“Teaching Never Ever Gets Boring:” Meet Taryn Stanko, Recently Honored with a Distinguished Teaching Award

In a simulation played out during Taryn Stanko’s Organizational Behavior class, a startup team confronted one of its members for not pulling their weight, assuming the member wasn’t interested in the company. But as the team considered parting ways, it learned the individual had actually underperformed due to a sick family member.

“The simulation helps the students experience being caught by surprise by what another person thinks about them and their contributions, among other things,” said Stanko, noting the scenario was based on a real startup. “How did you navigate the surprise? How adaptable were you? Were you able to keep your cool? What does this tell us about the importance of clear communication, documenting your contributions, setting expectations, and accountability?”

Instead of lecturing her students for two hours, Stanko prefers to have them negotiate real-life scenarios, like this one, pushing them out of their comfort zones.

“Whether it’s them doing something they don’t think they can do or asking for more than they think they can get or being challenged by an opponent,” Stanko said. “All of that, I think, helps people grow. And of course, we’re doing it in a safe environment, so they can take risks and still thrive.”

Taryn Stanko was one of three faculty members campus wide to receive the Distinguished Teacing Award during the 2024 Cal Poly Fall Convocation. (Photo/Jahan Ramezani)

Stanko’s classroom approach was rewarded during the Fall Convocation, when she was presented with the Distinguished Teaching Award, which recognizes excellence in teaching at Cal Poly. Stanko was one of just three faculty members to receive the honor campuswide.

“I am excited, kind of humbled,” Stanko said. “And it feels super special because it’s a university-level award.”

Miguel Duran, a student in her Organizational Behavior class, said that Cal Poly is lucky to have a professor like her.

“I think the characteristics that she has, and the way that she teaches the material, the way she interacts with the students, the ways she delivers her message is something that doesn’t come easily, and you can see how much work she’s done and how much personal growth she’s gone through to get to where she’s at,” Duran said.

“I thought I would end up going into management consulting, but I ended up getting super inspired by my professors in my MBA program at NYU and deciding to follow their path in life, and then I never looked back.”

Taryn Stanko

This quarter, Stanko is teaching an undergraduate negotiations class and a graduate level organizational behavior class. Stanko said she has some of the best students, and their energy and level of engagement inspires and motivates her.

“Teaching never ever gets boring,” Stanko said.

Stanko has conducted research about working in digital teams and use of technology. More recently, she has been gathering data about negotiations. Stanko gathers data from her students and the simulations she runs in class.

Her research can be found in publications such as Organization Science, Academy of Management Journal, Personnel Psychology and Administrative Science Quarterly.

Stanko completed her undergraduate at UCLA with a degree in sociology with a specialization in computer programming. Post graduation, Stanko worked as a computer programmer at a startup in Culver City before going to work at Paramount Pictures.

“It really opened my eyes,” Stanko said. “I tended to think of organizations as I was growing up as these monolithic, super successful, very polished things,” Stanko said. “But once I got inside the organizations, I realized just how messy it can be, managing people and teamwork and collaboration and politics. So, that was really fascinating to see both at the small startup level and then also from a big company context.”

In her mid-twenties, Stanko returned to school to obtain her MBA at NYU as a springboard into a different career.

A former computer programmer, Taryn Stanko found her calling after returning to school for graduate studies. (Photo/Jahan Ramezani)

“I thought I would end up going into management consulting, but I ended up getting super inspired by my professors in my MBA program at NYU and deciding to follow their path in life, and then I never looked back,” Stanko said.

Stanko went on to get her doctorate at UC Irvine, leading her into a job at the University of Oregon, where she taught for six years.

“I feel as though the students at Cal Poly are another level above in terms of motivation and the energy that they bring to the class,” Stanko said “So they’re there not just for the grades, but they really want to learn. And, I think somehow that comes across more vividly than it does at other institutions that I’ve worked at.”

In her education, Stanko wishes the professors would have taken the time to learn her name, which is why she works hard to learn all her students’ names.

“I started doing name placards for the first day of class because I was like, ‘I don’t even want there to even be one day without me not knowing their names,’” Stanko said.

Teaching keeps you on your toes, and Stanko is always innovating her classes to make them more impactful.

“I don’t think that’s a job you’ll ever be done doing,” Stanko said.

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