Awards

Lieber Memorial Associate Instructor Award - 2024

About Persis Ayeh

Associate Instructor Persis Ayeh exceeds the standards of teaching excellence as a transformative leader in the classroom, and through her dedicated student mentorship efforts. As a doctoral student in Health Communication at Indiana University, Indianapolis, Ayeh is renowned for teaching R110: The Fundamentals of Speech Communication, where her students are often finalists in the scholarship awarding IUPUI speech contest out of roughly 2,000 students enrolled across 75 sections of public speaking. She has even authored content in the department’s public speaking textbook.

Ayeh’s teaching philosophy places an emphasis on creating and nurturing an inclusive learning environment, where students feel a sense of belonging, safety, and trust. She incorporates diversity and inclusion into her coursework by embracing open communication, cultural sensitivity, and mutual respect. She also emphasizes the importance of self-reflection and the guiding principle of education as a journey, which she has applied to improve her own pedagogical techniques and teaching styles. Her quality as an instructor and pedagogical techniques are clearly demonstrated by her commendable student course evaluation average of 4.5 on a 5-point scale.

Beyond traditional academic settings, Ayeh has been invited to work with the Director of R110 to work with him on a Virtual Reality program for the Speaker’s Lab. She has also been invited to assist in student coaching for the IUPUI Speech Contest and was recruited to speak at the IUPUI TA Orientation for first-time instructors.