Renan Chicarelli Marques: Sanford’s First Teaching Assistant of the Year

Sanford has named Renan Chicarelli Marques its first-ever Teaching Assistant of the Year, recognizing a Ph.D. candidate whose commitment to teaching has left a lasting mark on students in the classroom.

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The award honors a teaching assistant who demonstrates exceptional instruction, creativity, and dedication to student learning. It recognizes those who go above and beyond to support students’ success by fostering curiosity, encouraging engagement, and creating inclusive learning environments both in and outside of the classroom.

Chicarelli Marques, a Ph.D. candidate in Public Policy concentrating in Economics, is an applied microeconomist whose research focuses on the intersection of development and population economics. His work explores how public institutions shape human capital, especially during periods of change such as reform or demographic shifts.

Below, Chicarelli Marques reflects on what the recognition means to him, his approach to teaching, and his advice for future teaching assistants.

What does being named Teaching Assistant of the Year mean to you personally?

Being named Teaching Assistant of the Year is meaningful to me because teaching has become one of the most rewarding parts of my PhD journey. I have approached TAing with the same level of seriousness and care that I bring to my research, and this recognition makes me feel that those efforts truly mattered.

What makes it especially meaningful is having had the chance this year to work with the first year MPP cohort across two consecutive semesters in their statistics/econometrics sequence. Watching students move from uncertainty (or even being a bit scared) around quantitative methods to confidence and genuine curiosity has been incredibly fulfilling, and being part of that growth journey is what makes teaching so special to me.

How would you describe your approach to supporting students in the classroom?

My approach is centered on making quantitative methods feel approachable, intuitive, and relevant to the real policy questions students care about. It's a lot about demystifying what those numbers and formulas mean and sometimes trying to fill in gaps and overcome traumas that build up during math education that students have had over their life course.

I try to first build conceptual foundations before moving into the technical tools, so students understand not only how to run an analysis, but why a method answers a given policy question. I also rely heavily on visual intuition, applied examples, and repetition across different formats, because students at Sanford (especially MPPs) come to the classroom with very different levels of quantitative confidence.

Above all, I want students to feel that statistics is not a barrier, but a language they can use to think clearly about the world, as if they were learning a second or third language.

What advice would you give to future teaching assistants?

My biggest advice would be two: (i) the most tangible impact we, as scholars in training, may have often comes through teaching even more than through our research, so truly lean into that if you believe in making a difference in this workspace; and (ii) never underestimate how much your energy and framing shape the way students experience the material.

I would also say that some of the most impactful teaching happens outside the formal lesson plan: in office hours, review sessions, or simply taking the extra minute to re-explain an idea in a different way.