I was named Duke Sanford’s First Teaching Assistant of the Year (2025-2026) [News]
Duke University
Spring 2026 - Teaching Assistant
Quantitative Evaluation Methods - Applied Econometrics (MPP) | Instructor: Robyn Meeks
Effective Instruction Average: 4.9/5
Selected student evaluation comments:
- "Renan is an excellent teaching assistant. He knows the subject, how to teach it, and one day will make a wonderful professor. People who will be his students in the future are definitely lucky. He knows exactly how to explain complex issues in an easy, interesting, and dynamic manner. If possible, he should be recognized as one of the best, if not the best, TAs at Duke."
- "Renan is an excellent TA. We were lucky to have him and he was committed to going above and beyond for us."
- "Renan is THE BEST TA EVER! No notes. This man prepared me for every homework and test. He explained a month's work of material in an hour. Love him so much."
- "Renan was an amazing TA as usual, I've had him for my previous statistics class too and his performance as a TA gets consistently better. He is wonderful in explaining complex concepts in a witty, understandable way. He brings humor to our labs and make us excited to learn."
- "Renan was outstanding as a TA. He was passionate about explaining the different methods we were learning and was patient with us as we struggled to understand things that are likely very elementary for him. He met us where we were at by asking lots of questions about what we were getting instead of assuming that we already understood the content. He also was very patient and helpful in office hours."
- "Over two semesters, Renan has single-handedly saved me, and so many others, from completely failing this course. He explained the material better than any of the professors have in all honesty, and I hope he decides to become a teacher."
Fall 2025 - Teaching Assistant (Head TA)
Statistics and Data Analysis for Policymakers (MPP) | Instructor: Marcos Rangel
[TA Session Slides]
Effective Instruction Average: 4.9/5
Selected student evaluation comments:
- "Renan is genuinely an amazing teacher. I think he should consider teaching as a profession. He is so kind and he wants to know the students. He reacts extremely well to wrong answers, explains why some answers are wrong or right, gives good examples during the TA sessions that help bring everything from the week together. Everyone seems to appreciate him so much and there have only ever been positive notes about Renan.
- "Renan is an exceptional TA. He is very supportive in tone and seems like a really nice guy. My peers and I really liked Renan."
- "Renan was an incredible TA. I could absolutely see him being a professor one day. He was very approachable and easy to reach and was able to format material in our TA sessions in a way that was very simple and digestable. He was invaluable to my learning experience."
- "Renan did a fantastic job explaining key principles. He was always patient with us and engaging. Truly one of the best TAs I've ever had!"
Spring 2025 - Teaching Assistant
Quantitative Evaluation Methods - Applied Econometrics (MPP) | Instructor: Robyn Meeks
[TA Session Slides] [Practical examples on STATA]
Effective Instruction Average: 4.9/5
Selected student evaluation comments:
- "Renan was FANTASTIC! He was adaptable, kind, engaging, and honest with us about the content and what's difficult about it. Renan is a fantastic teacher and I wish I could take more courses taught by him!"
- "Renan was a phenomenal TA that really cared about our learning. He started the course collaborating with us on how we wanted to use the Lab space. He was always engaged during office hours. He responded quickly to emails. He provided us with supplementary materials. Overall you can tell he’s passionate about teaching and I appreciate that so much!!"
- "Renan was so thoughtful and worked so hard to put together slides for the class that were clear, comprehensive, and (most importantly) easy to understand. He explained things in multiple ways in case Professor Meeks' explanation didn't click with some of our brains."
- "Renan is fantastic, he really knows how to break down complicated concepts and make it really digestible."
- "Renan was a very engaging and knowledgeable TA. His review sessions always cleared all our doubts, and he developed very simple ways and anecdotes to make us understand the concept and theories of QEM."
Fall 2024 - Teaching Assistant
Honors Thesis | Fall 2024 (UG) | Instructor: Mallory Sorelle
Effective Instruction Average: 5/5
Selected student evaluation comments:
- "Renan was extremely helpful in fixing my methodology, interpreting my results, and creating effective data visualizations. It would have been great to have him in the spring as well."