Bioengineering junior Benjamin David was selected as the 2019 Student Employee of the Year Runner Up by the campus Office of Student Financial Aid, which sponsors the award. As an hourly employee and lab assistant, David supported three Bioengineering courses—Cell and Tissue Engineering Lab (BIOE 202), Biofabrication Lab (BIOE 306), and Gene Editing Lab (BIOE 460)—during the 2018-19 academic year.
David was selected as award runner up from a pool of about 10,000 student employees on campus. He received a $300 prize.
“Ben is a fantastic employee who has made great contributions to our instructional labs,” said Bioengineering Teaching Assistant Professor Karin Jensen. “His contributions have benefitted more than 100 students who took the courses this past year, and his impact will be felt by hundreds more for years to come.”
One of David’s contributions was helping test the newly set-up equipment in the Cell and Tissue Engineering instructional lab during the summer of 2018, when the Bioengineering Department relocated to its new home in Everitt Lab. He also helped Jensen and others navigate the logistics of teaching larger class sections in this new space.
“His contributions in helping us run the BIOE 202 course for the first time in the new space last fall were tremendous,” said Jensen. “He also helped improve some of our experiments in the course.”
This spring, David and fellow lab assistant Faisal Masood noticed that students were struggling to properly use microscopes for their BIOE 202 lab practical. They approached Jensen and asked if they could create a video to teach proper microscope protocol. Within two days, they had scripted, filmed, edited, and posted a video showing students how to use the lab’s microscopes.
“This video will not only be a great resource for my course, but it will also benefit other lab courses for years to come,” noted Jensen. “In addition, Ben is well-respected by students and course staff because of his patience and professionalism.”