We have an excellent team of 9 Assistant Instructors who are looking forward to supporting your learning here at The Seattle School both this year and beyond.

The role of Assistant Instructor (AI) at The Seattle School is somewhat different from what you may have encountered as Teaching Assistants in other academic contexts. All of our AIs hold Master’s degrees from The Seattle School or similar programs, and are practitioners at various stages within their chosen fields. Assistant Instructors work with faculty to ensure that you get the most out of your learning experience. They provide feedback on papers, are available to meet for office hours, and periodically teach and facilitate classroom interaction. Moreover, we ask AIs to bring their experience as former students and as practitioners in their current vocational contexts into all they do here at The Seattle School. Assistant Instructors are dedicated to your growth and development as students and are eager to walk alongside you in this journey. Get used to seeking them out! They are here for you.

Today we’d love to spotlight two of the AIs who are working specifically in First-Year courses this fall (see below). And while we move quickly towards the start of the academic year, on behalf of all of the instructional staff here at The Seattle School, we can’t wait to engage with you in the classroom soon.

 

Joshua Montoya (He/Him)

Josh will be your AI working with Dr. Doug Shirley & Dr. Jermaine Ma in the Common Curriculum course IDS 501 Intersections 1: Interdisciplinary Inquiry & Psychological Frameworks.

Welcome to The Seattle School! My name is Joshua Montoya and I look forward to joining you on your next learning venture. Whether you’ll be joining us on campus or online, I hope that your experience here is as inviting, challenging, confirming, and transformational as it has been for so many before you—myself included. Though I graduated from the MACP program in 2020, I didn’t feel quite ready to leave what I have experienced as a long-awaited playground for serious-play. I stick around because I love learning and have a passion for celebrating, encouraging or awakening that love in others. I currently split my time between private practice and here at TSS as an Assistant Instructor. I can’t imagine playing only one of these roles as they each feel so necessary in providing insight for the other. As you prepare to take on a new role as ‘graduate student’, you enter into the game of higher ed. Blessings on your play here. May it be serious enough so as to change you and playful enough to liberate your imagination. I look forward to learning with and from you.

 

Alejandra Morris (They/Them)

Alejandra will be your AI working with Dr. Stephanie Neill in CSL 502, History & Systems

Hello, and welcome to The Seattle School! My name is Alejandra Morris, and I’m a 2020 graduate of the Master’s in Counseling Psychology program. Graduate school is a big [ad]venture for anyone to undertake, and whether you join this community online or on campus, I hope the journey ahead is as formative as it was for the many who have come before you. Whatever the next 3 or 4 or even 5 or more years bring, may you grow in your desire to learn about yourself and others; deepen your capacity to withstand rupture with or without repair; and cultivate spaces together that bring awe and joy. May you wrestle with this place until it blesses you.