Summer 2014 Banner

BANNER

Celebrating the

Professional Journey SUMMER

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letter from the dean It has been such an honor to serve Seattle University and the College of Education’s students, alumni, faculty, staff, donors, administration and community partners over this past inaugural year. I have been inspired and energized by what I have learned and through our work to develop a collective vision for the future! This past year College faculty and staff engaged in strategic planning to focus our energy and actions on the coming years.

This work was grounded firmly in SU’s mission of educating the whole person, professional formation, and empowering leaders for a just and humane world.

Throughout, they held fast our core values of care, academic excellence, diversity, faith, justice and leadership. Based on these foundations, the strategic planning process generated a direction illuminating a sense of growth, innovation, responsiveness and connection.

Our new goals center on enhancing existing programs and building new programs, increasing our focus and integration of global and international competencies and experiences, deepening our community engagement, and intensifying our research and scholarship. Programmatically, we aim to enhance access to and responsiveness of our existing, quality certification, endorsement, master’s and doctoral offerings. This includes increasing our online and hybrid courses through a systematic framework that endorses and integrates Ignation pedagogy. To extend student engagement with the world, faculty are developing and strengthening opportunities for greater community-based learning and global education through deepened and expanded partnerships, attention to intercultural competencies, and auxiliary learning experiences, locally and abroad. Faculty are developing new courses to increase access for a growing group of prospective students whose needs go beyond graduate-only options, as well as for alumni who desire additional graduate credentials and advanced degrees. This work builds on and expands resources to ensure high quality community-engaged teaching, research and service opportunities for students and faculty. It hinges on continued collaboration with the Center for Service and Community Engagement, the Seattle University Youth Initiative, Middle College High School and the multitude of our community partners. Strengthening and increasing our research and scholarly activities affords faculty and students the opportunity to engage in critical, reflective inquiry, providing the basis of teaching excellence, knowledge generation and advancing solutions to enduring problems of practice.

As I begin my second year at Seattle University, I am invigorated by the aspirations defined through our strategic planning process. We look forward to finalizing our goals this year and continuing to make real progress toward fulfilling a mission for a changing world..

Dean Deanna Iceman Sands, EdD A former professor and Associate Dean of Research and Professional Learning at the University of Colorado Denver’s School of Education and Human Development, College of Education Dean Deanna Iceman Sands came to Seattle University in summer 2013. She brings to SU a distinguished career as a teacher, scholar and administrative leader dedicated to diversity and inclusive education. As Associate Dean since 2006, Sands expanded CU Denver’s School of Education and Human Development’s collaborative research with community partners, enhanced faculty mentorship initiatives, forged ongoing partnerships with school districts, and led the school’s doctoral faculty through the development of a new Doctorate of Education program in Leadership for Educational Equity. In 2011 she served as interim dean of the School of Education and Human Development. Sands began her career in Alabama teaching students with sensory and other concomitant disabilities prior to moving to Colorado, where she taught special education at the University of Northern Colorado before joining the faculty at CU Denver in 1987. She received her EdD with a focus on special education research and administration from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, and both her master’s degree in special education and her bachelor’s degree in language from the University of Michigan.

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In This Issue

12 This issue of the

Banner celebrates the professional journey: the unique path taken by each of us, with its twists and turns, intentions and happenstances, that lead to where we are, who we are, and what we want to do next. The topic is of particular interest to Boeing-William M. Allen Endowed Chair & Distinguished Professor Bob Conyne, who spent a year at the College of Education as scholar-in-residence. At a crossroads in their professional journeys are two retirees: Associate Dean Van Hutton, who reminisces on more than 50 years in Jesuit education, and Professor Emerita Nina Valerio, who reflects on 20 years of teaching multicultural education at Seattle University.

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Alumnus David M. Johnson,’87 EdD, received Seattle University’s Alumni Award for Professional Achievement this spring. CEO of one of the state’s largest mental health organizations, Johnson describes his professional journey and how it was enhanced through his doctoral degree in Educational Leadership.

For many graduating students, promising careers are just beginning. Student Development Administration program graduates Michal “MJ” Jones and Cobretti Williams, winners of Seattle University’s 2014 Spirit of Community Award, explain how their SU education and commitment to social justice guide their lives and their work.

College News................ 4

Faculty and Staff News... 16

Alumni Notes................. 19

Student News..................... 20

In keeping with the University’s commitment to sustainability, this issue of the Banner is primarily an online publication with a very limited number of print copies available upon request. The Banner is published twice each year, at the beginning of summer and winter quarters. Please contact us at education@seattleu.edu with your news, photos, feature ideas, questions and suggestions.

Banner magazine is published twice yearly by Seattle University College of Education 901 12th Avenue, P.O. Box 222000, Seattle, WA 98122-1090 www.seattleu.edu/education I education@seattleu.edu Editor Karen Smaalders Dean Deanna Iceman Sands Contributors Maxwell Balmain, Peggy Fine, Casey Hicks, Gordon Inouye, Chris Joseph Kalinko On the Cover David M. Johnson, ’87 EdD Cover Photo By Chris Joseph Kalinko

Deadlines for submission are May 15 and October 15 Seattle University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, political ideology or status as a Vietnam-era or special disabled veteran in the administration of any of its education policies, admission policies, scholarship and loan programs, athletics, and other school-administered policies and programs, or in its employment related policies and practices. In addition, the University does not discriminate on the basis of genetic information in its employment related policies and practices, including coverage under its health benefits program. All University policies, practices and procedures are administered in a manner consistent with Seattle University’s Catholic and Jesuit identity and

character. Inquiries relating to these policies may be referred to the University’s Director of Professional and Organizational Development and Equal Opportunity Officer at (206) 398-4627.

Consistent with the requirements of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and its implementing regulations, Seattle University has designated three individuals responsible for coordinating the University’s Title IX compliance. Students or employees with concerns or complaints about discrimination on the basis of sex in employment or an education program or activity may contact the following Title IX coordinator or Title IX contact person: Helaina Sorey, Director of Professional and Organizational Development and Equal Opportunity Officer, Title IX Coordinator, Human Resources Department, Rianna Building, (206) 398-4627 or soreyh@seattleu.edu; Michele Murray, PhD, Vice President for Student Development Title IX, Student Center 140B, (206) 296-6066 or mmurray@ seattleu.edu. Individuals may also contact the Office for Civil Rights www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr of the U.S. Department of Education.

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COLLEGE NEWS

OPENING A DOOR TO NEW POSSIBILITIES In late 2012, Loyola Hall opened its doors to Middle College High School (MCHS), an alternative high school operated by Seattle Public Schools in partnership with Seattle University. Highlighting the high school’s first full academic year on campus are the many collaborations taking place between MCHS and university faculty, staff and students, reports Middle College Partnership Director Charisse Cowan Pitre, associate professor in the College of Education’s Master in Teaching program.

An example of this is the cross-campus partnership between the Student Development Administration program and the Center for Service & Community Engagement, which provide college access support to MCHS students by helping them to develop goals and an action plan for their lives after graduation.

To engage MCHS students in the classroom, faculty and students from the Master’s in Teaching program and Sullivan Law School created and taught a variety of courses on such topics as The Civil Rights Movement, Financial Literacy and Street Law, Youth Participatory Action Research, and Cognition Training and Attention Development.

Some students are finding the experience opens the door to a brighter future: “Middle College High School has taught me to have confidence in myself to go out and succeed in life,” says Noe Raimirez-Toefilo, a 12th grade MCHS student. On June 12, 22 MCHS students received another important key to future success: their high school diplomas.

Working Together to Redesign the EdD Seattle University College of Education recently joined the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED), a Consortium of more than 80 colleges and schools of education working together to redesign all aspects of the professional practice doctorate in education known as the EdD. CPED’s mission is to improve the efficacy and reliability of the professional doctorate in education so that it is the degree of choice for preparing the next generation of educators and leaders. Member institutions commit their resources to work together and critically examine all aspects of their doctorate in education programs through

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dialog, experimentation, critical feedback and evaluation.

Universities must apply and be admitted into the Carnegie Project. Key to project success is the willingness of higher education members to share work and to change and improve their doctoral programs.

The College of Education embarked on that process five years ago, restructuring its Educational Leadership (EDLR) program and changing its areas of concentration to better align with specific professional areas such as superintendent, principal, program administrator, and adult, post-secondary and higher education. New collaborations with other colleges are expanding EDLR’s specialty areas to the fields of theology, nonprofit administration and nursing leadership.

Both CPED and the College of Education will benefit from this collaboration, said Tana Hasart, EDLR consultant and visiting professor. “We can contribute to CPED’s work through our existing EDLR program evaluation and implementation of best practices, and we will be able to take advantage of all the research and information CPED has collected,” Hasart said.

COLLEGE NEWS

SHARING RESEARCH TO IMPROVE OUTCOMES The search for better ways to meet the needs of students with disabilities brought several groups of international visitors to Seattle University to talk about research and teaching strategies in special education.

College of Education Professor Doug Cheney, The SAPR-PBIS Manual: A Team-based Approach to Implementing Effective Schoolwide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (Brookes Publishing, June 2012) outlines a method for school teams to work together to develop strategies for supporting student academic and social success.

The Bulgarian educators work for the Centre for Inclusive Education (CIE), which shares best practices and case studies with teachers in state and private Bulgarian schools who work with children with learning disabilities. They contacted Cheney and Walker to learn more about the methodology and strategies outlined in the manual to explore ways that they might use the tool and process to support their work in schools in Bulgaria. The group also visited schools in the Seattle area to see how teachers implement inclusive and differentiation approaches in their classrooms.

Addressing Special Needs In May, educators and nonprofit leaders from Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen met with Special Education Professor Cinda Johnson to share information on current projects and explore future partnerships.

Husham Hlail, whose work with Iraqi orphans is featured in a 2011 Iraqi documentary, “In My Mother’s Arms,” described how encouraging young orphans traumatized by war to find their artistic talents helped them “to be innovative in all fields of life.” Zaito Albarzangi, a longtime advocate for children’s rights in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region who has written extensively on violence against children and the phenomenon of child beggars, talked about the challenges of setting up a dedicated emergency helpline for children to report abuse. He found it was critical to teach children to advocate for themselves in the face of disapproving parents, religious leaders and school officials.

The educators’ lively conversation revealed that while children’s needs may vary from country to country, they universally need the support of an entire community in order to succeed. In an ideal world, “you have to have parents who are advocating for children, professionals with skills and heart for the work, a government that supports programs, and children who become advocates themselves,” acknowledged Johnson. “They are the ones who will change their world.”

Supporting Student Success In April, four Bulgarian educators interested in inclusive education for students with learning challenges visited Seattle to learn more about a team assessment tool and guidebook for positive behavior interventions. Written by MIT Associate Professor Bridget Walker and University of Washington

Expanding Inclusive Education In March, a delegation of five experts from Georgia’s Ministry of Education and Science sought out the Center for Change in Transition Services (CCTS), a grant-funded project at the College of Education designed to improve post-school outcomes for Washington state students with disabilities.

CCTS Principal Investigator Cinda Johnson, and Director Sue Ann Bube, a doctoral student in the Educational Leadership program, hosted the international visitors, who hope to improve disability services back home.

In Georgia, where special education is still in its infancy, a policy for inclusive education (allowing students with disabilities to attend public schools) began only five years ago.

Today, students with disabilities in Georgia must attend school between the ages of six and 18. But there is still much work to be done, explained Ekaterine Lejava, deputy head of the National Curriculum Department at the Ministry of Education and Science.

“Transition programs (between high school and college) don’t exist in our country,” Lejava said. By learning from educators abroad who are leaders in special education, Georgia educators hope to shape new programs, policies and strategies that address the needs of special education students in K-12 and beyond.

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COLLEGE NEWS

LAUNCHING PROGRAMS ONLINE More of the College of Education’s degree programs and certificates are going online as part of a Seattle University initiative to expand online education.

Adult Education and Training (AEDT) Assistant Professor Kevin Roessger was one of the first SU faculty to work with Seattle University’s Continuing, Online and Professional Education (COPE) to develop a completely online degree program.

Although the online Adult Education and Training degree officially begins in January 2015, Roessger has already begun teaching courses online in order to give adult learners the flexibility to earn a master’s degree while managing such competing demands as full-time employment, children, or aging parents.

The online program offers some courses that can be taken any time of day from anywhere with an Internet connection. Other courses are virtual, synchronous evening sessions that allow learners to attend via web conferencing, thus eliminating parking fees and sizable commutes. Together, these courses provide a flexible and accessible way for learners to advance their career as adult learning professionals.

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Ten of the College’s 11 graduate programs are designed for working professionals, a model that acknowledges that 84 percent of the students engaged in higher education are typically working adults. By working with COPE through a six-month course design program, College faculty learn not only about technology and course delivery, but also how to incorporate the transformative Jesuit education into the online process, which differentiates SU’s approach to online education.

In the coming year, more degree programs will be offering classes online or in a hybrid format that combines in-class and online instruction. This fall, the College of Education will offer its popular English Language Learners (ELL) Endorsement Academy online. The 24-credit academy will consist of nine courses that enable teachers to apply their learning in the classroom immediately and adjust their techniques as the academy progresses. Online endorsements in math and biology will be added to the College’s online offerings in 2015, as well as a new combined endorsement in Special Education and Literacy for Diverse Learners.

Also launching in September is a new Post-Baccalaureate Online Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) aimed at pre- and in-service English language instructors locally, nationally, and internationally who want to explore the field, serve as entry-level tutors, or teach abroad. Students will need two quarters to complete the four 3-credit courses for a total of 12 post-baccalaureate credits. Classes meet online twice per week in the evenings, and require additional asynchronous work as well.

COLLEGE NEWS

NEW COUNSELING SCHOLARSHIP This fall, thanks to COE donors, the first Counseling Program Scholarship will be awarded to a deserving student.

Created to honor five retiring counseling faculty members during the College of Education’s 75th Anniversary year, the Counseling Program Scholarship was established in 2010 with a bequest gift from the estate of Amy Saguro. Saguro was an undergraduate alumna from the class of 1950 and a graduate of the counseling program from the class of 1968.

After the bequest gift created a solid foundation for the scholarship, a group of counseling alumni further contributed to the fund in order to endow it and recognize retiring counseling faculty members who had made a significant contribution to the program, including Marylou Wyse, Josef Afanador, Hutch Haney, Michael O’Conner and Yvonne Owen. The Counseling Program Scholarship supports fulltime graduate students in the College’s Counseling Program who demonstrate leadership, participation in professional organizations, and membership in a historically marginalized group.

ADVISORY COUNCIL FOCUSED ON FUTURE Members of the College of Education Advisory Council, who serve as the dean’s key community advisors regarding College programs and planning, include Maureen Benoliel, Bill and Margie Borgert, Suzie Burke, Chris Clements, Marlene Fuson, Patt Riffle, Edmund W. Robinson, Judy Rogers, Melore Nielsen and Stacie Craves.

The Council fosters closer ties between the College of Education, alumni, community and business partners. Each volunteer member brings unique educational expertise, professional experience, community connections, and loyal commitment to our College. This volunteer leadership team offers strategic advice to the dean with a focus on building awareness, maintaining and improving quality education, and building and enriching resources for the College.

In the past year, the Council has focused on learning more about the successes and challenges of each of the College’s 11 degree programs. They are now prepared to review the strategic plan and develop community action plans to create awareness and support. Each member is committed to one of four working groups — educational programming, development/campaign, events and alumni engagement — that execute the strategic plan within the community.

JUST SUSTAINABILITY CONFERENCE Just Sustainability: Hope for the Commons, a conference on environmental justice and sustainability, will take place at SU August 7-9, 2014. Hosted by the Seattle University Center for Environmental Justice and Sustainability, Just Sustainability: Hope for the Commons will feature Vandana Shiva, cofounder of Navdanya.org, Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350. org, and Denis Hayes, co-founder of Earth Day. The College of Education Professional Learning office provides educators the opportunity earn up to 22 Washington state clock hours or two SU post-baccalaureate credits for this three-day conference. To learn more, visit: www.seattleu.edu/cejs/2014-Conference.

As he conducts a tour of the Navos’ administrative offices in West Seattle, Johnson talks about the approach that positions his innovative organization and guides his professional practice as a mental health clinician. Johnson firmly believes in the importance of respecting and working with people to recognize and then build upon their strengths.

“My goal is helping people feel empowered and being respectful and caring of people with multiple challenges, who often live in poverty,” he says. It is no coincidence that he found the values inherent in the Jesuit education at Seattle University “exactly the values we need to be using in this world.”

David M. Johnson

Seeing Possibility

PHOTO BY CHRIS JOSEPH KALINKO

Johnson’s professional journey began as a graduate of art history who taught elementary school in Vermont. He pursued a master’s degree in school counseling, and began working in community counseling when he was 27. A few years later as a director of a mental health clinic, he wanted to address the lack of community pervasive in a system that provided solutions through a naïve business or charity model. At 34, he entered the College’s Educational Leadership doctoral program, in a degree program that built upon his background in counseling and education.

Everywhere A leader and a visionary who is often consulted in the development of public and private health care policy, alumnus David M. Johnson, ‘87 EdD, received Seattle University’s 2014 Alumni Award for Professional Achievement this spring.

The recognition is just his most recent award: last year, he won a “Visionary Leadership Award” from the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare and he was the recipient of the 2013 “Evergreen Award” from Washington Nonprofits for his outstanding innovation and agility in the service of his community.

For the past 15 years, Johnson has served as CEO of Navos, one of the state’s largest community health centers with a $54 million operating budget and a staff of more than 640. Navos offers a full spectrum of mental health services to low-income children and adults with serious and persistent mental illness.

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It was through the EDLR program that Johnson was introduced to the model of “servant leadership,” which focuses primarily on the growth and well-being of people and the communities to which they belong, helping him become “a leader who sets the stage for the staff to be brilliant and for the patient to be empowered.”

Faced with patients with severe psychosis and psychiatric problems, Johnson knew he needed a new and different approach. And while innovation takes initiative, Johnson already had a history of exploring what’s going on in the fringes to inform what will happen in the future. Johnson recalled his undergraduate thesis that explored the transition from the abstract expressionism of Jackson Pollock to the pop art of Andy Warhol entitled “The responsibility of the avant-garde” and began to ponder how he should lead and heal an organization.

Through SU’s educational leadership program, Johnson says he learned “to harness the best parts of myself.”

He entered Seattle University’s doctoral program feeling bereft, at a time when his professional life was not fulfilling and he had suffered personal losses as well. What he found was a program that was value-centered, respectful and empowering, and ultimately transformative. Without SU, “I would not have become the leader I am today,” says Johnson.

“What I learned is that when we dream big, and when we decide that the pathway to get there is through the strengths we do have – that is when big things happen.”

COE Dean Emeritus John Morford, who was EDLR’s senior professor and first chair from 1977 through 1991, remembers David Johnson as a student: “It was always clear that David intended to make major improvements in mental health services in our area,” Morford said.

After receiving his doctoral degree, Johnson began to work with a renewed enthusiasm. “Without hesitation, I can say that every day I use what I learned in my doctoral program,” he says. “It made the difference between a good career and a remarkable career.” He opened a private practice, became CEO of a small mental health center, consulted in organizational development, and taught counseling and served on the Advisory Board for Mental Health at Seattle University. He viewed all his activities as one wonderful job: “to be a catalyst; to help others be clear about what’s true, to imagine what they want and to help them get there.”

In an industry that is just 50 years old, Johnson has spent the past four decades adapting and changing. “Change is a good disruption,” that means “something cool is happening,” he says, a philosophy that prompts him to embrace innovation ahead of the curve. Johnson became an early adapter of the idea of genetic predisposition for mental illness, realizing that one in five children have a diagnosable mental illness and one in four adults experience a mental health disorder in a given year. Navos was also a leader in trauma-informed care that understands and recognizes the trauma experienced in the lives of patients; this awareness leads to changes for an environment more conducive to recovery. “We looked at everything we did,” said Johnson, from the way they approached therapy to replacing the locked doors and beds with restraints with a “comfort room” that features a rocking chair and therapeutic oils.

Johnson’s passion for partnering with the strengths of those who are challenged and a mind that “sees possibility everywhere” are clearly evident in the programs he has developed:

A Peer Support Specialist Training Program prepares individuals with mental illness for careers in counseling, helping those with mental illness to use their experience to help others.

Attending the two graduations for the peer support specialists are Johnson’s “two favorite days of the year” because the graduates have learned to love and appreciate themselves.

Navos embraces this “journey to life wellness,” focusing on a recovery philosophy that helps clients map goals for wellness with the aim of “living a life bigger than their disease.”

Working with a team composed of peer support specialists, a mental health professional and a “home team” support group, clients map out goals for wellness in seven areas. The ultimate aim is living a life that is about all sorts of things beyond a diagnosis and medication regimen.

In addition to its two residential treatment programs and two children’s centers, Navos also provides staff to schools and nursing homes, and hosts a consortium of more than 20 other mental health and social service organizations who contract for administrative service and clinical oversight.

SU counseling and nursing students gain experience at Navos which hosts about 40 interns each year. He especially appreciates those from SU, says Johnson, because “they come with the best skills.”

Walking through the West Seattle Campus, Johnson greets some of the residents who live in a few of the 280 affordable housing units that Navos owns or manages in Seattle — another way to help serve the low-income mentally ill who might otherwise be homeless. There will be more cottages on Lake Burien, close to Navos’ Mental Health and Wellness Center. Johnson and his team took great care to choose landscaping that will promote the feeling of a sanctuary.

“It’s a place of healing,” he says of the cottages, which are filled with residents whose lives inspire him to do even more. “Everyone is doing the best they can with what they have,” he says. “Ultimately, the story of every person’s life is heroic.”

The link between early mortality and the lack of access to primary care among individuals with serious mental illness prompted Navos to be one of the first in the nation to develop a comprehensive “healthcare home” where patients can receive primary care in addition to mental health treatment.

An Infant Mental Health program serves children and families struggling to heal from mental illness, violence, addiction, abuse and poverty.

PHOTO BY GORDON INOUYE

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SHARING THE SPIRIT OF “Service is important to me because it amplifies the voice of community and inspires the heart to advocate for the common good of all people.” – Cobretti Williams

ADVOCATING FOR THE COMMON GOOD For Cobretti Williams, service isn’t just a part of a curriculum at Seattle University.

Service inspires his studies, directs his leadership activities, and connects him to the community he serves. “Service is important to me because it amplifies the voice of community and inspires the heart to advocate for the common good of all people,” he says.

Williams, 23, who will be leaving in July to work at Boston University, began his advocacy and service activities early on as a finance major at Florida State University working with the Gates Millennium Foundation and the Center for Leadership and Social Change. Arriving for a summer internship with Seattle University Youth Initiative (SUYI), the energetic youth discovered the SDA program and Seattle U were “exactly what I wanted.”

In activities on campus and in the community, Williams focused on working with underrepresented communities.

In the community, he volunteered with the Seattle Young People’s Project, Lifelong Aids Alliance and LGBTQ Allyship.

On campus, he served as a graduate assistant for integrity formation, supporting the SU I-board whose members work to promote dialogue on ethics, citizenship and student accountability. He continued his work with SUYI, helping to create a workshop on multicultural competence for undergraduate students. He also led efforts to design a reflective and interactive workshop for Middle College High School students to encourage them to continue to maintain their higher education goals in the face of adversity.

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To help build community for underrepresented students, Williams played a leadership role in implementing intergroup dialogues for the SDA program, an effort that “dramatically improved peer and intergroup relations in the program,” SDA Associate Professor Erica Yamamura said. He also worked with the Office of Multicultural Affairs and Residential Life to develop curriculum and activities to support identity development.

Williams took his research and service to conferences, sharing research and best practice on improving the pipeline for racial/ethnic minorities, students with disabilities, and LGBTQIA students at NASPA (Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education) regional, national and multicultural conferences. He is finishing a manuscript to share his findings with a practitioner audience to create more inclusive collegiate environments for LGBTQ students regardless of how they express their gender.

Williams pauses in his rapid-fire recitation of his past two years’ work to reflect a moment on how his education at SU changed his approach. Rather than focus on an end point, Williams says he now realizes social justice and learning are lifelong processes in his life’s journey. “I’m more vulnerable with others,” he says, and that honesty in turn encourages the students he works with to be their best, authentic selves.

“What I have learned through service is that community is central to the education, equity and power of the people,” says Williams.

COMMUNITY

Classmates Cobretti Williams and Michal “MJ” Jones, June graduates of the Student Development Administration (SDA) program, each received the 2014 Spirit of Community Graduate Student Award bestowed by Seattle University’s Center for Service and Community Engagement (CSCE).

The university-wide award recognizes a student or students who demonstrates service to the community with dedication, integrity, humility, thoughtful leadership, compassion and soul, and a deep understanding of social justice.

INTENTIONALLY PURSUING SOCIAL JUSTICE With a direct gaze, an open heart, and a commitment to social justice, Michal “MJ” Jones connects with individuals and groups in a community that extends from students, staff and faculty at Seattle University to homeless LGBT teens in Seattle.

Jones’ deep understanding of social justice, oppression, and privilege helps guide their advocacy efforts and the way in which they engage with others. “This is one of my core values: how I interact,” Jones explains.* After a journey that took the Michigan native to Berkeley, California for high school and Sonoma State University for an undergraduate degree, Jones went in search of a graduate program in student affairs. Once on the SU campus, Jones realized they had found the right place to pursue their studies. One of Jones’ top values, social justice, closely aligned with SU’s mission. But more importantly, Jones saw the university’s values reflected in the work and those who worked here. “There were folks of color and LGBT in leadership positions and opportunities for mentorship that I did not see elsewhere,” said Jones. The many opportunities for service in the Seattle community clinched their decision to enroll at SU. During their two years here, Jones has provided staff training and student programming on social justice, and helped develop diversity programs to enhance the multicultural

competence of professional staff. Through an internship with University of California, Santa Cruz, they developed student leadership programs in environmental sustainability, social justice, and multicultural leadership, as well as a series of social justice workshops focused on identity development, examination of stereotypes and socialization, and allyship. They also served as an intergroup dialogue facilitator to promote conversations on queer and trans identity, navigating professional identity and intersectionality for SDA graduate students.

Within the Seattle community, Jones served as a Seattle Parks and Recreation Leader for LGBT teen programs creating awareness of LGBT teen needs and assets, advising and supporting youth leadership of local gay-straight alliances, and facilitating programming designed to serve LGBT homeless youth and queer youth of color. They also coordinated volunteer outreach efforts and served on the board of directors for ThreeWings/Queer Youth Space, a youth-led, nonprofit organization providing services to queer and trans youth in the Seattle area.

Jones, 23, credits SU for deepening their values and teaching integrated reflection that reminds their “how am I in relationship to myself, and how am in relationship to others. It makes me a very intentional person,” Jones states.

Jones would like to stay in Seattle working in higher education or a nonprofit working with youth, but they would also like to continue writing, singing, and playing cello and guitar. “I am interested in a whole host of things and I can do them all in my lifetime,” says Jones. * At MJ’s request, gender neutral pronouns are used in this article.

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CELEBRATING THE PROFESSIONAL JOURNEYS OF Associate Dean Van Hutton Professor Emerita Nina Valerio
 Boeing-William M. Allen Endowed Chair & Distinguished Professor Bob Conyne

Professors Nina Valerio and Laurie Stevahn and students in their 2012 education abroad course to Guanajuato, Mexico hold hands to represent unity and solidarity in the name of justice education and diversity.

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Fulfilling the Jesuit Mission Even after all this time The Sun never says to the Earth, “You owe me.”

Look what happens with A love like that, It lights the whole Sky. – From The Gift by Hafiz, translated by D. Ladinsky Associate Dean Van Hutton began his career path as an educator and a Jesuit. More than 50 years later, he is retiring from his lifelong career at Jesuit institutions, steadfast in his passion for transformative Jesuit education.

Responsible for overseeing all academic affairs for the college, the very organized Hutton also teaches classes and takes time to mentor new staff, faculty and deans.

“Connecting with you,” he said recently to a roomful of colleagues, “is the best part of the job.”

Upon graduating from a Jesuit high school, Hutton was just 17 and the youngest in his class when he entered St. Francis Xavier’s Novitiate in Oregon in 1961; among his classmates was a young man named Stephen Sundborg, who was just a few months older.

“In our very bright group of young Jesuits, we all knew that Van Hutton was the brightest among us,” SU President Sundborg, S.J., wrote in a letter to acknowledge Hutton’s retirement. “I’ve always thought of Van as a ‘futurist’ person with a very rich imagination who is enthusiastic about what the future can be and can even begin to describe it.”

Pat Howell, S.J., who credits Hutton for helping the College get “remarkable reviews inside and outside of the university.”

Soon after his arrival, Hutton realized that while he loved his work, he needed to leave the order after 30 years. “It didn’t give me life anymore,” he explains, simply. But his passion for his work never wavered and he was rehired immediately into the Seattle University community. As associate dean and assistant professor he directs all academic operations and accreditation reviews, and teaches a variety of courses in educational administration, educational leadership, school law and finance, and quantitative and qualitative research.

When he married Mary, a clinical psychologist, he started on a new personal journey. The couple plans travel more in the years ahead. “When you are a Jesuit you’re in a community life and when you are married, it’s a smaller community,” says Hutton.

After retirement, Hutton will come back to teach an occasional class, but he looks forward to leisurely mornings.

Yet Seattle University has given him “good reasons to get up in the morning,” says Hutton. “We have made so much difference in so many lives.”

At the University’s recent Appreciation Celebration for Staff and Faculty, Hutton read his favorite poem from The Gift by Hafiz, translated by D. Ladinsky. After presenting the book of poetry to Father Sundborg, S.J., Hutton shared a few thoughts about his career.

“Being at Seattle University has been an experience of being bathed in light,” he said. “We share what we have and we are all the very, very better for it.”

A true Renaissance scholar, Hutton studied philosophy, Latin, Greek and other humanities at Gonzaga University, received his Masters in Divinity from the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, and obtained a PhD from Stanford University. He taught English and contemporary problems at Seattle Preparatory School, where he also founded a senior independent study program that evolved into a six-year bachelor’s degree beginning at Seattle Prep and concluding at SU’s Matteo Ricci College. Later, he became president of Gonzaga Preparatory School.

Hutton moved to the sixth floor of Bellarmine Hall on the SU campus to live with his fellow Jesuits in 1990 when he was appointed assistant dean and certification officer of what was then the School of Education. “He was immensely bright, intelligent and witty,” says PHOTO BY MAXWELL BALMAIN

Living, Teaching and Learning Beyond the Classroom “At the heart of my belief system on teaching is guiding students to think beyond themselves and beyond classroom doors.”

Professor Emerita Nina L. Valerio’s office, filled with colorful artwork and artifacts from her travels, is a reflection of the multicultural perspectives that she was first hired to teach at Seattle University more than 20 years ago. It was a relatively new requirement for all students at the College of Education in 1993, and it soon became popular with students from other colleges at SU, as well.

To prepare her students for serving in diverse communities and global citizenship, Valerio walks them through a pathway to multicultural competency – a three-pronged approach she calls H3. It encompasses the head (knowledge), the heart (dispositions), and the hand (application), all dynamically working together for a common goal. “Mere knowledge about something is not enough,” says Valerio. “We must routinely engage in critical reflections about what we know, don’t know, and need to know; openly exchange values and perspectives with others, and apply them in real world settings.” She challenges her students to continuously ask themselves “what and where is my passion, and how do I translate it into action?” she says. “It is that passion that will drive you to follow your bliss.”

Valerio’s interest in multicultural studies began when she arrived in Iowa City as an international student from the Philippines. With a passion for teaching, she pursued a doctoral degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of Washington with an emphasis in higher education and multicultural education.

Her own life values align with the mission of Seattle University, so in 1995 she joined the COE faculty as a tenure track professor teaching courses in curriculum and instruction, multicultural education, and social justice for the Curriculum and Instruction and Masters in Teaching programs.

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She sets an example to her students through her own professional practice, scholarship and community service, which she shares at international, national, and regional conferences. She exposes her students to James A. Banks’ dimensions of multicultural education and Paulo Freire’s notions of praxis and critical pedagogy, which are at the core of these scholars and social activists’ life’s work.

“Friere asserts that confronting injustice requires us to think critically, engage in meaningful dialogues, and deliver purposeful action in real-life situations. So, I routinely ask students about paradigm shifts they are experiencing and to think beyond what to why, how, what if, so what, and now what?” she states.

To move students toward deep reflection and a safe space for class dialogues on “hot-button” and controversial topics that can be polarizing, such as the many faces of oppression, Valerio co-creates with them an arena of inclusion in her classroom. “How can we be effective agents for justice and speak for the voiceless if we cannot even speak up for ourselves?” she asks. “An honest, yet respectful exchange of ideas is critical to mutual understanding,” she maintains.

“Each of us carries around only a part of the whole truth. If we are unwilling to be influenced by each other’s truth, how can we arrive at the real truth?”

Her desire to “expose students to life outside the walls of the classroom” was a motivating force in developing a successful study abroad course in Mexico, which is offered every other summer and is now a requirement in COE’s doctoral program.

“I always ask students how their learnings, re-learnings, and unlearnings in the classroom inform both their professional practice and personal life since these are inseparable,” she explains. “I aim for my students to think beyond themselves and beyond the classroom doors.”

Although she will help lead this summer’s voyage to Mexico and take part in the Master’s in Teaching program next year as a professor emerita, Valerio knows what she will miss the most. “It’s the interaction with my students…learning from one another…the aha in their eyes,” she says definitively.

“That wonderful, magical, dynamic exchange between us.”

ON A LONG AND

WINDING ROAD

Cincinnati to his cottage on St. Joseph Island in Northern Ontario, Canada. The goal-oriented Conyne pushed to complete the ride in just 10 days.

The avid cyclist is equally intense in his career. Retirement for Conyne has not slowed his research or his passion for his work, which centers on group work, prevention work, and community-based ecological counseling.

Nationally known, Conyne was invited to the College by Community Counseling Associate Professor Bill O’Connell, who had taken a course from Conyne in Cincinatti. “We wanted someone who was able to work with faculty across disciplines to inspire, mentor and promote scholarly research,” explains O’Connell.

“A professional journey is a work trek: a more-orless focused wandering, full of highs and lows, ups and downs, as the Beatles said, ‘a long and winding road’ for many. But, if we are mindful, we can take way-stops to reflect and find the meaning that’s there; to locate some magic in the ordinary.”

The latest leg in the professional journey of Boeing – William M. Allen Endowed Chair & Distinguished Professor Bob Conyne is coming to a close after a year at the College of Education.

This spring, the visiting professor from Ohio led a workshop for Seattle University faculty on “Professional Journey: The Trek and Its Meaning,” taking his colleagues through a series of exercises that prompted them to examine what they do, how they work, what it means, and what the future holds.

Participants watched videos of six colleagues who shared key aspects of their work journeys, engaged in self-reflection, shared lessons learned with others, and talked in groups to explore their own journeys.

Master in Teaching Professor Jeffrey Anderson appreciated the way in which the process caused him to reflect during a time of transition. “It reminded me that every time I’ve taken a risk and made a change in my life, it’s worked out for the better,” he said.

At SU, Conyne taught classes, shared his expertise with faculty and students, and helped with program development.

He participated in community-engaged scholarship, mentored faculty members, and collaborated with colleagues on a manuscript that explores the intersections of work on prevention, ecology, wellness and social justice.

Conyne is passionate about working on mental health prevention through teaching competencies and making environmental changes rather than “rescuing people from drowning one at a time.” This year, he finished 12 years of collaborative work with colleagues all over the U.S. to develop guidelines on prevention that were recently published by the American Psychological Association (APA).

The journey that Conyne chose for his professional path takes time and persistence, something he may have predicted in his final thesis through the prescient use of a verse from Thyrsis by 19th century poet Matthew Arnold.

The epic elegy, written to honor Arnold’s friend and Oxford classmate Arthur Hugh Clough, recounts another journey: a persistent, lifelong quest for truth. Conyne quotes the poem’s last verse: Why faintest thou! I wander’d till I died.

Roam on! The light we sought is shining still.

Dost thou ask proof? Our tree yet crowns the hill, Our Scholar travels yet the loved hill-side.

“The light is still glimmering out there,” Conyne says with a smile. “I need to find it.”

Eight years ago Conyne ended one part of his own professional journey by beginning another. As he prepared to retire as director of counseling programs at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, after 30 years in academia, he was diagnosed with the painful disease, polymyalgia rheumatica.

Only beginning to improve with a regimen of prednisone, he nevertheless embarked on a 700-mile bicycle ride from SUMMER 2014 | BANNER

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Faculty NEWS

Publications and Presentations Bube, S.A. & Johnson, C. (2013, Spring). Supporting exceptional learners: How post-school outcomes inform instruction. Curriculum in Context 40(1), 13-15.

Chattin-McNichols, J. (2013). Work in society and in Montessori classrooms. Montessori Life, 25 (3), 19-25.

Conyne, R. (2013). Group work leadership: An introduction for helpers. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Conyne, R. (Ed). (2014). Group work practice kit: Improving the everyday practice of group work. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. (9 books).

Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction John Chattin-McNichols accepts the 2014 AMS Living Legacy award from the American Montessori Society at a Dallas, Tex. celebration this winter. ©Jimmy Cheng Photography, used with permission of American Montessori Society.

School Counseling Program Director Mary Graham was promoted to associate professor and awarded tenure effective fall 2014.

The College of Education restructured its academic departments for the 2014-15 academic year. The new department chairs are Sam Song for K-12 programs and Bill O’Connell for non K-12 programs.

MIT Program Director Margit McGuire was reappointed to a second term on the Washington Charter School Commission by the Washington State House of Representatives this spring.

School Psychology Program Director Sam Song planned and facilitated the second annual Impact! Safe Schools event on the SU campus in March, which brought together city and university law enforcement officials to talk about hazing and bullying with area high school students in order to create safer schools. He was also invited to present his work on bullying and aggression in schools at the North Carolina Psychology Association’s conference in 2015.

PHOTO BY ZEKE PEASE

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SEATTLE UNIVERSITY | COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

Conyne, R. & Horne, A. (Eds.) (2013). Prevention practice kit: Action guidelines for mental health professionals. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. (8 books).

DeLucia-Waack, J. (Chair). Sandy, J., Oberhand, E., Yondea, A., & Conyne, R. (Moderator & Respondent) (2014, March 29). Group work with military and their families. Presentation at the annual meeting of the American Counseling Association. Honolulu, Hawaii.

King, J., & Stevahn, L. (2013). Interactive evaluation practice.

Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

Muth, R., Brown-Ferrigno, T., Bellamy, T., Fulmer, C., & Silver, M. (2013). Using teacher instructional leadership as a predictor of principal leadership. Journal of School Leadership, 23, 122-151.

Roessger, K. (2013). But does it work? Reflective activities, learning outcomes and instrumental learning in continuing professional development. Journal of Education and Work. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13639080.2013.805186 Romano J., Bogat, G.A., Conyne, R., Hage, S;, Horne, A., Kenny, M., Matthews, C., Schwartz, J., Singh, A., Waldo, M., & Wong, Y.J. (2014) Guidelines for prevention in psychology.

American Psychologist, 3, 285-296.

Stevahn, L. (2013). Integrating co-operative communitybased research (CBR) into doctoral leadership studies.

Journal of Co-Operative Studies, 46(2), 32-45.

Stevahn, L., & Cowan Pitre, C. (2014, April). Cooperative learning for youth on the margins: Community Research Empowering Social Transformation (CREST). Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Philadelphia, PA. Tsai, S.F., Cheney, D., & Walker, B. (2013). Preliminary psychometrics of the participatory evaluation and expert review for classrooms serving students with emotional/ behavioral disabilities. Behavioral Disorders, 38(3), 137-153.

Valerio, N., Stevahn, L., & Scott, J. (2013, November). Global education and social justice at the graduate level: A MexicoUSA study abroad model. Paper presented at the World Education Research Association (WERA) Focal Meeting at the XII Congreso Nacional de Investigacion Educativa (COMIE Congress), Guanajuato, Mexico.

Walker, B., Clancy, M., Tsai, S.F., & Cheney, D. (2013). Bridging the research to practice gap: Empowering staff to implement meaningful program evaluation and improvement to better serve students with emotional or behavioral disorders.

Beyond Behavior, 22(3), 3-14.

Yang, J. (2013, November). Frequent phrasal verbs in China’s English newspapers. Paper presented at the annual conference of the International Association for World Englishes, Tempe, AZ.

Yang, J. & Yeo, J. (2014, forthcoming). Phrasal verbs in learner language: Overused, underused, or yet to be learned?

Paper will be presented at the annual conference of the International Linguistic Association, Paris, France.

Yeo, J. (2013). “I want dual:” Transnational identity formation among Filipino ELL immigrant youth. In E. L. Brown and A. Krasteva (volume eds.) Migrants and refugees: Equitable education for displaced populations. (pp. 237-258). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Yeo, J. (2014, March). Do bilinguals adapt transnationally?: A Case Study of Bilingual Youth’s Adaptation and Transnational Identity. Paper presented at the annual conference of the American Association for Applied Linguistics, Portland, OR. Yeo, J. & Yang, J. (2014). Structural nativization of transitive phrasal verbs in the Korea Times. Paper accepted at the 2014 World Congress of the International Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA), Brisbane, Australia.

CELEBRATING YEARS OF SERVICE The following faculty and staff from the College of Education were recognized at the Seattle University 2014 Faculty and Staff Appreciation Celebration for completing 10 or more years of service at SU: John Chattin-McNichols: 35 years; Jeremy Stringer: 30 years; Van Hutton: 25 years; Nina Valerio: 20 years; Kay Beisse: 15 years; Tat Lam: 15 years; Amy Eva: 10 years; Cinda Johnson: 10 years; and Michael Silver: 10 years.

Jake Diaz

TRANSITIONS Visiting Professor Jake Diaz, who taught students in the Adult Education and Training and Student Development Administration programs, leaves Seattle this summer to take the position of dean of students at the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg. Diaz worked hard to enhance diversity in the SDA program, leaving a legacy “that will be with us for years to come,” SDA Program Director Erin Swezey said.

Annique Atwater

Annique Atwater was promoted to the position of coordinator of the Research and Online/Professional Learning office in December.

Chris Phaiah was appointed the assessment, certification the records specialist last October. In his new role, Phaiah processes the certifications and endorsements for K-12 educators in Washington state. He also assists the associate dean with accreditation reports.

Chris Phaiah

Pat Witkowski retired last October after serving over 15 years in the College of Education. Witkowski started as the administrative assistant to the Counseling and School Psychology programs, and later became the assessment, certification and records specialist. Since retiring, she has returned to her hometown of El Paso, Texas, where she is enjoying the drier climate.

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NEW FACULTY AND STAFF Peggy Fine began working at Seattle University as development director for the College of Education in late 2013. She has 20 years of experience in higher education advancement, alumni and public relations, K-12 development and parish stewardship.

Prior to coming to Seattle University, she worked in development at the University of Washington and Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish and School. She considers her work with alumni and donors a distinct privilege and feels fortunate to work with the College of Education community. She and her two daughters enjoy volunteering at the West Seattle Senior Center where they visit with and assist homebound seniors.

Arie Greenleaf, assistant professor of counseling and school psychology, joined the faculty in 2013. He holds a PhD in counselor education and supervision from the University of Iowa and an MA in counseling from Clemson University. Prior to Seattle University, he was a member of the faculty at University of Arkansas – Fayetteville. His diverse counseling experience encompasses K-12 settings, community college and university counseling centers. Greenleaf’s research interests include building theoretical and empirical support for applying ecological models within school and community counseling settings. Greenleaf is an ecological thinker interested by the relationship between human flourishing and the natural world.

Katherine “Casey” Hicks is the administrative assistant in the Dean’s Office, supporting the college’s associate deans as well as marketing and development. After obtaining her bachelor’s in sociology from Dartmouth College, she traveled to the Marshall Islands through the Dartmouth Volunteer Teacher Program (DVTP) to teach English to 7th graders. Upon returning to the U.S. in 2012, she accepted an AmeriCorps position at West Seattle High School through College Access Now, a Seattle nonprofit that provides college counseling to first-generation, low-income students.

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Assistant Professor Kevin Roessger joined Seattle University’s Adult Education and Training (AEDT) program in 2013.

He has developed and delivered work-related skills training programs in higher education and career and technical education settings throughout the Midwest. Roessger earned a PhD in urban education and an MS in adult and continuing education from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he worked extensively on developing online supplemental instruction, tutoring and MOOC training programs for faculty, staff and students. His research interests include behavior analytic approaches to skills training, deliberate practice, reflective activities in skills-based contexts, and reflection as a natural phenomenon.

Marketing and Communications Director Karen Smaalders began working at SU in late 2013. She started her career as a journalist, working for newspapers and magazines for over a decade before applying her communications skills to the nonprofit and higher education fields. She has directed communications and marketing efforts at the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties, the American Diabetes Association and most recently for the International Association for the Study of Pain, a global association of doctors and researchers. Her experience in higher education includes marketing and communications at the University of Washington’s College of Built Environments and Bellevue College. Karen received a degree in mass communication from the University of California, Davis, and attended the University of Amsterdam as a Rotary International Fellowship scholar in journalism.

ALUMNI NOTES The board of trustees of Shoreline Community College unanimously chose Cheryl Roberts, ’79, ’89 EdD, as the college’s new president. She will begin her new role in August 2014, after concluding her current position as president of Chemeketa Community College in Salem, Ore. A graduate of Seattle University, Roberts was also assistant director of SU’s career development center. Roberts looks forward to reconnecting with the educational community in the greater Seattle area.

Robin Wehl Martin, ’95 MEd (SDA), began a career teaching and working with young children after obtaining her master’s degree at Seattle University. But winning the Oddfellows Whoopie Pie Bake Off two years in a row launched her career in an unexpected direction, and she founded the popular Capitol Hill cookie shop, Hello Robin.

Wehl Martin has won numerous awards for her cookies and has been featured in Seattle Magazine’s Top Cookies in Seattle.

Robert Flores, ’01 MEd (SDA), has been promoted to assistant dean for student affairs at California State University (CSU), Fullerton-Irvine Campus, the largest branch campus in the CSU system. Among other responsibilities, Flores will counsel students with personal and academic concerns, coordinate orientation and retention programs, advise student groups, administer scholarship programs and develop alumni and community support for the University.

Bob Trumpy, ’07 EdD, recently received early tenure and a promotion to associate professor at Central Washington University. Trumpy is a licensed pilot, backpacker, mountain climber and R&B musician.

Eric Guico, ’09 MEd (SDA), is the director of college programs at East Bay College Fund in Oakland, an educational nonprofit that supports resilient students with a $16,000 scholarship, a personal mentor, professional and life skills coaching, and college guidance. Guico is also helping to relaunch the Seattle University Bay Area alumni chapter.

It was a great end to 2013 for Megan Morrison, ’09 MIT, language arts and drama teacher at Sylvester Middle School in the Highline School District. In December, she signed a contract for a series of young adult novels with Arthur A. Levine, an imprint of Scholastic Press. In November, she was named the Macaroni Kid South Puget Sound Teacher of the Month. Morrison was nominated for the honor by one of her students who wrote: “Ms. Morrison is easily one of the best overall teachers that I have ever had in my life. She is extremely trustworthy and you feel like you can tell her anything. She has control of the class and everyone loves her.”

After three years as a residence director at University of Massachusetts Amherst, Andrew McGeehan, ’11 MA (SDA), will begin a new position this fall as a residence director with Semester at Sea. In his new role, McGeehan will sail to Europe, Africa, South America and the Caribbean.

Courtney Stringer, ’12 MEd (SDA), works as a development officer in the office of capital and planned giving at the University of Puget Sound. Dedicated to growing opportunities for young professionals in the region, Stringer recently joined the board of directors of Associated Fundraising Professionals (AFP) South Sound, where she serves as the chair of the Young Professionals Committee.

In addition, Stringer has started her own business called 253 Lacrosse, offering overnight and day lacrosse camps to female players in Washington state.

Kelly Alvarado, ’13 MA (SDA), was appointed founding manager of the First Year Experience Program at Gonzaga University. “Seattle University ignited my passion for Jesuit higher education,” explained Alvarado. In March, she was asked to join the National Association of Student Affairs Administrators (NASPA) Undergraduate Fellows Program national board. The board works to support undergraduate students from historically disenfranchised identities to explore a career in student affairs.

Miranda Sulley, ’13 MEd (SDA), recently started at Google as a recruiting coordinator on the College Tech team, where she is happy to continue her work with college students in a new and exciting way. Sulley was also recently appointed to the board of directors for San Bruno Mountain Watch, an environmental conservation nonprofit in the Bay Area.

Lindsey Pierce, ’13 MEd (SDA), received the NASFA (Association of International Educators) Outstanding Community Volunteer Award for her contributions to the annual conference program. She recently accepted a position as an undergraduate admissions counselor at Seattle University.

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STUDENT NEWS

Counting Our Commitment to Service

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year ago in December, Middle College High School (MCHS) opened its doors to Seattle high school students in danger of dropping out; in June, 22 students graduated with high school diplomas.

Student Development Association graduate students shared Seattle University’s top honor for service: the 2014 Spirit of Community Award.

College of Education students participated in academic service learning during the past academic year, helping Seattle University to be one of the top 25 schools in the U.S. for service learning.

Rainier Middle School Principal Ben Talbert, a student in the Educational Leadership Program, is a recipient of the 2014 AASA Education Administration Scholarship award. The award was presented to five national scholarship winners at the 2014 AASA National Conference on Education in Nashville, Tennessee. AASA is the American Association of School Administrators, a national leadership organization supporting school superintendents.

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SEATTLE UNIVERSITY | COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

Sixteen College of Education graduate students were inducted into Alpha Sigma Nu, the honor society of Jesuit institutions of higher education this spring. Alpha Sigma Nu recognizes students who have distinguished themselves in scholarship, loyalty to the values of Jesuit education, and service. Membership into Alpha Sigma Nu is one of the highest honors one can achieve at a Jesuit institution and offered to only 4 percent of juniors, seniors, and graduate students. Congratulations to: Victoria Benavides, Student Development Administration, Zhongfei Chi, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, Ashley Hankins, Master in Teaching, Pamela Helm, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, Evinn Hickey, Student Development Administration, Amy Hitchcock, Adult Education and Training, Maile Kaneko, School Counseling, Phdar Kinlow, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, Magdalene Kluska, Master in Teaching, Erin Lewis, Student Development Administration, Jeanna McLellan, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, John Phillips, Adult Education and Training, Tracy Phutikanit, Student Development Administration, Leann Price, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, Brendon Soltis, Student Development Administration and Jenn Truong, School Counseling.