Finance and marketing PhD students honored with teaching awards

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Ph.D. students Mustafa Emin and Sang Kyu Park were awarded Warrington College of Business Ph.D. Teaching Awards for their teaching efforts in the fall and spring 2019 semesters. 

The award is presented by the Teaching & Learning Center at Warrington to recognize outstanding graduate student teaching and instructional innovation. The recipient for each semester is selected by the Warrington Teaching Committee.

Emin is a Ph.D. candidate in Warrington’s Department of Finance, Insurance and Real Estate. His current research interests include corporate finance and financial intermediation, specifically non-bank firms’ activities in debt markets and the CLO market. He has presented his research at well-known conferences like the American Finance Association and the Financial Management Association. He received his master’s degree in finance from Bocconi University in Italy and his bachelor’s degree in physics from Koc University in Turkey.

“I am grateful for the Teaching Committee’s recognition,” he said. “Throughout my teaching assignments, I put my students at the center and delivered them theoretical background and practical tools with which they can remain engaged and learn themselves. I received positive feedback from my students for this student-driven learning approach.

“I am extremely glad to see that the Teaching Committee at Warrington also appreciates the effort. It is a great honor to receive such a prize at the beginning of my teaching career. With this being said, I am also aware that there are many rooms to improve the way I teach. The reward motivates me to do more in that regard. I would also like to thank my faculty and my colleagues for their support and suggestions throughout the semester.”

Emin taught Equity and Capital Markets, which provides an in-depth discussion of fundamental principles related to equity securities and options for both institutional and individual investors. In the class, students had the opportunity to learn investing and to apply what they learned in the classroom in real-life settings through a real-time trading game.

Park is a Ph.D. candidate in Warrington’s Department of Marketing. His research focuses on consumer inference-making and how consumers make decisions in uncertain environments. He is also interested in how consumers interact with new technology. His research has been published in the Journal of Consumer Research, and he has presented at numerous conferences, including those presented by the Association for Consumer Research, Society for Consumer Psychology and Behavioral Decision Research and Management.  He received his master’s in marketing and bachelor’s in business administration from Korea University.

In 2018, Park received an Outstanding International Student Award from the University of Florida International Center. He is the first student from Warrington to receive both a Ph.D. Teaching Award and Outstanding International Student Award.

“It is a great honor to receive this award,” Park said. “I will continue to strive for excellence as an educator.”

Park taught Consumer Behavior at the undergraduate level. The course is designed for students to understand the psychological underpinnings of consumer behavior and for adopting consumer-centric perspectives for approaching marketing decisions. Students also learned how consumer studies are conducted and how to implement the findings to guide evidence-based marketing decisions. He received a perfect rating, 5.0 out of 5.0, from students who took the course.

“Above all, I am very happy that the students found my class valuable and enjoyable,” he said. “I am grateful that the Teaching and Learning Center appreciated the effort I have put into teaching. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Marketing faculty for their support and my colleagues who helped me organize the course.”