2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Future faculty preparation in graduate schools is a necessary component for the professional development of PhD students. This preparation takes multiple forms in every graduate program, some explicit, and most implicitly through progress in the program. Professional development and faculty preparation is often offered explicitly through workshops, trainings, and courses, and additional opportunities through the centers for teaching and learning and graduate education offices at universities. One aspect of the faculty role that graduate students tend to get less preparation for is that of teaching. In most cases, it is assumed that a faculty member able to demonstrate proficiency in maintaining a research program would be able to teach necessary courses in the curriculum of the unit. Many Ph.D. students do not even get a chance to try teaching before entering the faculty job market. To address these issues, a graduate teaching fellowship was established in a School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The fellowship is a structured opportunity for graduate students interested in pedagogy to receive training with a culminating capstone related to ECE teaching experience. Later stage Ph.D. students who may not have had access to teaching opportunities in the past are accepted into the program. The program partners with the university's center for teaching and learning to provide the students with a certification in teaching preparedness. This fellowship program began in Summer 2023 and will have had five cohorts complete the program by Spring 2026. This paper describes the fellowship experience of the students, and assessment of the program completed through IRB approved surveys and focus groups to serve as an example of a program that can be replicated in other units to similarly prepare students for a faculty role with teaching.