedicated educators who provide students the time and space to learn, creating the conditions for students to thrive in achieving their academic goals.
“I hope tonight allows us to pause and reflect on the impact we have as instructors,” noted Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning Erin Sanders O’Leary. “At an institution like UCLA, thousands of students will pass through our classrooms over the years. Some will challenge us, some will inspire us, and all of them will teach us something.”
Distinguished Teaching Assistant Award Recipients
The Distinguished Teaching Assistant Awardees for 2025 are Lynette Dixon, Caitlyn Fick, Alexis Korb, Ivy Kwok, and Vanessa Pooudomsak.
Lynette Dixon is a teaching assistant in gender studies at the UCLA College. She has found that her teaching practice has greatly benefited from being able to experiment with new techniques that have allowed her to hone her pedagogical approach. Dixon advises newer instructors to trust their intuition and experiences as a learner when creating lesson plans. “We’ve always been learning, we’ve been learning before we were in a classroom – we know what works and what doesn’t work,” she said.
Caitlyn Fick is a teaching assistant in chemistry and biochemistry at the UCLA College. Throughout her experience at UCLA, she has discovered that effective instruction comes through small-scale interventions that foster a supportive space where students can more deeply engage with material. Short handwritten surveys, for instance, have allowed Fick to gauge what topics students are most nervous about. “I’ve learned that you don’t need to be flashy with what you do in the classroom to be an impactful teacher,” she observed.
Alexis Korb is a teaching assistant in computer science at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering. Because coding assignments are often graded based on whether one’s program successfully runs, she finds it important to also test students on their understanding of various concepts. In encouraging students to see beyond whether their code works, Korb hopes students find the value that comes from their attempts. “I like to focus on giving them the intuition to ask, ‘What is actually happening? Why is this working?’ Not just the solution, but how do we actually solve this problem?” she said.
Ivy Kwok is a teaching assistant in civil and environmental engineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering. She emphasizes group work throughout courses as a way of getting students to engage with one another in a space that might be less intimidating than a full lecture. This setting also allows students the time to thoughtfully consider their responses. “Hopefully, in these small group settings, it gives students a chance to think through things and be able to talk through them,” Kwok shared.
Vanessa Pooudomsak is a teaching assistant in political science at the UCLA College. Teaching courses in international legal theory, she encounters students who are initially skeptical about the effectiveness of international law. Pooudomsak hopes to encourage students to ask larger questions about how to facilitate global discussions around the rules of conflict. “This is something that is the basis of a lot of political theory, saying ‘yes, we want to have rules and laws, but we also want to have spaces to deliberate what those are,” she explained.
Hear more about teaching from the teaching assistant awardees
Congratulations to all the 2025 Distinguished Teaching Award recipients for their continued commitment to educational excellence.
