Our History

Formerly known as VTGrATE, The Academy for Graduate Teaching Excellence was first convened in August of 2014 by Karen P. DePauw, Vice President and Dean of the Graduate School. In 2024, the tenth year of the academy, Dean of the Virginia Tech Graduate School Aimée Surprenant charged the Academy Director and the graduate school with collaborating on revising, readapting, and re-envisioning VTGrATE to align with the modern institutional climate of Virginia Tech. The result of extensive research, university outreach, and collaborative partnerships is the Academy for Outstanding Graduate Pedagogy (AOGP) at Virginia Tech. 

Director of the AOGP, Molly Ryan, conducted a two-year length review of programming, university needs, and potential partnerships, working throughout to identify how the foundation of the organization could be preserved, while evolving to honor the contemporary context of Virginia Tech.