College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics

Most semesters, there are a small number of teaching assistantship (TA) opportunities (typically 1 - 2) for AFRE Ph.D. students to teach courses in the undergraduate program. If you are an AFRE Ph.D. student and interested in learning more about teaching assistantship opportunities, please email Dr. Brent Ross (rross@msu.edu), CC Ellen Schueller (schuell2@msu.edu) and Dr. Nicole Mason-Wardell (masonn@msu.edu), and provide the following information:

1. The name(s) of your major professor(s)
2. Your year in the Ph.D. program
3. The AFRE undergraduate course(s) you would be interested in teaching
4. Why you think you would be a strong candidate to teach the course(s) you listed in #3 (including past teaching or grading experience, relevance to your research interests, similar courses taken in the past, etc.)
5. A brief description of how the TA experience would help you work toward your career goals. Please be sure to indicate if you plan to pursue an academic career.  
6. Attach your current CV to the email

Additionally, if you are an AFRE M.S. or Ph.D. student and are interested in grader opportunities, please email Dr. Brent Ross (rross@msu.edu), CC Ellen Schueller (schuell2@msu.edu)  and Dr. Nicole Mason-Wardell (masonn@msu.edu), and provide the following information:

1. The name(s) of your major professor(s)
2. Your stage in the AFRE graduate program (degree sought and year in the program)
3. Your weekly availability during the semester (e.g., to avoid course scheduling conflicts that you might anticipate)
4. The specific AFRE undergraduate courses for which you feel you might be a good fit and why 

For AFRE international students interested in potential future teaching assistantship (TA) positions: Please carefully review the MSU policy regarding proficiency in spoken English in order to be eligible for TA positions: https://grad.msu.edu/tap/speak . International students that were required to submit English language test scores for admission to the AFRE graduate program are required by MSU to also have a score of 50 or higher on the MSU Speaking Test, a valid TOEFL iBT speaking score of 27 or higher, or a valid IELTS speaking score of 8.0 or higher. See this link for details. For additional information on the MSU Speaking Test including upcoming registration and test dates, see https://elc.msu.edu/tests/msu-speaking-test/.