2011 Penn State Education

Two Thousand Eleven

Why is This man so ThrillEd abouT his EducaTion dEgrEE?

Contents

This publication is available in alternative media on request. The Pennsylvania State University is committed to the policy that all persons shall have equal access to programs, facilities, admis-sion, and employment without regard to personal characteristics not related to ability, performance, or qualifications as determined by University policy or by state or federal authorities. It is the policy of the University to maintain an academic and work environment free of discrimination, including harassment. The Pennsylvania State University prohibits discrimination and harass-ment against any person because of age, ancestry, color, disability or handicap, national origin, race, religious creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or veteran status. Discrimination or harassment against faculty, staff, or students will not be tolerated at The Pennsylvania State University. Direct all inquiries regarding the nondiscrimination policy to the Affirmative Action Director, The Pennsylvania State University, 328 Boucke Building, University Park, PA 16802-5901; Tel 814-865-4700/V, 814-863-1150/TTY.

deanDavid H. Monk

EditorSuzanne Wayne

WritersSara LaJeunesse

David Price Joe Savrock Nancy Stiger

designerLeah DonellPhotographyMark Houser

Phil Hoy Pat Little

Rusty Myers Randy Persing

(Others as identified)Printer

KB Offsetcontact us

247 Chambers Building University Park, PA 16802-3206

814-863-2216www.ed.psu.edu • [email protected]

Published annually by the Penn State College of Education

college of Education alumni societyofficers

Larry Wess, President Patricia Best, President-Elect

Heidi Capetola, Immediate Past President Susan Martin, Secretary

directors

U.Ed EDU 12-04

Cameron Bausch Molly Dallmeyer

Tonya DeVecchis-Kerr David Dolbin

Amy Meisinger Barbara Michael Jeremiah Mimms Ronald Musoleno

Marcia Pomeroy Stacie Spanos Hiras

Andrew Pollock Dee Stout

Cathy Tomon William Vitori Erica Walters

Douglas Womelsdorf

affiliate Program group [email protected],

American Indian Leadership Program Jacob Easley II, Educational Leadership Program

Frederick Loomis, Higher Education [email protected], Multicultural Advancement

Mary Beth Hershey, Professional Development School Jed Lindholm, Workforce Education Program

dean’s message 1No matter where our alumni are now, they have drawn on the knowledge gained from their degrees in education from Penn State.

college updates 2Read about faculty appointments, College outreach programs, and recent awards.

short subjects 13A sampling of recent research from the College includes mother and infant bonding, educating boys, and interventions for children with ADHD, among others.

alumni Features – ready for anything! 18College of Education alumni share their successes and talk about how their education prepared them for varied careers.

alumni information 30Read about recent alumni achievements, updates from the Alumni Society Board, and more.

gifts to the college 35Recent endowments to the College create a number of new opportunities for faculty and students.

What is this? This is a Quick Response or QR code. QR codes are a fast and easy way to access digital content with your smartphone or tablet.

How does it work? If you have a smartphone or tablet with a camera, download a QR code reader application (Kaywa, ScanLife, NeoReader, and QRReader are examples) and then scan this code with your device’s camera. It will open a browser on your device and take you to the College of Education Web site.

Why QR codes? There is so much digital content out there now. We want to make sure you can access the whole story. So as you read this magazine, make note of the QR codes. When you see one, that means there is more to see and do online. You can read a student blog (page 7) or view a video of Ali Carr-Chellman’s TED talk, for example (page 14).

Don’t have a smartphone? No worries! We make sure to also include a URL so you can also access any of this digital content by just typing the URL into a Web browser.

www.ed.psu.edu

On the cover: Jacob Easley ii, ’04 Ph.d., photographed by Dan Z. Johnson

MessageDean’sWe are proud of the Penn State College of Education alumni. You are the face of the College to the outside world, and we are using this issue of Penn State Education to showcase an impressive sampling of our tremendous alumni, sharing their successes with the world. No matter where their careers have taken them, these alumni have drawn on the knowledge gained from their degree(s) in education from Penn State.

As we meet with alumni throughout the year, we find that they are enthusiastic and always ready to tell others about their Penn State experience. This enthusiasm is contagious and so inspiring that we incorporate it into everything we do.

It has been a challenging—but highly productive—year for the College. The economic turmoil surrounding us is affecting public higher education institutions across the nation, and we are witnessing unprecedented reductions in the level of general state support. Penn State has been affected by these reductions, and the recently adopted Commonwealth budget reduces the University’s appropriation by approximately 19%.

Within the College, we have been cautious and careful, and we have made some difficult decisions that will better align our programs with fiscal realities. The good news is that we have made these adjustments through naturally occurring attrition and that we are now ready to resume building the strength of our faculty and staff. We are well positioned for the future as we pursue a more focused mission.

We are already seeing some of this success as the College is proceeding through both an NCATE accreditation review and a review of our teacher preparation programs from the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The initial feedback from both reviews includes praise and recognition for the programs we are delivering (see pages 8–9).

The College continues to perform well in external rankings (see page 2). Our faculty and staff are incredibly hard working and productive with many faculty members serving as editors or associate editors for major journals in their respective fields. In the last year, a team of our faculty was awarded the editorship of the Journal of Teacher Education, a highly regarded academic journal published by the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE).

We have also very recently announced a new online master’s degree in teacher leadership, which will provide a high-quality graduate degree program to working teachers with the flexibility they need (see page 5).

There is a growing need for university leaders who are prepared for the challenges facing higher education in the future. Given the impressive strength of our faculty with expertise in various aspects of higher education, we are serving the field by developing the Penn State Academic Leadership Academy, which provides faculty administrators considering careers as presidents and provosts with the administrative knowledge and skills they will need (see page 6).

Finally, thanks to the generosity of Gay and Bill Krause, we are currently renovating existing space in Chambers Building to house the Krause Innovation Studio (see page 36). The Studio will generate and share knowledge about innovative teaching practice designed around emerging technological tools and will place the College at the cutting edge of international efforts to harness the capacity of technology to improve teaching and learning.

These are just a few of the successes the College has enjoyed in the last year, but in reality, the support of our alumni, donors, and friends is the greatest source of energy and vitality for the College of Education right now. We thank you for your continued support. With you by our side, we will continue to accomplish great things!

Dean David H. Monk

1Penn State Education

summer of innovation: helping nasa Encourage students to seek science careers

NASA will continue to rely on strong leadership from its scientists and engineers to carry out an ambitious agenda in the coming decades. The space agency’s leaders must be proficient in the areas of STEM (science,

technology, engineering, and mathematics).

Many of those leaders of tomorrow are still teenagers in middle school. In an effort to reach students and generate interest in the STEM disciplines, NASA has charged the Aerospace Education Services Project (AESP), housed in Penn State’s College of Education, to focus on improving STEM education at the middle-school level.

AESP has set up a number of nationwide education and training initiatives. One major initiative is Summer of Innovation, an intensive teaching and learning project. Summer of Innovation is designed to keep middle-school students engaged in NASA-themed activities during the summer months as well as throughout the academic year. Year-round implementation results in greater learning outcomes and enables students to avert “summer slide,” or loss of knowledge that they gain during the school year.

AESP piloted Summer of Innovation last year, training teachers to infuse high-quality NASA content and educational materials into their curricula. This training increases teacher confidence and competency to deliver STEM content and reduces the pos-sibility that some popular science misconceptions would be filtered to the students.

This year, AESP is expanding Summer of Innovation into new arenas: camps, museums, and other non-academic venues. Under an extension of NASA funding of more than $1.2 million over the next two years, AESP hopes to connect with up to 10 national partner organizations. Working with organizations outside the formal educational sector should allow AESP to reach even more youth.

“We’re currently developing the curricula that will be used by instructors in these organizations,” said AESP Director Kyle l. Peck. “Each 70-hour curriculum consists of 40 hours in the summer and 30 hours to be taught later in the school year.”

Instructors can access the new curricula via a comprehensive Web site that offers hands-on activities linked to national academic standards, lesson plans, and video demonstrations as well as online and phone-based help.

NASA AESP is part of a five-year cooperative agreement funded for up to $27.3 million over five years. In March, the program celebrated its 50th year of continuous operation at the National Science Teachers Association conference in San Francisco.

— Joe Savrock

Summer of Innovation participants carry out experiments designed to teach science

higher Education administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Workforce Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3rehabilitation counseling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4student counseling/Personnel services . . . . . . . . .5administration/supervision (Ed leadership) . . . . .6Education Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9secondary Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Educational Psychology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12curriculum & instruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12special Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13Elementary Education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

college of Education grad Programs receive strong reputational rankingsU.S. News & World Report annually ranks graduate programs in education. All of the College of Education graduate programs that are ranked by the magazine appear at least in the top 15, with six programs in the top 10. The College’s graduate programs as a whole rank 26 out of the 279 programs surveyed by U.S. News & World Report.

To learn more about the Summer of Innovation program, visit www.nasa.gov/soi

2 College Updates

UpdatesCollege

For the fourth time in 10 years, the Professional Development School (PDS) collaborative between Penn State’s College of Education and the State College Area School District has received a national award.

The Penn State/State College PDS is winner of the 2011 Spirit of Partnership Award, given March 10 by the University of South Carolina’s PDS National Conference Planning Team at the PDS National Conference in New Orleans.

The PDS involves preservice teachers and faculty members at Penn State, as well as veteran teachers and administrators of the school district. The preservice teachers work in the classrooms of veteran teachers, who in turn benefit in their own professional development in their roles as mentors.

The Spirit of Partnership Award recognizes institutions that have played key roles in the success of the PDS National Conference. Conference committee chair Bruce Field noted, “This long overdue recognition acknowledges the impressive contributions Penn State and its partner schools have made to the conference in terms of sheer numbers—my count shows 90 presentations since 2006—but also in terms of the vibrant intellectual spirit those presentations have brought to the event.”

bernard badiali, coordinator of the Penn State/State College PDS, said, “We’ve found that presenting the work we do together at a national conference plays an important part in keeping us focused on simultaneously renewing our teacher education program and the schools themselves.”

— Joe Savrock

Penn state/state college Pds Wins spirit of Partnership award

Students in the PDS work in the same classroom for an entire school year

The Penn state/state college Pds has won three other prominent national awards:

• in 2009, the inaugural Exemplary Professional development school achievement award, from the national association for Professional development schools

• in 2004, the nancy Zimpher outstanding school–university Partnership award, presented by the holmes Partnership group

• in 2002, the distinguished Teacher Education Program, from the association of Teacher Educators


It was 75 degrees Fahrenheit on January 21 when the students boarded a plane in Brasília, the capital city of Brazil. But when they exited the plane in State College, they were blasted with

an icy chill. Luckily, they received a warm welcome from leila bradaschia, director of international programs for the Penn State College of Education, and rob andrejewski, an instructor at Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center.

The 10 undergraduate students of the Instituto de Educação Superior de Brasília (IESB) visited Penn State to learn about its graduate programs in education. “The two-week trip last January gave Brazilian students the opportunity to travel to State College and see a large American university with a variety of options for graduate study,” said Bradaschia, who helped arrange the visit. “The students also learned about American culture, and they shared their perspectives with Penn State students, so it was a

mutually beneficial exchange.”

The sojourn was initiated by Eda machado ’73 m.Ed., ’75 d.Ed., president of the IESB and a distinguished alumna of the College of Education, who said she hoped her students would consider attending graduate school at her alma mater.

Ricardo Faria Corrêa Teixeira, one of the students who visited, said he is convinced. “I always had a desire to know the academic environment of the U.S.,” he said. “So when I saw the opportunity to spend some time there, I worked hard to fulfill the selection criteria to be one of the chosen students to visit. The Penn State campus was amazing, with people kind and open to learn about other cultures and ways of life. Be sure that once I

have finished my coursework here [in Brazil] you will see me again at ‘The Corner Room’ as a graduate student!”

Students of the IESB aren’t the only ones to benefit from the newly formed relationship. Bradaschia said that the Office of International Programs is

looking into possibilities of sending Penn State students to the Brazilian university on an exchange program in the future.

— Sara LaJeunesse

(l-r) David Monk, Jacqueline Edmondson, Leila Bradaschia, Eda Machado, and Brazilian students visited the Lion Shrine as part of their visit.

From brasília to state college

Eda Machado

Virtual Tutoring builds relationships between Penn state and a Philadelphia school

Jane

Ree

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4 College Updates

CollegeUpdates

A virtual after-school tutoring program that started in the spring of 2010 pairs Penn State College of Education future teachers with Isaac Sheppard Elementary School students in Philadelphia to provide educational support that could improve the children’s math and literacy skills needed to meet the School District of Philadelphia educational benchmarks. The program also establishes a caring, lasting relationship between the children and the future teachers and encourages future teachers to consider becoming urban educators.

Isaac Sheppard Elementary School is a K–4 school located in the West Kensington section of North

Philadelphia. Demographically, the student population consists of 92% Latino, 6% African-American, and 2% “other” students. The community is listed by Philadelphia as having 95% families living at or below poverty level. For the more than 250 students, the average daily attendance rate is 90% with an annual turnover of 15-20%.

Children participating in the program are selected for various reasons. Students falling under the passing PSSA score range are identified as candidates for the tutoring program. The students chosen for virtual tutors are then picked by extended day teacher coordinators. The coordinators look for students who are committed to the program, have

good attendance, are serious about their school work, have self-control, and are respectful of others and their space.

One Penn State tutor, corey Keenan, a junior studying secondary education math, said she now has a strong bond with a Sheppard student named Lauriam, despite some shyness on the student’s part at the beginning of the program. Keenan said that because the students get to choose their mentors, they feel more comfortable communicating with them. Lauriam now confides in Keenan, who is now more than just a tutor. She is also a mentor.

Tutoring program coordinator and assistant professor of education

Penn State has launched a new 30-credit distance education program—an online M.Ed. in Educational Leadership with an Option in Teacher Leadership.

“We believe this program is a unique offering that will be attractive to many current teachers and educators who are interested in improving their leadership skills without necessitating leaving their classrooms or assuming a formal leadership position in schools like the principalship,” said nona Prestine, professor of educational leadership and the program’s lead faculty member.

The program is organized around five strands of teacher leadership—responsible influence, understanding internal organization of schools, ongoing professional development, powerful curriculum and instruction practices, and practice-based inquiry—that thread through and connect all parts of the program.

“We’re breaking new ground with this program,” noted Prestine. “We first identified and articulated a set of beliefs we held with regard to teacher leadership. From those beliefs we developed specific expectations and competencies that the program should address, and those in turn led to the development of a set of

well-integrated courses, content, and learning activities.”

Of the program’s 10 courses, three are new to the Educational Leadership program:

• EDLDR 801: Introduction to Teacher Leadership

• EDLDR 802: How Schools Work

• EDLDR 894: the program’s capstone course in which the students share their portfolios in live online presentations

The online Teacher Leadership option features five tiers of courses. While the courses within each tier can be completed in any order, students are strongly advised to complete the tiers in sequence. “Thus, the program offers students both a thoughtful and connected sequence of learning activities as well as the flexibility to participate in the program at their own pace,” said Prestine. “This way, we don’t lockstep our students into a rigid completion timeline.”

While the program leads to an M.Ed. degree in Educational Leadership with an option in Teacher Leadership, it also accommodates in-state educators who are interested in pursuing two other certificates awarded by the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE):

• For persons seeking the instructional coaching certificate, the M.Ed. program fulfills two of the four courses required by PDE. The other two courses for this certification are currently under development and will be offered soon through Penn State’s College of Education.

• Four of the courses in the Teacher Leadership option can be applied toward completion of the Penn State Principal certification program.

“Today the leadership of teachers is acknowledged as a vibrant and essential feature of any significant and sustainable school improvement effort,” Prestine said. “We believe that this Teacher Leadership option will provide the opportunities and experiences for teachers to develop their leadership potential, deepen their knowledge of schools, teachers, and student learning, and renew a passion for their work on behalf of public education in a democratic society.”

— Joe Savrock

new online master’s degree with Teacher leadership option being offered

For more information, visit www.worldcampus.psu.edu/MasterinTeacher Leadership.shtml or contact Prestine at [email protected]


sandra rodriguez-arroyo ’10 Ph.d. adds that for many of the students, school is a safe haven for them, and they are excited to be there. She said that despite the fact that students are required to attend tutoring hours only until March, the Sheppard students volunteer to remain in the tutoring program until it concludes at the end of April.

Another tutor, Kim spohn, a sophomore studying elementary education, said she thinks her student, Anthony, is one of the brightest of the bunch, though on this particular day he was rather distracted. Anthony is a LEGO® fanatic, and Kim would catch him on the screen putting two LEGO® bricks together instead of completing

his math problems. Spohn said she’s grown close to Anthony and that this experience has made her think about teaching in an urban school.

The Sheppard students paid a weekend visit to Penn State with their families in March. The students and their families had a weekend-long Penn State experi-ence, visiting museums, the Lion Shrine, and even taking a tour of Beaver Stadium with Penn State football players.

Rodriguez-Arroyo says that she hopes that the visit will get the students thinking about college early, and that the interaction with Penn State students will give them the confidence to view college as an option.

— Nancy Stiger A tutor laughs as her student manipulates his online image during their session.

At 63 years old, Penn State President Graham Spanier is just four years shy of the average age of retirement among Americans. Although no one yet knows when he plans to pass on the baton, he is among the 50 percent of university presidents and provosts who are expected to retire in the next 10 years.

“This mass exodus of presidents and provosts into retirement will leave higher education with a real leadership void,” said robert hendrickson, a professor of education in higher education and a senior scientist in the Center for the Study of Higher Education at Penn State.

That’s why Hendrickson and colleagues founded the Penn State Academic Leadership Academy last year. “We thought it was important to begin to train some of the people who might eventually fill these leadership roles,” he said.

Middle academic leaders with the potential to become presidents and provosts are the academy’s targets. “Although they are well-qualified in their own disciplines, many of the people who fill positions, such as that of department head, program director,

and associate dean, need to hone their leadership and academic administration skills,” said Hendrickson. “The Academic Leadership Academy provides practical administrative knowledge and skills to these leaders so as to help them meet challenges and responsibilities in their administrative roles.”

The academy, now in its second year, consists of both a summer on-site session from June 26 to June 30 and six virtual sessions throughout the following academic year. The on-site session focuses on leadership development, faculty employment issues, budgeting, and conflict resolution, among other topics. The six virtual sessions are developed by the participants at the completion of the on-site session and are based on their needs and interests.

To attend the academy, leaders from around the country must be nominated by their institutions. Last year, 18 people participated in the yearlong program.

“The Penn State Academic Leadership Academy is an excellent opportunity for rising leaders in academia to gain a higher-level understanding of how all the changes, forces, strategies,

and human elements in higher education are all interrelated, and it will help those leaders develop new skills for their career development and the success of their institutions,” said Peter Miller, chief of staff and vice president for institutional effectiveness at the University of the Sciences, who participated last year.

This year, 30 people are attending the academy. “We are close to capacity for attendees this year, which underscores the need for this type of leadership training,” said Hendrickson.

—Sara LaJeunesse

Robert Hendrickson

The Penn State College of Education has combined the Counselor Education, Counseling Psychology, and Rehabili-tation Services Department with the Department of Educational and School Psychology and Special Education to create the new Department of Educational Psychology, Counseling, and Special Education. In doing so, the College will realize savings and create a new and more streamlined academic department that takes better advantage of complementarities across programs.

This decision was made after a thorough review by administrators and faculty members and is consistent with a recommendation the College received last summer from the Core Council, a University-level planning task force. spencer niles, distinguished professor of counselor education, is the new department head.

The new department will offer graduate degrees in a redesigned educational psychology program that will include emphasis areas in learning and measurement and assessment, along with graduate programs in counselor education, school psychology, and special education. The department will also offer undergraduate degrees in rehabilitation and human services and special education. As part of its effort to streamline its programs, the College has decided to close its existing, separately organized doctoral program in counseling psychology.

Dean david monk said of the new organizational structure, “We realize that we are closing the door on the opportunity for new students to study counseling psychology in a separately organized graduate program at Penn State, but we will maintain a strong

offering in counselor education and also in educational and school psychology and special education. Penn State will continue to be an excellent place for students who are interested in the psychological foundations of counseling. Students with these interests can either enter one of the psychology programs and include faculty members with expertise in counseling on their graduate committees, or they can enter the counselor education graduate program and include faculty members with expertise in psychology on their graduate committees.”

Students currently enrolled in the counseling psychology program will have the opportunity to complete their programs of study.

— Suzanne Wayne

making leaders of leaders

college of Education merges Two departments

To learn more about the Penn State Academic Leadership Institute, go to: www.outreach.psu.edu/programs/academic-leadership/index.html

6 College Updates

CollegeUpdates

Students in the first cohort of an enriching new student teaching program are giving the experience high marks. The Short-Term Overseas Student-Teaching Abroad program allows College of Education students to teach both in the U.S. and abroad during their student-teaching semester.

“I loved every second of it,” says abby rzepnicki, who did her overseas student-teaching in Australia. Tai steeb, who student-taught in Turkey, adds, “I learned so much more in my two months abroad than I ever expected.”

The program, conducted in partnership with the Foundation for International Education, provides students with unique intercultural teaching and community experiences, giving them a broader understanding of the world in which we live. The first cohort of the program finished the fall semester 2010 in their host countries. Students in the program spend 12 weeks in a Pennsylvania student-teaching placement and then travel overseas for five-to-seven weeks.

“Going to Istanbul, I had no idea what to expect. In conversations with my Penn State student-teaching supervisor, she suggested that I arrive in Istanbul without expectations. I was the first

Penn State student to study in Istanbul as a student teacher, so I had no one to consult on what my experience would be about,” says Steeb. “I actually got a lot more out of my experience than I expected.”

Rzepnicki says, “I knew (Australia) was going to be an incredible place, and I was not disappointed at all. The program was great, my host family was fantastic, and I challenged myself every day that I was there.”

“The experience broadens our students’ perspectives of the world and makes them better job candidates,” notes leila bradaschia, director of international programs in the College of Education and coordinator of the program. “School principals are looking at students who have diverse experience, and they want to know that their incoming teachers know what’s going on in local schools, and many value the rich experience that student-teaching abroad brings to the classroom.”

“My experience will definitely positively impact my career as an educator,” Steeb says. “First, I understand what it is like to be in a classroom where you don’t really understand anything that is going on

because you don’t speak the language. I know what it is like to concentrate and really listen to learn.”

“I feel that being able to participate in a program like this makes me more of a well-rounded individual and educator,” Rzepnicki adds. “I really enjoyed seeing how another school-system operates.”

Students prepare for their experiences prior to their teaching semester in a one-credit seminar in which they learn more about their host nation, its education system, and cross-cultural living. They then are placed in public schools in their host nations as student-teachers where they interact with teachers, administrators, children, and community members. Participating students choose from 15 diverse participating countries.

“It’s an opportunity of a lifetime and it gives you a wonderful, new, exciting perspective on education. The world is truly at your fingertips!” says Rzepnicki.

— David Price

Top: Tai Steeb stands in front of Istek Acibadem where she taught in Istanbul

Bottom: Steeb found many similarities with schools in the U.S., including the teacher’s lounge, pictured here.

student Teachers go abroad

Abby Rzepnicki (yellow shirt) prepares to skydive in Australia.

Read Tai Steeb’s blog about her experiences in Turkey: taitravelsabroad.blogspot.com


college and university Programs “nationally recognized” in ncaTE review

An undergraduate student reads a book to her classmates.

The College of Education is currently undergoing an accreditation review by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). As part of this review, each program subject area, of which there are 11 at Penn State, must undergo a review by its own specialized professional agency. For example, the mathematics subject area must submit a report to the National Council for the Teaching of Mathematics.

The subject areas at Penn State include mathematics, English, science, social studies, reading, special education, physical education, educational leadership (principal and

superintendent), world languages education, and early childhood education.

Although NCATE will not finalize its accreditation review until 2012, the College has already received exciting news from the individual specialized review agencies. Each agency for every subject area has reported respectively that the College’s program and teacher preparation methods are “nationally recognized.”

The College has prepared an institutional report, which was submitted in August 2011. NCATE will perform a site visit in spring 2012.

— Suzanne Wayne

college of Education green Team Promotes sustainability“Sustainability involves taking common sense and putting it into common practice.”

lydia Vandenbergh, program coordinator of Penn State’s Office of Sustainability, used these words to frame a recent lunchtime brown bag presentation to dozens of College of Education faculty, staff, and students.

The brown bag seminar was one of the first events sponsored by the newly formed College of Education Green Team. Peter buckland, cindy Fetters, and Kyle Peck are heading the group, which seeks to raise awareness of the benefits of conserving resources.

Vandenbergh, whose office supports the sustainability efforts of some 50 campus-wide green teams, offered tricks for conserving energy, saving money, reducing waste, and recycling office materials. Among the items discussed was the feasibility of installing compost bins in the College’s buildings.

“We want the faculty, staff, and students to be the eyes and ears of the University—to feed their ideas to us,” she said.

Buckland, a Ph.D. candidate in the College’s Educational Theory and Policy program, also is the founder and president of a student organization known as 3E-COE (Environment–Ecology–Education in the College of Education). 3E-COE initiated a project of installing water refill stations in buildings across campus.

The sensor-activated refill stations, equipped with shutoff timers, accommodate reusable drinking containers and diminish the convenience of using one-time-use plastic water bottles. “Our initiatives concern moving the university toward sustainable, clean, and safe drinking water—which means reducing the sale of any single-use plastic water bottles with the goal of eventually eliminating them,” said Buckland.

— Joe Savrock

8 College Updates

CollegeUpdates

In 2007, the State Board of Education passed a law outlining new certification requirements for teachers in Pennsylvania. Because many of the College’s undergraduate programs lead to

Pennsylvania certification, they must be closely aligned with the state’s new guidelines. The College developed new degree programs or revised existing programs to meet the requirements set by the Board.

What resulted was the creation of a new degree called “Childhood and Early Adolescent Education” which combined some elements of the former Elementary and Kindergarten Education

major (N–3 and K–6 options), and incorporated some new courses and field experiences. The new degree program offers three options: PreK–4, grades 4–8 social studies, and grades 4-8 English Language Arts. (A grade 4–8 math option is also available at Penn State Harrisburg.) The K–6 certification will no longer be an option for new teachers earning a teaching credential after August 2013.

Another change occurred in Special Education. With the new guidelines, all special education teachers (PK–8 and 7–12) must earn a dual certification in another area. At Penn State, special education students can apply to enter the Special Education-Curriculum and Instruction (Reading Specialist) Integrated Undergraduate-Graduate (IUG) program to meet these new requirements. The IUG will lead to an undergraduate degree in special

education, a Masters degree in Curriculum and Instruction, and certification in special education (PK–8 and 7–12) and reading (PK–12).

Finally, all education professionals (teachers, principals, counselors, and others) will need to demonstrate their ability to teach students who need adaptations and accommodations for special needs, and they will also need to meet additional requirements to demonstrate their ability to work with English language learners. The teacher certification candidates at Penn State will be able to meet these requirements through a new series of special education courses (SPLED 400 and SPLED 403A or B) and an English language learning course (CI 280).

Once the degree programs were developed, the College then developed reports that were reviewed by the Pennsylvania Department of Education to ensure the degree programs met all the guidelines in the certification statute.

Aspects of our programs have been identified with “special designation” or a “promising model or innovative practice” by the reviewers. The PK–4 program was acknowledged for the field experiences and student teaching. The 4–8 programs were recognized for the program design, the middle level methods (instructional strategies), and the “key standards and assessment anchors.” The Special Education program (PK–8 and 7–12) received special designation for its field experiences and student teaching.

In addition to our teacher credentialing program, the principal certificate program and the Letter of Eligibilty Certificate (for superintendents) were also granted initial approval by PDE.

Associate Dean of Undergraduate and Graduate Education Jacqueline Edmondson spearheaded these review processes and noted, “There were a number of people throughout the university who have put in a great deal of time and work to get these reports in and through the approval process. We all should be proud of what the College and Penn State has accomplished.”

— Suzanne Wayne

Teaching certification Programs granted initial approval and “special designations” by Pennsylvania department of Education

A Penn State student in her undergraduate literacy education class

Jacqueline Edmondson


The following were accorded promotion and/or tenure in July 2010:

Preston c. green, iii, Department of Education Policy Studies, was promoted to the rank of professor.

scott P. mcdonald, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, was offered tenure and a promotion to the rank of associate professor.

dana l. mitra, Department of Education Policy Studies, was offered tenure and a promotion to the rank of associate professor.

Paul l. morgan, Department of Education and School Psychology and Special Education, was offered tenure and a promotion to the rank of associate professor.

Jamie m. myers, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, was promoted to the rank of professor.

Kai a. schafft, Department of Education Policy Studies, was offered tenure and a promotion to the rank of associate professor.

carla m. Zembal-saul, Department of Curriculum and Instruction and holder of the Kahn professorship in STEM education, was promoted to the rank of professor.

Effective July 1, 2011, the following faculty members are receiving promotion and/or tenure:

Patricia m. hinchey, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, has been promoted to the rank of professor.

Esther s. Prins, Department of Learning and Performance Systems, has been offered tenure and a promotion to the rank of associate professor.

dana l. stuchul, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, has been promoted to the rank of associate professor.

michele m. Tellep, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, has been promoted to the rank of associate professor.

liang Zhang, Department of Education Policy Studies, has been offered tenure and a promotion to the rank of associate professor.

Promotion and Tenure

administrative appointmentsalison carr-chellman, professor of instructional systems, was appointed head of the Department of Learning and Performance Systems. Her three-year

term began July 1, 2010.

Preston c. green, iii, professor of educational leadership and law, has been appointed the Batschelet chaired professor of educational administration.

His term began March 1.

robert hendrickson, professor of higher education, has been appointed interim director of the Center for the Study of Higher Education, effective

Aug. 1, 2011. His appointment will end when he retires on June 30, 2012.

gregory J. Kelly, professor of science education, is the new associate dean for research, outreach, and technology. He most recently was department

head of Curriculum & Instruction.

michael g. moore has been conferred the status of distinguished professor in the College of Education.

P. Karen murphy, professor of educational psychology, has been named recipient of the Harry and Marion Royer Eberly Faculty Fellowship in Education.

spencer g. niles has been conferred the status of distinguished professor in the College of Education.

Kyle l. Peck, the previous associate dean for research, outreach, and technology, continues to direct the Mid-Atlantic Regional Educational Laboratory

and the Aerospace Education Services Project from his position as professor and resident scholar in the associate dean’s office.

carla Zembal-saul, holder of the Kahn professorship in STEM education, has been appointed as head of the Curriculum & Instruction Department. Her term

began October 1, 2010.

The college of Education is pleased to announce that in the past year, 12 of its faculty members have been approved for promotion and/or tenure by the university.

10 College Updates

AppointmentsFaculty

new Faculty Teresa P. clark, assistant professor of school psychology, recently completed her doctoral work at Michigan State University, earning her Ph.D. in school psychology. She earned her M.A. in school psychology from Michigan State and her B.A. in psychology from Radford University. Her research interests include the socioemotional and academic development of children

from low socioeconomic status families and the manner in which teacher-student relationships can influence this development.

Erica Frankenberg, assistant professor of educational leadership, had been serving as research and policy director of the Initiative for School Integration at the Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA. She holds an Ed.D. and an Ed.M. from Harvard University, and an A.B. from Dartmouth College. Her research interests are educational policy in relation to school

desegregation; racial inequality in urban and suburban areas; teachers in and training for racially diverse and transitioning schools; benefits of integrated schools; improving outcomes of racially diverse schools; and the relationship of school segregation to other forms of segregation.

Edward J. Fuller, associate professor of educational leadership, holds a Ph.D. in education policy and planning, a master’s degree in educational administration, and a B.S. in mathematics education, all from the University of Texas at Austin. Since 2007, Fuller has been employed primarily as an education consultant

while serving part-time as the associate director of research at the University Council for Educational Administration. His areas of specialization include the supply, demand, and quality of teachers and school leaders; teacher and principal working conditions; teacher and principal preparation; program evaluation; and education policy.

Paul J. riccomini, associate professor of special education, was a member of the faculty at Clemson University. He received his Ph.D. in special education at Penn State. He holds an M.E. in special education and a B.A. in mathematics from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. His research interests are in the areas of effective instructional approaches, strategies,

and assessments for students who are low achievers and students with learning disabilities in mathematics.

Joseph m. Valente, assistant professor of early childhood education, arrived from Florida State University, where he was a faculty member in the Early Childhood Program. Valente earned both of his advanced degrees at Arizona State University—a Ph.D. in early childhood education and an M.E. in language arts/English. He received a B.A. in English from Bates College

(Lewiston, Maine). He is author of the autobiographical novel and autoethnography d/Deaf and d/Dumb: A Portrait of a Deaf Kid as a Young Superhero. Currently, Valente is co-principal investigator of the Spencer Foundation video ethnography project “Kindergartens for the Deaf in Three Countries,” looking at how deaf children become enculturated into deaf culture and larger sociopolitical contexts.

remember that FirsT “first day of school?”

You know…the one in which you faced a class of strangers, with a new diploma in your pocket, and a whole bunch of butterflies in your stomach? You have learned a lot since then.

Share your knowledge. Join the College of Education Alumni-Student Teacher Network.

mentor a new teacher. catch up with old friends.

serving student teachers in schuylkill, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and the centre region.

alumni-student Teacher network

www.ed.psu.edu/educ/alumni-friends/alumni-society-1/alumni-student-teacher-network


Appointments

“Family and friends mean much more in the long run than all of the professional success that one may achieve.”

That was the take-home message in Ronald Ehrenberg’s speech, which he gave at the College’s commencement ceremonies on May 15. The Irving M. Ives professor of industrial and labor relations and economics at Cornell University was selected as the commencement speaker because of his outstanding contributions to labor economics, in general, and to the study of labor issues in higher education, in particular.

“He is an outstanding teacher and mentor who has positively influenced the professional lives of several faculty members in the College of Education at Penn State, including mine,” said david monk, dean of the College of Education. “It was a personal privilege to participate in the presentation of an honorary degree to Dr. Ehrenberg.”

Ehrenberg, who was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the College as part of the ceremonies, talked about the importance of educators in his life, beginning with his parents who both were secondary school teachers in New York City. He then discussed the influence his college professors had on him. “When I reflect on how I have evolved as a professor, I clearly see the influence of all of my undergraduate

professors,” he said to the students. “I hope you will reflect on your experiences at Penn State and the impacts that your professors have had on you.”

Ehrenberg continued by addressing some of the challenges that the College’s graduates face as they enter careers. “You are beginning your careers at a very important time,” he said. “Our nation’s economic prosperity and improvements in its standards of living during the 20th century were driven largely by our leadership in education. However, in recent decades our educational performance has stagnated; while we continue to produce about the same proportion of college graduates as we did in the past, many other countries have improved their performance and we have fallen to no better than 10th place in the world in terms of the share of our 25-to-34-year-old population with college degrees.”

One way to improve these numbers, he said, is to adopt a principle of ensuring that all students succeed. He used his wife, Randy who, prior to retiring, had been the superintendent of North Colonie, an award-winning district in the Albany, New York area. “While there are many characteristics of the district that led to its success, most important was that long before the passage of ‘No Child Left Behind,’ the district adopted the principle that the success of each student is the responsibility of the school system as a whole, and no student should be permitted to fail. The attitude that each student can and will succeed is important for all teachers to adopt.”

Ehrenberg noted that graduation speeches usually conclude with the speaker offering the graduates some lessons about life; therefore, he offered three such lessons. “No one sails through life without facing major problems,” he said, describing the ordeal he and his wife went through when one of their sons developed a malignant brain tumor in 1991 and later died in 2008. “The happiest people are not necessarily the people who are lucky enough to avoid problems, but

rather the ones whose ability to cope increases at a more rapid rate than their problems do,” he said.

The second piece of advice Ehrenberg shared was to seek out help when it is needed. “In academia, as in many other professions, individuals are never supposed to display weaknesses and insecurities to colleagues. However, I believe that those of us who have achieved great success have an obligation to discuss these matters with people such as you who are beginning your careers, and I hope you will find mentors who will be as equally open and honest with you as I have been.”

Ehrenberg’s final, and most important, suggestion was that the students not become so obsessed with their careers that they ignore what really is important in life.

Ehrenberg has been a Cornell faculty member for 35 years. He is a Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow and is director of the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute. From 1995 to 1998 he served as Cornell’s vice president for academic programs, planning, and budgeting. Ehrenberg recently received the Jacob Mincer Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Labor Economics.

From 2006 to 2010, he was an elected member of the Cornell Board of Trustees. New York Gov. David Paterson nominated him for membership on the SUNY board of trustees in May 2009 for a term ending in June 2013, and the New York State Senate confirmed his appointment in March 2010.

Ehrenberg earned a B.A. in mathematics from Harpur College (SUNY Binghamton) and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in economics from Northwestern University. He received an Honorary Doctor of Science from SUNY in 2008.

— Sara LaJeunesse

Ehrenberg inspires graduates

Ronald Ehrenberg

Read Ehrenberg’s full speech at bit.ly/pQ1jgy

Robert Barker/Cornell U

niversity Photographer

12 College Updates

CollegeUpdates

twitter.com/ PSU_CollegeOfEd

TM

ShortSubjectsEndurance building: a Promising intervention for adhd studentsStudents with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) often find it difficult to concentrate over long stretches of time. A teaching intervention that focuses on building ADHD students’ endurance may improve their ability to stick with a learning task.

Penn State researchers tested the staying power of three boys who were diagnosed with ADHD. Kelly K. brady ’06 spl Ed, ’07 m.Ed. and richard m. Kubina, associate professor of special education, worked with three boys, a fourth grader and two fifth graders, to see how well the students would handle multiplication tasks under different conditions of endurance.

Kubina and Brady employed two conditions: a whole-time practice and an endurance-building practice. Each practice involved one minute of work. But while the whole-time practice involved a full one-minute block of uninterrupted practice time, the endurance-building practice consisted of three shorter, 20-second practice trials.

All three boys performed better in the endurance-building condition. On average, they produced 30 percent more correct problems in this condition. The shorter practice periods facilitated the boys’ attention, reflecting a sharper “stimulus control.” With the increased attention—that is, with longer endurance—the students practiced a greater number of problems overall than they did in the whole-trial condition.

Under the whole-trial practice condition, the students may have experienced fatigue, which led to slower work.

“Teachers aware of endurance with skills like multiplication facts will appreciate that many academic problems may not reside only with the content, but actually stem from a student’s ability to endure or maintain a high level of responding,” said Kubina.

“Unfortunately, the answer to academic problems exhibited by many students with ADHD is medication,” added Kubina. “Research on endurance, however, shows that attention can be enhanced by practicing specific content with very short intervals of time and building endurance.”

The research, “Endurance of Multiplication Fact Fluency for Students With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder,” is described in the journal Behavior Modification. Brady now works as a special educator in Alexandria, Va. and is pursuing a doctoral degree at George Mason University.

— Joe Savrock

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Statistics show that boys are not doing well in schools today. alison a. carr-chellman, professor of instructional systems, wants to take an active role in helping boys get excited about learning again.

“Boy culture and school culture do not mix,” she says. Innovative instructional approaches, she suggests, are needed in the elementary schools to re-engage boys in learning.

While there are many possible solutions, Carr-Chellman and her colleagues, graduate students mike Petner and shawn Vashaw, have seen some promise in educational video gaming. She discussed the prospects of video gaming as an educational tool at last fall’s Penn State TEDxPSU Conference. In a presentation titled “Bring Back the Boys: Gaming to Re-engage Boys in Learning,” she spelled out some inequitable gender statistics from the 100 Girls Project:

• About 335 boys are expelled from school for every 100 girls.

• Boys are four times as likely as girls to be diagnosed with ADHD, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

• Women now earn about 60 percent of baccalaureate degrees, and that percentage is rising.

“Video games and sports are not the cause of these situations; they’re a symptom,” states Carr-Chellman. While she agrees there are many reasons that boys are turned off in school, she specified three primary reasons in her TEDx talk:

1. Schools use zero tolerance policies to reject student projects that relate to violence—for example, essays dealing with disasters. Boys are asked

to spend most of their time doing things that they do not enjoy, such as reading or writing poetry, writing about little moments in their lives, and learning in cooperative instead of competitive learning styles, often in the name of zero tolerance.

2. About 93 percent of elementary school teachers are women (that’s half as many men teachers in the elementary level as just 15 years ago). The absence of male teachers may make boys feel that they don’t belong. It also has an effect on the overall culture of schools and how they handle boys.

3. Curricula are more compressed and expectations are greater than in the past. “Kindergarten is the old second grade,” says Carr-Chellman. With more testing, larger classes, higher expectations, and less tolerance for active children, the school becomes a place that boys simply feel they don’t fit in, she asserts.

“We need to meet the boys where they are and change the school culture,” she says.

She adds that part of the answer may lie in designing better games that are appropriate for school use. “Too many educational games are really glorified flash cards; we need educational games that really engage kids in rich narratives, competitive and cooperative play, fantasy, and learning,” she says.

She notes that the budgets are not there for the educational games, so some schools are starting to use traditional high-budget games like Call of Duty or World of Warcraft as curricular materials at higher levels. “It will be interesting to follow up and see if boys would have any different feelings about their ability to fit in to such schools,” speculates Carr-Chellman.

Carr-Chellman’s video presentation was one of 13 made by Penn State re-searchers at the local TEDxPSU event. It received the honor of being the first TEDxPSU talk to be selected by TEd editors and posted to TED’s global Web

site (http://www.ted.com/). TED (tech-nology, entertainment, and design) is a major global media platform for index-ing online video content. Distinguished TED lecturers include Bill Clinton, Jane Goodall, and Stephen Hawking.

Videos posted to the global TED site receive high visibility—Carr-Chellman’s TED talk went out to some 12 million people, and it is expected that 3–5 million people will ultimately view it. “I’ve had an unbelievable number of e-mails and Facebook contacts so far as a response to the presentation,” she said. “I’m grateful to TED for the platform and the opportunity to highlight Penn State in this way.”

Carr-Chellman plans to write a more in-depth exploration of this topic in a popular press book this year, and she is proposing an edited book on a related topic.

She recently developed an innovative teaching model known as Instructional Design for Teachers (ID4T). She intro-duces the concept in a newly released book, Instructional Design for Teachers: Improving Classroom Practice. The basic ID4T model is designed to help K–12 teachers use a behavioral approach as well as move toward a more open, student-centered design approach. While instructional design has long been used in other teaching contexts, such as military and corporate training, it has languished in K–12 schools.

“My purpose was to help real change in the everyday instructional moments that happen in classrooms,” said Carr-Chellman. “I truly hope the book will have an important impact on classroom practice among teachers nationally.”

— Joe Savrock

bit.ly/fv1ZCz

bringing the boys back to learning

Alison A. Carr-Chellman

14 Short Subjects

ShortSubjects

How different are Westerners and Easterners in their views toward educational leadership?

roger c. shouse, associate professor of educational leadership, has conducted research on the education system of Taiwan in order to better understand the views of school reform in that country.

“On both sides of the Pacific, social dispositions and mindsets continually limit the boundaries of school reform,” said Shouse, who has served as a visiting professor and researcher in Taiwan several times over the past eight years. “One example that became quite evident when I visited Taiwan last year was how junior high school principals, torn between government reform mandates and local parent demands, often resorted to ‘creative subterfuge’ to meet government reform requirements.”

As part of the school reform, noted Shouse, Taiwanese principals must share power with other school stakeholders, while at the same

time they are held responsible for reconstructing their schools to promote more creative, student-focused forms of teaching and learning. Yet some of the reform measures tend to damage trust and confidence in the system among local stakeholders because they cut against longstanding social and organizational norms. Shouse states, “From the view of many parents, the reforms seem inconsistent with the way schools are ‘supposed to be.’”

Shouse noted, for example, that ability grouping, the practice of grouping students according to their prior achievement, is not permitted in Taiwan schools. “Yet this was one of the tools principals often used to help establish creative and student-centered learning in classrooms,” he said. “Top-ability students experienced school much in the same way as always: focusing on scoring highly on entrance exams. But lesser-ability students received what looked like more flexible and creative forms of instruction.” Shouse noted that although the arrangement was in violation of government rules,

it appeared to allow these schools to navigate the gap between national and local demands.

“Another example of creative subterfuge involved the use of corporal punishment,” continued Shouse. “Though the practice was outlawed nationally in 2004, an informal understanding still exists in many schools that used on a limited basis, moderate forms of corporal punishment serve as a key tool for student motivation. Like in many occupations and professions, a gap forms between ‘what the book says’ and what practitioners believe will actually work.”

Shouse and Kuan-Pei lin ’05 Ph.d. are co-authors of a newly released book, Principal Leadership in Taiwan Schools, which examines the status of Taiwan’s education system. Lin is now a faculty member in the Graduate Institute of Educational Administration at the National Pingtung University of Education in Taiwan.

The book is based on a review of Taiwan’s history of school reform. Through interviews with principals and observations of the schools, the authors examined the adjustments that Taiwanese school principals are making in their new leadership roles. These adjustments are in response to decisions by Taiwan’s Ministry of Education aimed at globalizing the schools. The reform involves restructuring curricular, instructional, and decision-making practices along western lines.

“Beyond the question of how Taiwan principals adjust to school reform, the book also examines the various contested meanings of school leadership and how these differ and evolve in western and East-Asian settings,” said Shouse. “Our research also highlights the problem of top-down driven school reform. Even in hierarchical, authoritatively driven educational systems, the imposition of new rules and structures doesn’t guarantee they will be followed, especially when they seem to cut against local understandings regarding the purposes of schooling.”

— Joe Savrock

shouse research looks at Education reform in Taiwan


Children in families of low socioeconomic status (SES) tend to face lower school readiness and higher rates of mental health problems than children in the broader population. But research shows that a strong bond between mothers and their infants can have a positive effect on childhood emotional security.

“We know that children who are securely attached to their parents are more prepared to begin school and are better able to handle their emotions,” says susan Woodhouse, assistant professor of counselor education. “These children are also less likely to be depressed or anxious, to have behavior problems, or to have mental health problems in adulthood.”

The financial strains and other stressors that are common in low-SES families can lead to childhood insecurity and mental health problems. It is in these households that a strong mother-infant attachment is particularly important, notes Woodhouse.

“If we help low-income children have more secure attachment to their caregivers, then it’s very likely that those children will grow up with better mental health outcomes,” she says.

In her research, Woodhouse looks at interventions that serve to reinforce parent-infant attachment. “The process of intervention helps parents be more comfortable and relaxed with their children’s emotions,” says Woodhouse. “The outcome is happier parents and calmer children.”

She says any attachment intervention should have two essential goals. The first is to help caregivers recognize children’s cues that they are ready to turn their attention outward to explore, while also reassuring the children that the caregivers will still be available for comfort, soothing, or reconnection.

The second goal is to help caregivers develop and practice the skills they need to better meet the child’s needs. The degree to which the parents meet these needs is known as sensitivity.

Woodhouse developed a new measure of mothers’ responsiveness, known as secure base provision (SBP), which predicts attachment in low-SES families. SPB is more valid than traditional measures of sensitivity, which tend to miss some of the positive practices of low-SES mothers that can contribute to secure infant attachment.

“By better understanding which maternal behaviors best predict the outcomes we care about, we can then build better interventions that target those behaviors that matter most,” she says.

Woodhouse and her colleagues have established a laboratory in Harrisburg, Pa., called Parents and Children Together. They will be measuring the behavior of 200 mothers and their six-month-old infants and conducting physiological tests. The researchers will then observe videotaped interactions of mothers and infants in the natural conditions of their own homes. Later, when the infants are 12 months old, the mothers and infants will return to the lab for measurements of attachment and aspects of infant behavior. The mothers also will report on their infants’ behavioral adjustment.

This large-sample study has three central goals:

• to test which way of thinking about maternal caregiving (traditional measures of sensitivity versus the new construct of SBP) best predicts infant outcomes in a diverse, low-SES sample;

• to examine the factors that are related to mothers’ ability to provide a secure base, such as the mothers’ own emotional reactivity and emotion regulation; and

• to test a theoretical model that integrates a number of mother and infant factors in predicting infant outcomes.

“One important outcome of the research will be to validate a new way of thinking about maternal caregiving that is more culturally appropriate for use across diverse groups of low-income families,” says Woodhouse. “It is important to figure out which specific aspects of maternal caregiving best predict important infant outcomes—such as attachment security, infant stress and emotion regulation, and infant mental health—because we need to make sure that our interventions target the maternal behaviors that make the most difference in infant outcomes.”

— Joe Savrock

understanding the Emotional attachment of infants to their mothers

16 Short Subjects

ShortSubjects

A group of K–12 teachers has found an effective, hands-on way to sharpen their teaching skills while making their voices heard in their local and professional communities: they are writing and publishing their own essays.

“In today’s climate of excessive emphasis on testing, too often writing is pushed to the side,” says anne Whitney, a former high school English teacher who now is a faculty member in Penn State’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction. “Meanwhile, in these economic times, tough conversations about educational priorities and reform are happening at local, state, and national levels. It’s critical that teachers—the ones who actually work day to day with students—be part of those conversations.”

Whitney knows that teachers need time and space to dedicate to their own writing. So she worked with colleague bernard badiali, associate professor of curriculum and instruction, to form centre Teacher-Writers.

Since its organization in late 2008, the group has grown from six to nearly a dozen teacher-writers. The members work together to support each other as writers and learn the aspects of professional writing, proofreading, and, eventually, publication.

The Centre Teacher-Writers gather regularly to write about their classroom experiences and pertinent education issues. They act as a mini-audience to help pilot test each other’s developing articles and to provide useful feedback.

“These teachers have grown in their confidence as writers,” says Whitney, “and their work has found audiences locally and in the wider field of education.”

At first the group’s focus was to seek publication in academic journals. Four of the teacher-writers’ articles appeared in the Summer 2009 issue of Catalyst for Change, a journal of the National School Development Council. The special issue, which carried the theme “Teacher Writers: Voices from Classrooms,” included a lead article written by Whitney. Badiali is the journal’s editor. Another essay by a local middle school teacher appeared in the national newspaper Education Week.

The group has turned its attention to a new publishing outlet. Each month, one teacher-writer contributes an

op-ed piece to the local newspaper, the Centre Daily Times. Columns written by Centre Teacher-Writers began appearing in the newspaper last summer, and one has been published each month since.

Whitney and Badiali have published an article about the Centre Teacher-Writers and plan to use it as a basis for future research.

The teachers’ participation in the writing group reflects their strong interest in effective professional development and dedication to students. “This is a great example of teachers leading the way,” says Whitney. “They dedicate their time and energy—outside of school and on top of the busy life of teaching—to write for the public about issues that matter to teachers and students.”

By authoring their own papers, teachers can also become more effective in teaching the craft to their students, believes Whitney. She says, “Teachers of writing can meet their students as fellow practitioners of a challenging but worthwhile art.”

— Joe Savrock

Teachers Writing for Publication: an ideal Professional development opportunity

Anne Whitney

come visit us at homecoming!Saturday, October 15, 9:30-11:30 a.m.

Medlar Field at Lubrano Park (baseball stadium next to Beaver Stadium)

Cost is $15 per person. Register by Oct. 1, 2011.

Homecoming Tailgate

www.ed.psu.edu/tailgate/

www.ed.psu.edu/educ/news/teacher-writers


FeatureAlumni

Ready for Anything...Every year, the college of Education graduates approximately 600 undergraduates and 350 graduate students. The students leave our college with a strong preparation in K-12 education, counseling, education policy, workforce and adult education, and higher education, among a number of other related fields. at each commencement, we congratulate them on their hard work and success. and then we watch as they pack up and leave state college.

This year, we wanted to see what some of these alumni are up to now. as we reached out to these different alumni, we found that they were in an incredibly diverse number of careers, some closely related to education, and others seemingly far removed from the fields commonly associated with an education degree.

but wherever these alumni are now, they all see a natural progression to their career and where their college of Education degree has taken them. as their experience shows, the organization and planning skills, the formal presentation skills, and the insight into human development and psychology studied in our college all have their place in the workplace, regardless of the chosen field.

18 Alumni Feature

and I owe a lot of that to Penn State’s counselor education program. I was fortunate to have some wonderful faculty role models during my doctoral studies. Their attitudes toward students, their work ethic, and their commitment to the counseling profession probably influence me more on a daily basis than anything else. Things like the importance of being actively involved in one’s profession and the value of advocating on behalf of others have shaped how I approach my work each day. In essence, I regularly apply the indirect knowledge I gained from the faculty both in order to successfully navigate my way in my profession and to hopefully make a substantial contribution to my profession and the students I teach.”

Amy Milsom ’93 M.Ed., ’01 Ed.D. Counselor Education

associate ProfessorClemson UniversityAmy is in her 11th year as a counselor educator. She first worked as a middle and high school counselor, an occupation she found quite rewarding. Wishing to become a supervisor or director of guidance and counseling, she decided to pursue a doctoral degree. Once back in graduate school, however, she found the direction of her life changing—Penn State’s faculty encouraged her to broaden her aspirations and consider becoming a professor. Amy has been moving forward ever since. After earning her doctorate, she held faculty positions at The University of Iowa and then the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She now is an associate professor at Clemson.

“I have an incredibly satisfying career,

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ean


President and cEoLodi Memorial HospitalAfter graduation, Joe began teaching at Upper St. Clair High School, but his teaching career was interrupted when he was drafted. While waiting to be called to service, he moved to his hometown in Titusville, Pa., where he took on a temporary job as a steelworker. When the call never came, he took a position with a chain of nursing homes as a food service director. With his career moving in a new direction, Joe earned his license as a nursing home administrator and continued to work for the same chain of nursing homes until 1984. He worked as an administrator for hospitals in Arizona and California before moving to his current position as president and CEO of Lodi Memorial Hospital in 1993.

Joseph P. Harrington ’71 B.S.Secondary Education

It may be a co-worker, reporting staff, or even governing boards, so having some education skill will always allow you to perform just a bit better in that part of your job. The overwhelming reason an education degree is a good foundation for any other career is you learn how people learn. This has helped me throughout my career to understand and manage many different personalities. Ultimately, good leaders need to establish trust with their own stakeholders, and the best way I have found to do that is to learn how everyone else learns and use that as a means to teach and gain trust. Every day is a bit of a lesson plan and trying to improve on that plan has been a constant part of my career.”

“No matter what career you choose, you will end up teaching someone.

20 Alumni Feature

Jhan Doughty Berry ’94 M.Ed., ’01 D.Ed.Counselor Education

I learned that my education degrees signify not only a reflection of knowledge of key content in my field, but also my commitment to the value of education. I was highly fortunate to be taught by some of the leaders in the field of counselor education and rehabilitation counseling who helped instill in me the importance of expanding educational opportunities for all students. As such, when I entered the field of diversity, I was well prepared. My newest role is at Educational Testing Service (ETS), whose mission is to advance quality and equity in education through fair and valid assessments and research, for students worldwide. Today, I am able to approach my work at ETS with a lens that is inclusive of all persons, which has given me the ability to approach my work with an open mind and heart.”

director of diversity and chief diversity officerEducational Testing ServiceUpon graduation from Penn State, Jhan secured postdoctoral fellowships at both Harvard Medical School and Yale Medical School. Following the successful completion of her postdoctoral fellowship at Yale, she went on to Miami University in Ohio. She recently began a new position at Educational Testing Service as director of diversity and chief diversity officer.

“At Penn State,


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Andy Masters ’03 B.S., ’06 M.Ed.Counselor Education

both my bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Penn State, I learned from professors who were willing to help in every way they could. My graduate program, in particular, has shaped so much of my professional and my personal life. I can still remember so many of the discussions I had with Dr. Hazler, Dr. Carney, and Dr. Trusty—most of them not in the classroom, but in their office, over coffee, or just around campus. As a counselor, I took that willingness to work with students whenever and wherever into my practice.”

andy began work in 2006 in baltimore city Public schools as an elementary school counselor, serving PreK–8 students. he was very successful, developing a comprehensive developmental program and coauthoring the comprehensive developmental counseling and guidance Program (cdcgP) manual for baltimore city school counselors. andy later transferred to a larger school to work as the elementary counselor for some 500 students in PreK–4. during this time, he and a colleague developed a companion guide to the cdcgP. andy was recruited by the office of student Placement (osP) to assist in the implementation and training of the new middle school choice process. after working in this endeavor, andy was offered a position as a staff associate in osP. he has been in this position for the past year.

“While earningstaff associateOffice of Enrollment, Choice and Transfers in Baltimore City Public Schools

22 Alumni Feature

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culture and math Teacher Onondaga Nation SchoolBrad teaches special education at Onondaga Nation School, a K–8 school that rests on the territory of the Onondaga Nation near Syracuse, N.Y. He is an Eel Clan member of Onondaga Nation, which is part of a unified league called the Haudenosaunee. Brad’s real name, Dehowähda•dih, roughly translates to “He goes running.”

Onondaga Nation School is the same school Brad attended as a child. It was founded in 1849, but for some 120 years it didn’t reflect the Onondaga culture. The native language was forbidden on the school grounds and none of the teachers were native Onondaga. But when Brad was a young student, the school began to change. Onondaga language and culture became part of the curricula. Two of the school’s graduates went on to college and later returned to the school to teach. Brad was inspired, so he likewise became a teacher.

to have the opportunity to attend Penn State and participate in its American Indian Leadership Program. I met some terrific professors, including Dr. Charles Hughes and Dr. Anna Gajar. These and

many others taught me how to be the best educator for my students. With my Penn State degree in hand, I was able to return to the Onondaga Nation School as a dually certified regular and special education teacher. Being able to make a difference—not only for the kids in my classroom, but also helping educate the nonnative teachers in our building about our culture—has been fulfilling. Today we have more native classroom teachers and integration of Onondaga themes into math, science, social studies, and reading classes. I am delighted to be a part of this change and I am grateful to Penn State for helping me get there.”

Brad Powless ’94 M.Ed.Special Education

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Evelynn Ellis ’83 M.Mus., ’97 D.Ed.Higher Education

I developed working on my doctoral degree serve me every day. I know that if I do the research, review the information, and carefully decide what my next steps will be, I can rarely go wrong. Doctoral work also gave me more patience with my own need to get it right and now! It can’t always be now, but if I am patient, it will be right. The practical parts of my education and training have taught me to also know when to throw a Hail Mary and duck.”

Vice President for institutional diversity and EquityDartmouth CollegeEvelynn assumed her vice presidency role earlier this year. She arrived at Dartmouth in 2008 as director of equal opportunity and affirmative action.

Previously, she served at Penn State for more than 20 years in a variety of positions, most recently as senior director of the Office of Graduate Educational Equity Programs.

“The critical thinking skills

24 Alumni Feature

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several schools, I found that Penn State was the best fit for my needs, my family’s needs, and my educational goals. My classes and workload were the exact preparation I needed for obtaining a second teaching certification in special education. After graduating, I was able to get a job immediately. My degree positioned me perfectly for my current teaching position. The training and education I obtained gave me a thorough understanding of all aspects of educating students with disabilities. Being a special education teacher requires me to rely on both the in-school and in-class learning I received as I help my students reach their potential.”

Marla Yukelson ’01 M.Ed. Special Education

learning support Teacher State College Area School DistrictAs a returning adult student, Marla came to Penn State to pursue a master’s degree in special education. She had earned an undergraduate teaching degree in Texas some 17 years earlier. After teaching for a short time, she chose to stay at home full time so she could raise her three children. But Marla continued to have a burning desire to teach.

After years outside the workforce, she felt that a master’s degree would be a good avenue for reentering the teaching field. Marla received her master’s of science in special education in 2001 and now works as a learning support teacher.

“After researching


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Professor of online Education and director of development and innovationsNKI NettstudierNKI Nettstudier is a leading distance education institution in Morten’s native country, Norway. Morten is recognized as one of Europe’s first online educators. In 1986 he designed and utilized the EKKO Learning Management System for delivering online courses.

Paulsen has served as an adjunct professor for Athabasca University (Canada) and as an associate professor at Universidade Aberta in Portugal. Last year, he was elected president of the European Distance and E-Learning Network (EDEN), an academic association with 200 institutional and 1,200 individual members in more than 50 countries.

Morten Flate Paulsen ’98 D.Ed. Adult Education

in 1990, I felt like an online education pioneer and expert. But I later realized that my Penn State studies had given me broader perspectives and propelled my academic and international career. My Penn State experiences were instrumental in allowing me to build a broad international network in distance and online education. They also helped me develop the Theory of Cooperative Freedom, which has become my guiding star in online education.”

“Before I came to Penn State

26 Alumni Feature

Jacob Easley II ’04 Ph.D.Educational Leadership

While studying at Penn state, Easley was a Puksar-holmes scholars Fellow. he participated in the Penn state–state college area school district Professional development school (Pds) program as a classroom supervisor and instructor. as an alumnus, Easley still serves Penn state’s college of Education as president of the Educational leadership Program alumni council (EdPac).

currently, Easley is president of the national association of holmes scholars alumni (nahsa). in 2009, the mercy college’s Teacher residency Program was honored by the association of Teacher Educators (aTE) as a finalist for the aTE distinguished Program in Teacher Education award. Easley played a key role in the program’s development and award recognition. he recently released a new book, The Audacity to Teach! The Impact of Leadership, School Reform, and the Urban Context on Educational Innovations, which is a product of his Penn state research.

I was afforded first-hand experiences for development in each of my core research interest areas—contextualized leadership, organizational effectiveness, and policy and politics of education. Whether working in the PDS, participating in the Puksar-Holmes Scholars activities, completing a Martin Luther King, Jr. Fellowship at the U.S. Department of Education, or publishing with faculty, a central theme has remained with me: Every learner deserves a quality education; yet, the critical means for fostering such quality requires informed decision making among collaborating stakeholders—decisions that are ethically and morally grounded. I have carried this perspective with me and it has guided my actions as an educator and leader within the profession.”

associate Professor and chair, division of Education University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown

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senior associateNational Center for Higher Education Management SystemsNCHEMS is a private, non-profit organization that focuses on use of data in decision making. The organization addresses policy issues at the state level and at the institutional level. Paulson’s work focuses on assessment of student learning outcomes, accreditation, and project evaluation.

She has served the College of Education as a board member of the Higher Education Program Alumni Council (HEPAC).

Karen Paulson ’96 Ph.D.Higher Education

in Higher Education developed my qualitative and quantitative skills; I use both on a day-to-day basis. My professors allowed me to ’see’ how they did things. They were always transparent, and I could ask how they decided to approach a situation or make a particular decision. As with many other students, I entered the program with the preconceived notion that I might become a higher education faculty member; however, several faculty members saw that I had abilities that would be useful in the policy arena and encouraged me to expand my thinking and approach to my overall program.”

“Penn State’s program of study

28 Alumni Feature

Pamela Loughner ’78 B.S., ’97 M.Ed., ’02 Ph.D.

Instructional Systems“I don’t know if there are words to describe the

my experience at Penn State has had on my career and life. I was told that earning a Ph.D. would change the way that I think, and I do believe it has led me to think more deeply and with more purpose than ever before. I love to learn, and my degrees have helped me develop confidence in my ability to do so.”

a strong interest in the field of corporate training and development inspired loughner to establish her own consulting firm in 1997. loughner and associates develops e-learning and instructor-led training, job aids, and other workplace learning solutions. The firm has created more than 300 custom solutions implemented in more than 40 countries across six continents.

over the past three years, loughner and associates has been selected to participate in two distinguished programs: Emerging 200 initiative, by the u.s. small business administration; and Entrepreneur mentoring Program, an Inc. magazine – William J. clinton Foundation Partnership.

PresidentLoughner and Associates


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The Penn State Board of Trustees has selected academician ovid J.l. Tzeng to receive the University’s highest award for an individual, the Distinguished Alumni Award.

Tzeng earned his doctorate in educational psychology from Penn State’s College of Education in 1973. He now serves in the government of the Republic of China (ROC, also known as Taiwan) in the Executive Yuan, the nation’s highest administrative organ, as a minister without portfolio.

An internationally recognized scholar, Tzeng is a leading pioneer in cognitive neuroscientific studies of the Chinese language and is renowned for his extensive analysis of cognition and the memory system. He was the first Penn Stater to be an elected academician of the Academia Sinica, the most prominent academic institution in Taiwan.

Tzeng serves as a key adviser to Taiwan’s president, Ma Ying-jeou, and oversees Taiwan’s Ministry of Education, Ministry of Cultural Affairs, Ministry of Sport, National News agency, and the Office of Tourism.

Following his graduation from Penn State, Tzeng worked at the University of California, Riverside, rising to the rank of profes-sor of psychology. Moving back to the ROC in the 1990s, he

served as a faculty member, department chair, and dean at National Chung Cheng University, then as vice president and president at National Yang-Ming University.

Tzeng visited Penn State in June 2011 to receive his award. While at Penn State, he lectured on his field of cognitive neuroscience and spoke about his experience as a graduate student at Penn State and how the challenges and opportunities he received here shaped the career path he would later take.

— David Price

Ovid J.L. Tzeng made time to visit the Lion Shrine during his recent visit to Penn State.

ovid J.l. Tzeng honored as distinguished alumni

The Educational Leadership Program Alumni Council (EDPAC) provides a venue for alumni of the Educational Leadership Program to stay connected. Recently ranked by U.S. News & World Report as the 6th best program of its kind, the Penn State Educational Lead-ership Program works tirelessly to help education students and profes-sionals throughout the community to become leaders. “The program is significant because of its focus on cutting-edge research, teaching, and service,” said Preston green iii, a professor of edu-cation and law at Penn State and the program’s professor-in-charge. But keeping abreast of the needs of educational leaders and maintaining ties with the 2,200 alumni who have

graduated from the Educational Leadership Program was a challenge. Thus, in 2006, EDPAC was formed with a goal of providing a venue through which alumni would remain in contact with the program and provide feedback about it so as to help it improve. Specifically, EDPAC aims to identify and mentor strong teacher-leaders; promote the program in school districts and the broader academic community; advise the program of trends throughout the profession; strengthen alumni connections through newsletters and academic and social activities; and encourage enrollment in the Educational Leadership Program. To that end, one of the council’s primary annual activities is to help host

the Educational Leadership Brunch, the goal of which is to update alumni about the program and to recognize alumni for their accomplishments. The EDPAC also currently is developing a survey that will be given to alumni to determine the program’s effectiveness.Jacob Easley ii, an alumnus who now is EDPAC’s president as well as an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, said that he always has been impressed by the ways in which the program has maintained its merits through time. “Now, with the EDPAC, we have a dedicated group of people who can ensure the program’s continued excellence,” he said.

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30 Alumni Information

principal of Park Forest Middle School in State College, Dolbin currently is a certified facilitator for the Pennsylvania

Inspired Leadership Program and the National Institute for School Leadership, and he also mentors new school administrators in the Pennsylvania Mentoring Network. In addition, he is a life member of the Penn State Alumni Association.

Meisinger said that she too hopes to give back to the Penn State community. “I am grateful for the many opportunities Penn State has provided to me both personally and professionally, and I am eager to contribute to the Penn State legacy and tradition of excellence,” she said. A high-school principal at Conestoga High School in Berwyn, Pa., Meisinger is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society, the Phi Kappa Phi

dave dolbin (’75 sPlEd, ’81 m.s.; amy meisinger ’09 Ph.d.; and cathy Tomon ’79 EK Ed have been elected as members to the college’s Alumni Society Board of Directors, along with ron musoleno ’73 Edu, ’76 m.Ed. and dee stout ’69 E K Ed, ’72 m.Ed., who will join the board as incumbents. The board currently comprises 20 members, including elected members, appointed members, and officers. Each year, five new members are elected to the board for a three-year term, and each member can be re-elected for an additional three-year term.

Dolbin said that he joined the board because he is particularly interested in the opportunity to serve as a resource to students and alumni. A retired

new members Elected to alumni society’s board of directors

2010-11 EdPac board of directors

David Dolbin Amy Meisinger Cathy Tomon

Honor Society, and the Kappa Delta Pi Education Honor Society. Her volunteer experience includes work for Habitat for Humanity and FLITE (Foundation for Learning in Tredyffrin/Easttown), an educational foundation that assists students in reaching their full potential.

Cathy Tomon, a principal at Broad Creek Middle School in Newport, N.C., won the College’s 2010 Alumni Society Leadership and Service Award. She is a member of the Newport Planning Board and the president of the Officers’ Wives’ Club of the Marine Corps Air Station at Cherry Point. “Having been on many county, state, and national boards as well as commissions and committees dealing with education, I believe that I can offer a diverse and global input during board meetings,” she said.

According to Phil hoy, assistant director of alumni relations, the new members will help the board with its most important goals of giving informal advice to the dean, stimulating the continued interest of alumni, and providing a means whereby alumni can join together to improve the College and the University as a whole.

— Sara LaJeunesse

dr. christine bunce, instructor in the Penn State College of Education

dr. Jacob Easley ii, president of EDPAC and associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown

dr. rebecca Erb, superintendent of the Tuscarora School District

dr. Vito Forlenza, consultant at Forlenza Associates

mr. Kurt smith, instructor of history, political science, economics, and geography at Lock Haven University

dr. mario Torres, vice president, associate professor of educational administration and human resource development at Texas A & M University

dr. hector sambolin, counselor in the Penn State Office of the Vice Provost for Educational Equity

Preston Green III Jacob Easley II

To learn more about EDPAC or to become a council member,

go to: www.ed.psu.edu/educ/alumni-

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1940scoleman bender ’42 Edu has taught at Penn State, University of Illinois, Univer-sity of Hawaii, Harvard School of Public Health, Emerson College, American College of Greece, Palm Beach Com-munity College, Lynn University, and as a U.S. Air Force Instructor Trainer. He has presented workshops on improv-ing training for many major medical schools, including Harvard, University of Cal-Davis, Medical University of S.C., and the Medical College of Pa. He has also worked as consultant on training for Hiltons, Electric Companies, and Dole Canning. He was consultant for over 20 years in Law Enforcement Management Training at Babson College and ran the debate program at Norfolk Prison for over 20 years.

1970sJohn Foster ’77 WKEd, ’83 m.Ed., ’97 Ph.d. is the president of and CEO of the National Occupational Competency and Testing Institute (NOCTI), an international organization that develops assessment exams. alyce spotted bear ’78 m.Ed. (American Indian Leadership Program), has been appointed by President Obama to the National Advisory Council on Indian Education. Alyce is an English Instructor at the Fort Berthold Community College, New Town, N.D.

1980sJames T. harris ’88 d.Ed. is the president of Widener University and has been named as the 2011 Chief Executive Leadership Award winner, Case Division II. This award recognizes outstanding efforts in promoting the understanding and support of education. george santiago, Jr. ’86 m.Ed., ’94 Ph.d. is the President of Briarcliffe College, Bethpage, N.Y. George was honored at the Equality Awards Gala in Hauppauge, N.Y., in April 2011 for his support of the Long Island GLBT Services Network which works to end homophobia on Long Island, provide a home and a safe place for the GLBT community, and advocate for equality. Tish szymurski ’86 rEhab is dean of continuing adult and professional studies at Neumann University, Aston,

Pa. Tish assumed her role as presi-dent of the Association for Continuing Higher Education (ACHE) at the Annual Meeting and Conference in Albuquer-que, N.M., in October 2010. Among program awards and recognitions over the past 20 years of her experience, Tish was most recently the recipient of the Penn State Outstanding Alumni Award for outstanding contributions to higher education and commitment to community, and a 2008 Ryland Fellow-ship with EDUCAUSE.

1990sm. christopher brown ii ’97 Ph.d. is the president of Alcorn State University in Mississippi. He is the former executive vice president and provost at the historic Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn. Christopher earned a national reputation for his research and scholarly writing on education policy, governance, administration and institutional contexts. He is well known for his studies of historically black colleges, educational equity and professional responsibilities. Pam Foster ’98 Ph.d. was named 2010 Outstanding Biology Teacher of PA. She is the Science Program chair and biology teacher at Carlisle Area High School. stacie spanos hiras ’94 sEcEd has been named as the West York Area School District’s Teacher of the Year. Stacie, who teaches Spanish in the West York Area High School, was applauded for her ability to engage students. Stacie is also a current member of the Penn State College of Education Alumni Society board of directors.

2000sThomas butler ’91 sEc Ed, ’08 Ph.d. was named a winner of an American Educational Research Association Rural Education special interest group dissertation award at the 2010 conference in Denver, Colo. The title of the dissertation is Rural Schools and Communities: How Globalization Influences Rural School and Community Collaboration. rosemarie dugi ’08 Ph.d. was select-ed to receive the 2009-2010 Outstand-ing Faculty of the Year Award from the College of Education at Montana State

University-Billings. Students prepare the nominations and the winners are selected by faculty members. Eric g. lovik ’10 Ph.d. was awarded the Dissertation of the Year by the Dalton Institute on College Student Values at Florida State University at the February 2011 annual meeting. Eric will receive a cash award and forthcom-ing publication of his dissertation in an article in the September issue of the Journal of College and Character. The College and Character Clearinghouse will also feature an interview with him to be posted on their Web site. gail romig ’01 EK Ed is a third-grade teacher at Park Forest Elementary School in State College, Pa. Gail is among 85 teachers—and one of just two from Pennsylvania—to be chosen to receive the prestigious Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. In 2004, Gail received the Penn State College of Education Alumni Soci-ety’s Outstanding New Graduate award. Kenneth sagan ’01 WF Ed is the program manager of energy and green building in Washington, D.C. As an expert in building codes and energy conservation, Ken has been working on federal legislation for the last three years. He has advised senators Bingaman, Waxman, Snowe, Markey, Lieberman and others concerning this important initiative and has worked closely with the Dept. of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency. debra sagan ’01 WF Ed is employed by the National Association of Home Builders Research Center, Upper Marlboro, Md. She is the coordinator of a program funded by the U.S. Dept. of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency engaged in energy efficiency within the housing industry.

Tell us about your success! Visit our Web site to let us know what you have been doing. Submissions will appear on our Web site and may be published in the 2012 issue of Penn State Education magazine.

alumni achievementscongratulations to the following alumni on their career success.

www.ed.psu.edu/educ/alumni-friends/alumni-notes


InformationAlumni

Alumni Society Awards: Nomination Form

The college of Education alumni society supports four alumni awards that are presented each year to graduates who have distinguished themselves in their profession.

nomination materials must include the following in order to be considered complete:

• nomination form

• candidate’s vita or resume

• one letter from the nominator

• one letter from the candidate’s immediate supervisor

• Two additional letters of support

Excellence in Education This award is the highest honor bestowed upon alumni of the College of Education. Selection is made on the basis of significant contributions to the field of education. Specific criteria: (1) Nominee must be employed full time in the field of education; (2) Nominee must be a graduate of the College of Education (certification, baccalaureate, or advanced degree).

outstanding Teaching This award recognizes the classroom teacher. Selection is made on the basis of overall excellence in teaching methodologies, knowledge of subject matter, and ability to inspire students. Specific criteria: (1) Nominee must be employed full time in the teaching profession; (2) Nominee must be a graduate of the College of Education (certification, baccalaureate, or advanced degree).

leadership & service This award recognizes those alumni who have distinguished themselves in their chosen professions, in or out of the field of education. Selection is made on the basis of leadership and service within a career, a community, or to society in general. Specific criteria: (1) Achievement in a chosen field, in a community, or in society; (2) Nominee must be a graduate of the College of Education (certification, baccalaureate, or advanced degree).

outstanding new graduate This award recognizes recent graduates who have distinguished themselves in their new careers. Selection is made on the basis of an individual’s advancement and excellence in a new job, in or out of the field of education. Specific criteria: (1) Outstanding contributions to and achievements in a new job; (2) Nominees must be graduates of the College of Education (baccalaureate) within five years of the date of nomination.

college of Education alumni society awards description and criteria


To nominate an alumnus/a, complete the form on the back of this page and mail, along with all nomination materials, to:

The Penn state college of Education attn: alumni society awards 247 chambers building university Park, Pa 16802-3206

814.863.2216

nominations received before January 31 each year are reviewed as a group. awards are presented in a ceremony each fall. nominations may be made at any time. self-nominations are welcome.

2010 alumni society award Winners

candidate information

Name Home Email Home Phone

Home Address City State Zip

Job Title Business Email Business Phone

Business Address City State Zip

Education from Penn State (Include degree and grad year)

nominator information

Name Home Email Home Phone

Home Address City State Zip

Job Title Business Email Business Phone

0 Excellence in Education 0 outstanding Teaching 0 leadership & service 0 outstanding new graduate select award category:

college of Education alumni society awards nomination Form

L-R: Dean David Monk, Bradley Rosenau, Kasey Sundin Woolslare, Scott deLone, Cathy Tomon, Carly Price, and Catherine Tang. Inset: Paulette Lemma

www.ed.psu.edu/educ/alumni-friends/award

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the CollegeGifts tomore about michelle: The College welcomed michelle houser ’01 Journ as new director of development in fall 2010. She succeeds Ellie Dietrich, who retired in June 2010.

Michelle brings over a decade of development experience to the College. Her career began at Allegheny College where she was assistant director of annual giving. She continued at Duke University where she was an associate director of major gifts at the Fuqua School of Business. She joins us from the University of Pittsburgh, where she was a major gifts officer for the Medical and Health Sciences Foundation.

Michelle is a native of Titusville, Pa., with strong ties to the College and the University. Her father was the first in his family to attend college and attended Penn State. When he passed away, his college friends and his family established an endowed award in his memory for Penn State Forestry students.

Michelle is a graduate of the Penn State Journalism program. Her sister Jen and brother-in-law Jeff graduated from the College of Education’s PDS program and now teach in the State College Area School District. Her sister Suzanne and brother-in-law Mike also graduated from Penn State, and now both work at the University, as does Houser’s husband, Michael.

“It is a true honor to return to my alma mater in this role,” Michelle says. “I look forward to working with the College’s alumni and friends to build upon the momentum of our development and alumni relations programs.”

Dear College of Education Community:

As a graduate of Penn State, I’m excited to be returning to my alma mater and to be joining the Penn State College of Education as the director of development and alumni relations. It’s wonderful to be back in State College and to be a part of such a vibrant community. I’ve already had the pleasure of meeting many great alumni and friends of the College who are proud of the success of our students and faculty and are excited to see what the future holds.

I ask that you consider being a part of that future. You can volunteer with our alumni board, make a gift online, or contact me to discuss how you can create continual opportunities for College of Education students. In just the last year, we have seen very generous donations that will help position the College for a strong future, but there are opportunities to support the College of Education at all levels.

For example, forgoing a dinner out and just sending $25 to the College of Education can help provide scholarship support for a student. If even a small portion of our 50,000 alumni were to do that, imagine the collective impact!

You can also give of your time to the College. For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students is well under way, and we have a number of alumni and friends who are working with the College in this campaign and are serving on our alumni board. I’m proud to have the opportunity to work with these amazing individuals.

The College’s students and faculty are at the core of its vibrancy. I am very impressed with the undergraduate and graduate students in the College. They are working hard to attain their goals and all are committed to successful careers in education and human services.

I recently met Brayden Sickler, a junior in world languages education (Spanish) and a recipient of the Educate Scholarship. Brayden is an accomplished singer and a resident assistant on campus. She recently shared her talents by singing the Alma Mater for us at a recent College event. In the end, when you choose to give or get involved, your contribution will directly impact students like Brayden.

If your travels bring you back to State College, please stop by the Chambers Building to say hello. We enjoy catching up with our alumni and hearing about where your paths have taken you. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Michelle K. Houser

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Krauses make $6.5m gift to support innovation in college of Educationgay and bill Krause of Los Altos Hills, Calif., are shaping the future of innovation in education with a $6.5 million gift to establish and support the Krause Innovation Studio in Penn State’s College of Education. It is the largest gift in the history of the College of Education.

The Krause Innovation Studio (www.ed.psu.edu/educ/innovate) will generate and share knowledge about innovative teaching practice designed around emerging technological tools. It will be a physical and intellectual space where educational leaders from around the world can innovate and investigate teaching practice with a focus on the application of technology.

“When we were approached by dean david monk regarding the possibility of the College of Education laying the groundwork for an innovation studio, we were immediately interested. Here is a program that will draw upon the power of emerging technologies to transform teaching and learning throughout educational systems,” Gay said.

Gay, a former teacher and school administrator, received her bachelor of science degree in K-12 elementary and special education from Penn State. She is director of the Krause Center for Innovation at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills. Bill has been a Silicon Valley executive since the early 1970s. As president and CEO of 3Com, Bill guided the data networking company from a venture capital-funded start-up to a publicly traded, multinational enterprise with assets in excess of $1 billion when he retired. He now is president of the private investment firm LWK Ventures.

“We believe education of our next generation of young people is at the heart of four critical issues facing our country,” Bill said. “A better educated next generation gives us a better chance for peace in the world; it is critical to ensuring we maintain our principles of a democratic and free nation; it gives us a better chance for an improved economy; and it gives us a better chance for improving our environment. Given this impact that education has on society, it was clear to us that improving education of our young people is where we wanted to invest our philanthropic dollars.”

“The early ideas for an innovation studio emerged from the College’s strategic planning process,” said Dean David Monk. “The Krauses showed immediate interest and helped us to refine the vision to the point where it will now become a reality. We are enormously grateful for their insights, energy, and willingness to create and support the Studio.”

Starting with teaching practice and drawing upon the power of emerging technologies to transform teaching and learning, the Krause Innovation Studio is an incubator for innovative technology-supported pedagogy that allows educators to address the needs of an increasingly diverse and geographically dispersed student population. It encourages teachers and researchers to examine their assumptions about education and technology and imagine new possibilities for bringing them together.

scott mcdonald, associate professor of education, is the director of the studio. The culture, mission, and philosophy of the Krause Innovation Studio are in place within the College; construction of the physical space began in summer 2011.

www.ed.psu.edu/educ/innovate

Gay and Bill Krause

36 Gifts to the College

the CollegeGifts to

byrd gift to college of Education general Fund

robert E. ’70 mus.Ed. and barbara bennett byrd of Burlington, N.C., have made arrangements in their estate for gifts of at least $182,000 to the College of Education General Fund.

Bob, originally from Erie, Pa., graduated from Penn State in 1970 with a degree in music education: “We don’t consider ourselves wealthy people, but I thought that Penn State made a tremendous impact on my life, and I felt that I needed to give some of that back.”

Since earning his master of health administration at Duke in 1978, Bob has served on the senior management team of Alamance Regional Medical Center in Burlington, where he is currently senior vice president.

“My thinking in supporting Penn State was that I wanted to support the areas that touched me while I was there,” says Bob. “Penn State represents excellence in everything that I see it does. It makes a tremendous impact on our society, and coupling with that is the tremendous importance of education in our society.”

Bob and his wife, whom he met in North Carolina, share a love of music. Barbara is an accomplished classical pianist and organist. At Penn State, Bob was in the Concert Blue Band and other ensembles, including the Penn Statesmen jazz ensemble and the Symphonic Wind Ensemble. He

keeps his musical fire burning as the co-founder and musical director of the 18-piece Alamance Jazz Band. He and Barbara—a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro—just celebrated their 26th anniversary. “We go to University Park frequently, and she’s got the Penn State spirit, too! I’m just tremendously proud to be a Penn Stater,” says Bob.

Eugene and irene carrara Education Technology center Endowment

Eugene carrara ’42 Ed has made a $1 million estate gift to endow the Eugene and Irene Carrara Education Technology Center Endowment for the College of Education. The endowment will provide monies for the Education Technology Center and affiliated operations in order to help the College keep pace with rapidly changing technologies and to provide the latest instructional and technology support to faculty, staff, and students.

Eugene, who passed away in 2007, spoke highly of his time at Penn State and wanted to give back to the University, according to Sean Duggan, a friend of Eugene’s and the executor of his estate. He also wanted to honor his sister irene ’43 Ed, who was a teacher in Philadelphia before she passed away.

“Eugene had a difficult time as a child and a young adult,” said Duggan. “He grew up in Kirby, Pa., where his father—a coalminer—was eventually killed in the coal mines. During the Depression, he left for New York City

to find work. He really struggled during that time. Eventually, he made it back to Pennsylvania and enrolled as a student at Penn State. I think that decision was important to him as it really changed his lot in life. It may have contributed to his decision to give back to the University.”

After earning an undergraduate degree in education at Penn State, Eugene attended graduate school at Vanderbilt University. He then worked as a weatherman in Nashville, Tenn., before becoming employed by the airline industry. He spent the majority of his career as a labor-relations attorney at Air France.

barbara and barry Fry scholarship in Educationbarry J. Fry ’68 sec Ed has pledged $70,000 to endow the Barbara and Barry Fry Scholarship in Education. The purpose of the endowment is to support undergraduate and graduate student scholarships.

“As a graduate, Penn State is important to me,” said Barry, “but through this scholarship, I also wanted to honor my wife, who was a teacher and a principal before she passed away in 2003. Barbara wasn’t around to help me make the decision to establish the scholarship, but I know she would have wanted to help give a young student a chance to become an educator.”

barbara ’78 EEc was a special education teacher before becoming the director of special education for the Fairport Central School District in New York. She finished her career as an elementary school principal in the district.

Barry taught for a few years in a New Jersey school before attending graduate school at the State University of New

Barbara and Bob Byrd

Eugene Carrara (back row, left) with family and friends.

Barbara Fry


York in Brockport to obtain a master’s degree in environmental engineering. Before retiring, he was employed at Columbia Analytical Services in Kelso, Wash., a laboratory that conducts environmental testing, such as analyses of tissues and sediments. He later worked part time for a small environmental consulting firm that does site mitigations. Today, he lives in Rochester, N.Y.

andree Ward and michael d. Keebaugh honors scholarship in the college of Education

andree Ward ’67 EK Ed and mike Keebaugh ’67 sci, ’71 m.s. Eng have made plans in their estate to fund honors scholarship endowments in the College of Education, the College of Engineering, and the College of Information Sciences and Technology. The scholarships will benefit students in those colleges who are pursuing an honors degree through the Schreyer Honors College.

Mike retired in 2009 as an executive with Raytheon Co. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Penn State in 1967, and a master’s degree in computer science in 1971. He was a member of multiple academic honorary fraternities, including Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, Phi Eta Sigma, Pi Mu Epsilon, and Upsilon Pi Epsilon. He spent the majority of his career with Raytheon, a technology leader specializing in defense, homeland security and other government markets throughout the world. For six years,

he held positions as a Raytheon vice president and as president of the Intelligence and Information Systems business. Penn State honored him with an Outstanding Engineering Alumni Award in 2005.

Andree graduated from Penn State in 1967 with a bachelor’s degree in education. She spent 18 years in the State College real estate business community before the couple moved to Texas. There she worked as a sales associate for the Worth Collection, a premier direct sales and marketing company of luxury clothing and products, and also served as treasurer of the Women’s Alzheimer Group in Dallas.

The Keebaughs’ son Todd and daughter-in-law Christie, as well as Mike’s brother Allen and sister-in-law Jacquie also are Penn State alumni. They also have two grandchildren, Holden and Claire, whom the Keebaughs say they are hoping will become Penn Staters, too.

John W. and nancy a. moore graduate student research awardJohn ’70 hi Ed and nancy moore have made provisions in their estate to make a $100,000 gift to endow the John W. and Nancy A. Moore Graduate Student Research Award in the College of Education. The purpose of the endowment is to assist doctoral students studying in Penn State’s nationally ranked higher education program and in the Center for the Study of Higher Education who have successfully completed their comprehensive examinations and who have had their doctoral dissertation proposals approved by the faculty.

“Through our gift, we hope to facilitate the dissertations of future generations of graduate students,” said John. “We

expect that some may be future college presidents.”

The Center for the Study of Higher Education is devoted to examining the critical issues that influence the policies and practices of postsecondary institutions. John was a student at Penn State when the Center first began, and he was also the first student to obtain funding for his research from the group. In addition, he was the founding president of the Higher Education Student Association at Penn State.

“My time at Penn State as a graduate student was a formative experience, both professionally and personally,” said John. “In addition to benefiting from a quality academic experience, the personal relationships I had with faculty, colleagues, and fellow graduate students were of extraordinary value.”

Today, John, a member of the Penn State Society of Distinguished Alumni, is president of Penson Associates, Inc., a consulting firm that provides coaching and transition management services to governing boards and senior administrators at colleges and universities. From 1992 to 2000, he was president of Indiana State University. For over a decade he served as a faculty member and coordinator of the New Presidents Academy sponsored by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU). Nancy is a retired public school counselor. They live in Venice, Fla.

otto Endowment for the higher Education ProgramKris otto ’92 com, ’01g hi Ed has made provisions in her estate to pledge $25,000 to create the Otto Endowment for the Higher Education Program. The endowment will provide funds for the general needs of the Higher Education Program, which has a mission of preparing individuals for researching, analyzing, and managing the critical problems in postsecondary education.

“I decided to make this gift for many reasons,” said Kris. “First, it is my intention to honor my parents Marjorie and Thomas Otto and my brother

Mike Keebaugh and Andree Ward Keebaugh

John W. Moore


the CollegeGifts to

Read Debra’s story and learn more at: www.worldcampus.psu.edu/exceptional

Be exceptional™

There is no substitute for books in a child’s life; it’s the reason Debra Lampert-Rudman had 4,000 books donated to homeless families.

As community relations manager for Barnes & Noble, Debra creates opportunities to get books into the lives of children. Penn State’s online master of education degree program in children’s literature has given her the skills to develop more literacy programs for at-risk children. “I believe this degree will open doors and help me have an impact on the future of children’s literature and literacy,” she says.

Penn State is committed to affirmative action, equal opportunity, and the diversity of its workforce. U.Ed.OUT 11-0665/11-WC-310djm/jmf/sss

Debra Lampert-RudmanMaster of Education in Children’s Literature

Debra Lampert-RudmanMaster of Education in Children’s Literature

p e n n S t a t eo n l i n eErich Otto as a lasting

tribute to their personal educational pursuits, as well as to express appreciation to them for their support of my educational endeavors. Second, I see this gift as a way for me to give back to the Higher Education program, which supported me on

an assistantship during my studies, and whose faculty, staff, students, and alumni provided me with invaluable counsel, guidance, advice, and friendship as I navigated the program. Third, I am making this gift to say ‘thank you’ to the College of Education and to Dean David Monk for affording me my first professional opportunity after graduating from the program.”

Kris was the assistant director of development in the College’s Office of Development and Alumni Relations prior to becoming a gift planning officer in the University’s Office of Gift Planning. She uses her legal background and fundraising skills to advise Penn State alumni and friends on how to make tax-smart current and future gifts to the University, while simultaneously working with them to define, and ultimately fund, their philanthropic passions at the University.

“At this point in my decade-long career in university fundraising, I have reflected often on the philanthropic mindset and have witnessed the positive changes that result from charitable gifts both during life and at one’s passing,” she said.

Kris is the vice president of the Higher Education Program Alumni Council (HEPAC). She lives in State College.

harry J. Pappas and Jean Kissick Pappas scholarship

harry J. ’64 m.Ed. and Jean K. Pappas ’59 Edu, ’64 m.Ed. have pledged $100,000 to endow the Harry J. Pappas and Jean Kissick Pappas Scholarship in the College of Education. The endowment will support scholarships for undergraduate students

concentrating in secondary mathematics education.

Not only is the endowment a reflection of the couple’s appreciation for the benefits that mathematics educators have in the lives of students, but it also is a reflection of their appreciation for Penn State, where the two first met.

Jean said that a highlight of her undergraduate career was being president of the Penn State Mortar Board, a national honor society

Kris Otto

Harry and Jean Pappas

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that recognizes college seniors for distinguished ability and achievement in scholarship, leadership, and service. Harry said that a highlight of his undergraduate career at Edinboro University was being captain of the tennis team, for which he was elected to the Athletic Hall of Fame.

In his career, Harry, who also earned a master’s degree in mathematics at California State University in Northridge, taught mathematics at the middle school, high school, and college levels in Pennsylvania and California. He is currently a professor of mathematics at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif. Jean, now retired, taught business courses in New York and California. She then edited publications at the RAND Corporation and later became a teacher of the blind and a program specialist in special education for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified Schools.

sandy sapa Trustee scholarship in the college of Education

sandy sapa ’66 b.s. sEc Ed and her husband, glenn, are establishing the Sandy Sapa Trustee Scholarship in the College of Education.

“I was poor, didn’t have a lot of money, and paid my way through college; that’s why I went to the local Oogontz (now Abington) campus,” Sandy recalls. “I had to work summers and breaks from school to put myself through, and I feel very strongly that there are other people out there who could use some help.”

The Sapa Trustee Scholarship will

provide financial assistance to undergraduate students in the College of Education at University Park who have a demonstrated need for funds to meet their necessary college expenses. Sandy says, “I’ve been very blessed, and my husband and I believe very much in giving back.”

Sandy now lives in Wheaton, Ill. Very driven, she ended up being successful in the business world, at IBM in management and sales. “I taught one year, and I found out that it was not my forte,” she says.

As for the students who someday will receive the Sapa Trustee Scholarship, she offers this advice: “Get involved more in some of the other things that the University has to offer that help you to grow as an individual. Take advantage of all of the other activities, not necessarily the social ones, but some of the governing bodies and groups. People can learn a lot about themselves that way.”

John m. shemick graduate Fellowship in Workforce Education

nancy shemick ’77 hhd has made provisions in her estate to provide $250,000 to create the John M. Shemick Graduate Fellowship in Workforce Education. The gift will benefit graduate students in the Workforce Education and Development program, which promotes excellence, opportunity, and leadership among professionals in the workforce education and development field, including those employed in secondary or postsecondary education institutions,

social services industries, and employee groups and private businesses.

The endowment is named for Nancy’s father John, who was a faculty member in the Workforce Education and Development program. “I created the fund because my father believed in providing all types of educational opportunities to students, not just the four-year degree,” said Nancy. “Workforce education provides those people with a vocational interest the opportunity to get a formal education in secondary school. By supporting graduate students who are interested in teaching and in serving in administrative capacities, this fund will help make that system more robust.”

Nancy said that her father was a first-generation college graduate who, because of the kindness of others, was able to go to college. “I am returning this kindness through the donation in his name,” she said.

Nancy is a consultant in health care administration. She currently is serving in For the Future, a think tank that is that writes, publishes, makes documentaries, and lobbies with a goal of stimulating dialog about how to handle the transition to a stable, sustainable way of life. She also has served in the Peace Corps.

Nancy is a member of the Dean’s Development Council. She and her mother, Dorothy, have funded two other endowments in the College: the John M. Shemick Scholarship in Education and the John and Dorothy Shemick Family Endowment in Workforce Education and Development. She lives in Alameda, Calif.

dr. Kathleen l. spicher Endowed scholarshipKathleen l. spicher ’71 sEc Ed, ’76 m.a., ’84 d.Ed. of Lemont, Pa., recently pledged $50,000 to create the Dr. Kathleen L. Spicher Endowed Scholarship in the College.

“A lot of students don’t have sufficient funds to go to college and/or their parents can’t afford to send them. I

Nancy and her mother Dorothy Shemick

Glenn and Sandy Sapa


the CollegeGifts to

Dr. Kathleen Spicher

Blue and White forever…You’ve worked a lifetime to create financial security for yourself and your family. Now you can share that legacy with Penn State as well through your will or living trust. Whether you choose to direct your support to scholarships or research, faculty or program support,your bequest will be an enduring expression of your passions and values. Our Gift Planning team can work with you and your attor-ney to ensure that your intentions are fulfilled and that your estate receives the full tax benefits of your gift.

To learn more about these opportunities, please contact:

Michelle Houser Brian CaseyDirector of Development Gift Planning Officerand Alumni Relations Office of Gift PlanningCollege of Education 888-800-9170814-863-2146 [email protected] [email protected] www.giftplanning.psu.edu

would hope that this ‘extra incentive’ would help them to decide to go to college,” Kathleen says, knowing that achieving a college education takes hard work and dedication.

“This will be difficult for some to believe, but I never cut a class during my entire college career. I remember in my junior year that I had six classes for the spring semester, and some days I thought I couldn’t make it, but I did...still had my PJs on under my raincoat!” That is a drive she hopes the students who benefit from the Dr. Kathleen L. Spicher Endowed Scholarship will embrace.

As early as seventh grade, Kathleen knew that she wanted to be a history teacher. “I had a wonderful teacher,

Mrs. Susan Sassman, who inspired me. I wanted to be just like her,” she recalls. “I don’t know if I ever did, but I do know that I did ‘touch students,’ as they have thanked me for helping them. I didn’t get rich in the monetary sense, but I am rich with the knowledge that my students had at least one good day because of a teacher.”

sPsEa leadership awardAfter years of effort, a College of Education student organization has created an endowment to acknowledge exceptional leadership. Penn State’s chapter of the Student Pennsylvania State Education Association (SPSEA) has been setting aside a portion of its fundraising efforts for more than two decades, and now that association of pre-professional educators has launched the SPSEA Leadership Award.

Each year two students who have demonstrated exceptional involvement in leadership and service activities with SPSEA will receive the $500 SPSEA Leadership Award.

With more than 1,000 dues-paying members at Penn State, SPSEA students are very involved with volunteer services, professional development activities, and social get-togethers. Every year SPSEA donates to the College’s Summer College Opportunity Program in Education (S.C.O.P.E.) and helps with the College’s annual fundraiser, Cycle-Thon.

Throughout the academic year, SPSEA students also volunteer with several tutoring programs, including The Second Mile, Schlow Memorial Library Storytime, and Penn State Pals for at-risk elementary schools in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. And in addition to having four dancers participate in THON every year, SPSEA last year raised almost $20,000 for the kids.

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2011 Penn State Education

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