Below can be found cherry-picked praise for my teaching performance from each of the five classes I have taught while a graduate student at USC. 

Praise for my performance as primary instructor

From Phil 122A: Propositional Logic. (Fall 2024)

• I really appreciate your willingness to find times outside of your own office hours to help me, it came in clutch. You made this class really really fun and it's been my fave even though proofs are hard.

• Instructor [Y]asha had such a lovely demeanor, he made all students feel super comfortable in class especially when it comes to asking questions. I never felt embarrassed or awkward asking potentially dumb questions and its all thanks to the way the prof would respond normally and give a good answer. He deserves more money and a permanent job.

• Very informed, explained difficult concepts very well. Very positive class atmosphere, supported all students well regardless of ability.

• I really appreciated his way of teaching! He gives us the hard stuff first and we try to solve it together and then once we get there or fail, he explains and goes through the foundations and the why. I feel that this way of teaching keeps me interested in a topic like philosophy because I’m always thinking. I can’t just cruise through the class AT ALL but it doesn’t make me feel stupid. I feel challenged and always grow with each class. I’m sad I won’t be taking the second half of the class because I have capped out my units for the semester but I’m glad I got to experience what I could! Thank you Yasha! IF you teach again THEN(> if it was smooth and curvy) I will be in your class.

From Phil 122B: Probability and Decision Theory. (Fall 2024)

• I really enjoyed the class ONLY because Yasha was teaching it, I don't think that I would have grasped the material even a quarter of the way that I do now if I had a different teacher.

• A small focused classroom with a receptive professor who was understanding and encouraging of communication.

Praise for my performance as recitation instructor

From Phil 265: Ethics, Technology, and Value. (Spring 2025)

• I think you were very good at opening discussions on seemingly straightforward things in class and challenging those viewpoints which was super helpful. For my like second philosophy class ever you made philosophical thinking/ reasoning much easier than I was able to do in my first class which was much appreciated.

• Definitely helped expand more deeply about concepts discussed in lecture. His reviews during discussion before each exam [were] also extremely useful.

• What a great TA. Yasha always made it a priority to engage us in meaningful discussion, reinforcing what was taught in the lecture, giving everyone a chance to speak. This made it very easy to study for the exams.

• Thank you so much for such an amazing semester! I loved your style of articulating ideas in discussion section, you are very thoughtful, precise, and easy to understand. You are easily the best TA I have had in my years at USC, and I'm going to miss your class. Good luck with everything in the future–you are awesome!

From Phil 430: Philosophy of Law. (Spring 2023)

• Yasha is an incredible TA with a vast amount of knowledge in multiple fields of philosophy. I have appreciated his candor and willingness to answer questions.

• Incredibly dedicated to engaging with students. Made a genuine effort to answer every question posed, even the tough ones, and never left his students wanting for resources and information to pursuit their curiosities. Bravely took on the challenging task of providing intellectual argumentation and explanations for less popular arguments for the sake of allowing students to push and grow their understanding. Incredibly detailed week by week breakdowns of course material, his instruction empowered students to be their most academically productive selves.

• The handouts were immensely helpful in getting bite–sized information on what I needed to know.

From Phil 103: Early Modern Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. (Fall 2022)

• The most valuable aspect of this discussion was Yasha's ability to guide us through the dense reading material.

• Discussions were very helpful in analyzing the texts.

• I have nothing but praise for Yasha. This was honestly one of the best experiences I've had in college, and this is just a discussion for the actual course. The discussions were engaging. Yasha was incredibly receptive to students' comments. He guided us through the reading material with complete expertise. He also cut through some of the general fluff that is presented in the main course –– he was realistic with his expectations. The best course I've taken was with a Physics Professor of 20+ years at a different university. As a PhD student, Yasha came very close to surpassing this career Professor. I've learned a ton from this course, and the supplemental instruction Yasha provided capped it all off. I can only hope every other GE I take at USC resembles how both Yasha and Jacob ran this course. This course and more precisely, this discussion, helped me develop the skills needed to look at topics surrounding passionate arguments, and find some level of objectivity with reason and logic within. I'll take these skills not only into other courses at USC, but into my professional and personal life as well.

• Yasha was a great TA. He gave me feedback on things that I found useful.