Georgia Institute of Technology Materials Science and Engineering

The Friend of the First-Year Seminar Award was created to honor an individual or department who has gone “above and beyond” in making significant contributions to GT 1000 & 2000 and was first given out in 2004. This year’s recipient of the Friend of the First-Year Seminar was awarded to Mary Lynn Realff, Caroline Dotts, and Kerry Wallaert, three colleagues who have been invaluable partners in implementing a strengths-based curriculum across GT 1000 & 2000 classes. One of the challenges faced in GT 1000 & 2000 is to have students understand the value of the group project--why we “make” them work in a team for one of our assignments. Through their commitment to strengths-based learning and helping students understand the value of collaboration and communication, the Effective Team Dynamics initiative has improved the team dynamics skills of thousands of students.