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Counseling psychology graduate student recognized for her research

By C. Brandon Chapman

WSU’s Association for Faculty Women has named counseling psychology graduate student Aubrie Schlegel with one of its two annual Founders Award.

Schlegel – who was nominated for the award by associate professor Lali McCubbin – will receive the award on Thu., April 9.4P7A0727_adj_smaller

“It was really awesome even just being nominated for the award by my advisor,” Schlegel said.

Schlegel’s work

Along with McCubbin, associate professor Pam Bettis, and clinical assistant professor Chad Gotch, Schlegel began working on a project for her thesis that is meant to promote knowledge and dispel myths about human trafficking.

“We wanted to help spread awareness and hopefully help show people just how much we as the public really can do to help,” she said.

That work included producing a 16-minute video that provided information on trafficking, dispelled myths and provided students with resources on how they could become involved in the fight against trafficking.

In award notification, professor Laura Griner Hill who chairs the AFW Graduate Student Awards Committee, wrote: “All of us on the review committee were heartened and inspired by the amazing work done by our very best graduate students, and proud that you will represent us in your developing career. I honor the journey that you have traveled to make a positive difference in the university, in your field, and in the world at large.”

Congrats to Aubrie.

Gay Selby: A Historic Career set to end soon

Gay Selby is the program coordinator at WSU Vancouver for the College of Education’s Educational Leadership program. She was recently featured in WSUV’s Spring 2015 CriSONY DSCmson and Gray Magazine.

The article is done Q&A style, and poses questions about Gay’s background at WSU, her teaching career, “firsts” she’s seen in her career, what brought her to Southwest Washington, as well as other highlights in her life.

Did you know in 1992 Gay received the state’s Superintendent of the Year award? Or that in 1995 she received a WSU Alumni Achievement Award. Those details, plus many more, are highlighted in the article.

Read the article here: http://education.wsu.edu/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Gay-Selby-article.pdf.

Thanks, Gay, for all your work on behalf of the university, the college, and the state.

 

Counseling Psychology doctoral student wins “Berkeley Spot Award”

Adisa Anderson only knows one speed: 100 percent.

Look high and low and you’ll find the counseling psychology doctoral student doing good somewhere.

He’s worked with WSU’s Office of Student Standards & Accountability, with the university’s Counseling & Testing Services, as well as with WSU’s Alcohol & Drug Counseling, Assessment & Prevention Services.Adisa Anderson

And so on and so forth.

Through it all, Adisa has taken an active role in making sure his outreach efforts are heavily-weighted toward diverse student communities, especially those that are African and African-American.

And now he’s winning awards. Adisa is currently in an internship with UC Berkeley, a university well-known for its various protests throughout the years. His role is to help campus climate leaders during these protests.

In response to the issues at play, Adisa planned a program for UC Berkeley’s Black Staff & Faculty Organization, to help with racial climate issues on campus, stress management, etc. About 50 black staff and faculty attended the program put on in December, including the university’s vice chancellor and associate vice chancellor. It was well received and there has since been talk about making this a reoccurring program.

Per the UC Berkeley website: “Spot Awards are designed to recognize special contributions, as they occur, for a specific project or task. Spot Awards are generally for a special contribution accomplished over a relatively short time period. A Spot Award lets employees know that someone has noticed their noteworthy contribution. At the same time, it recognizes and reinforces the behaviors and values that are important at UC Berkeley.”

Congrats to Adisa and keep up the good work.

College of Education Professor set to retire after publishing 10th edition of teaching textbook

By Trevor Havard – College of Education Intern

Perhaps the first thing that strikes you is the simplicity of the title: Becoming a Teacher. The straight-forward approach College of Education professor Forest Parkay uses in his textbook is a big reason why the textbook is now getting its tenth edition and is widely used in colleges and universities16871456110_334f68fc0d_z across the United States and world, including in languages like Mandarin and Indonesian.

The book’s milestone could be seen as Parkay’s swan song, with the educational leadership professor retiring at the end of the spring semester.

“I believe that teaching is the world’s most important profession, so it has been immensely satisfying to have spent a career helping to prepare teachers and school leaders,” said Parkay, who taught at the University of Florida for eight years and at Texas State University for five years before coming to WSU. “Since Becoming a Teacher is currently used by nearly 100 colleges and universities in the U.S., I know that I have reached students far beyond the three universities with which I have been affiliated.”

Becoming a Teacher dives head-first into the challenges future teachers face in today’s rapidly-changing, high-stakes educational environment. The tenth edition helps students make difficult decisions on their teaching future by fostering an awareness of the harsh realities of teaching in America in today’s society.

“The book provides students with the tools to answer the questions: Do I want to teach, and what does it take to succeed as a teacher today,” Parkay said.  17033019606_660483b5c3_z

The new edition also puts an added focus on teacher quality and provides students with a greater understanding of key areas such as teacher leadership, political activism, teacher diversity and cultural competence, and social justice and democracy. The book is also available as an eText for the first time and features dozens of interactive videos to help students.

(For more photos see: https://www.flickr.com/photos/118927064@N04/sets/72157651382477289/)

Playing host; creating memories

By C. Brandon Chapman

With the help of two WSU principal certification students, school districts in Battle Ground and Vancouver hosted principals from St. Thomas (U.S. Virgin Islands) and showed them how technology was being integrated into instruction in their respective districts.

The principals are recipients of a U.S. Department of Education grant. The grant is managed by the Northwest Council for Computer Education (NCCE). The NCCE’s annual conference was taking place in Portland, and, since they were so close to Washington state, a visit made sense.

“As part of the grant, the St. Thomas principals were here to observe, get ideas, and collaborate with local educators, as well as reap the benefits of the NCCE Conference,” said Glenn Malone, coordinator for the principal and program administrator certifications. “We wanted them to tour local schools to see how we were doing it here.”

The tour included a trip to the WSU Vancouver campus.

In order to make sure the visit went off without a hitch, Malone enlisted the help of two of the College of Education’s principal certification and Master of Education candidates helped organize the visits: April Vonderharr from Battle Ground, and Solina Journey from Vancouver.

“Kudos to April & Solina for setting up this fantastic day of sharing and learning,” Malone said. “It was very succesful for all.”

Here are two Battle Ground School District write-ups:

http://us3.campaign-archive2.com/?u=470079fac988677965e6b997d&id=cfed1e860c&e=80384cc5b2

http://www.battlegroundps.org/blog/schooladministratorstakebgpstechstrategybacktocaribbean

College of Education Graduate Assistant wins 2015 Wiley Research Exposition

By Trevor Havard – College of Education Intern

Doctoral candidate Andy Scheef won a $1,000 scholarship for his research presentation in WSU’s 2015 Wiley Research Exposition.4P7A6149cropped

Scheef is in the College of Education’s special education program.

The Wiley Research Expo is held every spring and gives graduate and professional students the opportunity to showcase their research through either oral or poster presentations, which are then judged by WSU alumni.

This year Scheef took first place in the International Research category for his oral presentation on his research endeavors in Singapore.

Scheef collected interview data last year in Singapore about the world-wide problem of the underemployment of people with disabilities, which Singapore has addressed in recent years by developing school programs to increase opportunities for youth with disabilities.

Scheef explained this problem in his presentation, along with data describing how Singapore schools develop and support relationships with businesses that provide these job training experiences for students.

“Any opportunity to share information is incredibly valuable and the potential to win an award through the process is an added bonus,” Scheef said. “The other presentations in my group were quite strong and I felt lucky to have received the 1st place award.”

Ph.D. student wins WSU Woman of Distinction Award

By Breck Smith – College of Education intern

Washington State University President Elson Floyd presented doctoral student Lynn Becerra with the annual Graduate Woman of Distinction Award on March 24, 2015.

Becerra is currently a doctoral student in the College of Education’s Cultural Studies and Social Thought in Education program.Bree Berg interview stills

Becerra was nominated for this award by, Dr. Linda Heidenreich Zuñiga (Department of Critical Culture, Gender, and Race Studies) and Becerra’s fellow student Veronica Sandoval. These two women highlighted Becerra as someone who goes the extra mile in order to improve herself and others around her, regarding education.  Specifically, Becerra’s primary focus has been students who do not receive the justified representation, when achieving both bachelor and doctoral degrees. In addition to her course load, she has managed to create time to provide lectures and classroom visits, presenting information about how to translate collegiate degrees into future success. Her passion and the success regarding younger generations have made her a role model for first-generation college students, in addition to being a role model for female students. Being the primary organizer for Latino Education and Advocacy Day, she exemplified this drive to go above and beyond in helping underrepresented students become collegiate scholars.

Her exceptional leadership ability has caused a powerful social change and has inspired students to become successfully driven individuals. Within the Washington State University community she has found time to be an inspired leader for those looking to make a difference and to realize their maximum potential as people. These actions have caused students to believe that anything is possible when there is a goal and 100 percent effort towards a cause. Her consistent volunteering efforts demonstrate the type of dedication it takes to make a significant change on a relatively difficult landscape. Being selfless and assertive towards a goal, which benefits the next generation are qualities that exemplify this type of award.

Overall Becerra’s ability to benefit the people around her and be a positive role model to younger generations is why she was nominated. The countless hours of balancing her school work and volunteering in regards to representing all students throughout the collegiate landscape is something to be admired. The award represents the gratitude and admiration of all the hard work that Becerra has demonstrated over her time at WSU. She has molded her community into a more enjoyable, productive, and justified place where education will be able to thrive into the future for all generations and people to come.

 

Successful trip to Legislature

Update by Gay Selby
Feb. 16, 2015

We had a great day at the Legislature today — nearly 40 students from Puyallup and Vancouver!  capitol

We had an informative tour of the Legislative Building.

We had a super catered lunch in the Senate Rules Room in the Lt. Governor’s area with guests Marcie Maxwell, Gene Sharratt, and Jerry Bender (AWSP Lobbyist). We also had a special guest in Lt. Governor Brad Owens.

We attended an interesting Senate Early Learning, K-12, Higher Education Committee policy hearing with a number of bills directly related to the work our students do in their districts.  Senator Rivers recognized our students which was a perfect way to top off the day — a warm, spring-like day with the daffodils coming into bloom.

Taking the Emerald City by storm

By Trevor Havard
WSU Sport Management Club

About 30 students from the WSU Sport Management Club traveled to Seattle for its fall semester trip Sept. 27-28 to visit Safeco Field and see the Seattle Mariners face off against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The trip included an exclusive pregame tour of Safeco Field, including the chance to see executive offices, press boxes, luxury suits, and more.

The club members also held a thorough Q&A session with the Seattle Mariner’s director of ticket sales where they received valuable advice and got an inside look at what working in professional sports is like. The students asked a ton of questions and many said the experience was great.

At the game, the students sat in Safeco Field’s Terrace Club thanks to a great group deal given to the club. The game itself was a nail-biter, as the Seattle Mariners won in extra innings with the season hanging in the balance.

The trip was such a success that many of the students went back to Safeco Field the next day and watched the Mariner’s final game of the season before returning to Pullman. Great job WSU Sport Management Club and thank you for representing WSU Sport Management so well.

Here are some photos from Safeco Field:

3 1 4 2

Retrospective: EdM collaboration

There are seven outstanding Master of Education (EdM) students doing their course work in Puyallup. For four of them, it wouldn’t truly be summer without a road trip.

Students from Puyallup's EdM program recently joined up with those from Vancouver.
Students from Puyallup’s EdM program recently joined up with those from Vancouver.

Those four recently traveled south, rented a cabin at Battle Ground Lake State Park, visited WSU’s Vancouver campus, and meet the instructors and other students face to face.

It was a good experience for all involved.

The Ed.M. degree program is designed for students with a bachelor’s degree who have an interest in deepening their knowledge in a specific content area (inside or outside the College of Education), as well as educational research in curriculum and instruction.

More information on all of the college’s graduate programs can be found on the Office of Graduate Education webpage.

 

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