Spring 2022 Penn State College of Education Alumni Magazine

Spring Two Thousand Twenty-two

Alumnus making an impact in Washington, D.C.

Contents Dean

Kimberly A. Lawless

Editor

Annemarie Mountz

Writers

Jim Carlson, Stephanie Koons, Annemarie Mountz

Photographers

Dean’s Message 1

News & Notes 2

Jim Carlson, Stephanie Koons, Annemarie Mountz

Contact Us

247 Chambers Building University Park, PA 16802-3206 814-863-2216 www.ed.psu.edu • edrelations@psu.edu Published twice a year by the Penn State College of Education

College of Education Alumni Society Officers

President: Joseph Clapper President-elect: Jonathan Klingeman Immediate past president: Pamela Peter Secretary: Sherry Yontosh

Directors

Nicole Birkbeck Tonya DeVecchis-Kerr Kiley Foley Pam Francis Caleb Gildea Ramon Guzman, Jr. Shubha Kashyap

Sarah Lozano Amy Meisinger John Rozzo Sharon Salter Catherine Tomon Jeannene Willow

Appointed Directors William Clark Allison Mackley Ronald Musoleno

APG Representatives Jhan Doughty Cass Ramsey

Student Representatives Allie Lukac Rory Murphy Manar Salamah

Dean Kimberly A. Lawless provides a brief update

College welcomes recruitment director Boldt, Rothwell recognized as distinguished professors

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Faculty to co-edit top AERA research journal Lawless featured in video series on leadership

Features 4

Award-winning education graduate making most of his opportunities

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Education student helping children foster interest in STEM subjects

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Research team develops framework to help military students succeed

10 Student starting early to bring change to education 12 Change-makers make memorable impressions

Research 14 Project supports social-emotional learning for students of color 15 Professor leads effort to bring mindfulness curricula into schools 16 Using experiential learning with health, safety courses becoming more prevalent 17 Research news in brief

Impact 18 Parle honored with Alumni Achievement Award 19 Alumnus seeks to empower underrepresented educators

The University is committed to equal access to programs, facilities, admission and employment for all persons. It is the policy of the University to maintain an environment free of harassment and free of discrimination against any person because of age, race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, creed, service in the uniformed services (as defined in state and federal law), veteran status, sex, sexual orientation, marital or family status, pregnancy, pregnancy-related conditions, physical or mental disability, gender, perceived gender, gender identity, genetic information or political ideas. Discriminatory conduct and harassment, as well as sexual misconduct and relationship violence, violates the dignity of individuals, impedes the realization of the University’s educational mission, and will not be tolerated. Direct all inquiries regarding the nondiscrimination policy to the Affirmative Action Office, The Pennsylvania State University, 328 Boucke Building, University Park, PA 16802-5901, Email: aao@psu.edu, Tel (814) 863-0471. This publication is available in alternative media on request. U.Ed EDU 22-81

Alumni 20 Where are they now?

21 Message from the Alumni Society Board president 21 Nominate outstanding alumni for annual excellence awards

On the cover: College of Education alumnus Elijah Armstrong stands inside the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., where he is serving as a fellow in the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. Armstrong lobbies for those with disabilities. He has received the Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leader Award, and with that stipend started the Heumann-Armstrong Award to allow students with disabilities to tell their stories.

Photo: B.J. Reyes

Dean’s Message The work we do here in the Penn State College of Education is of vital importance. We are working hard to reimagine education to improve the lives of learners, educators and community members at the regional, state, national and global levels. Through our work, we contribute to the creation of more equitable educational opportunities and outcomes for learners across their lifespan.

As important as that work is, what really sets us apart from other colleges of education and makes us rise above the others is our people, and we are celebrating some of those individuals in this issue of our Alumni Magazine.

Our faculty, staff, students and alumni prove every day that they are changemakers. On the pages that follow you’ll get to meet some of them: alumni Elijah Dean Kimberly A. Lawless Armstrong, Christina Parle and Jonathan C.W. Jones; current students Rebecca Duiker and Giani Clarke; and a host of faculty and staff change-makers that our alumni and current students have identified as having made a lasting, positive impact on them.

One of the benefits of being able to write this column is that I can share some of the great things our college community is doing that happened after the magazine’s story lineup was set. For example, I just learned that two of our students won University-wide awards.

Jonni Parker, a senior majoring in elementary and early childhood education, received the Ernest B. McCoy Memorial Award for 2022. The award is presented to a senior student-athlete who has combined successful athletic participation with academic excellence. Read about her at https://bit.ly/3NMK9Ca online.

In addition, Natalia Reed, a senior double-majoring in psychology and rehabilitation and human services with a minor in deafness and hearing studies, has been named the 2022 recipient of the Eric A. Walker Award.

The award is presented annually to the student who has contributed most to enhancing the reputation of the University through extracurricular activities. Read about her at https://bit.ly/3tWUpjn online.

This spring we also have had several faculty honored by national organizations: Julia Bryan, professor of education (counselor education), has been honored as an American Counseling Association Fellow. Janice Byrd, assistant professor of education (counselor education) received the 2022 Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development Young Emerging Leader Award. Gilberto Q. Conchas, the Wayne K. and Anita Woolfolk Hoy Endowed Professor of Education, has been honored with the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education University Faculty Award. Jim Herbert, professor of education (counselor education and rehabilitation and human services), received the Distinguished Career in Rehabilitation Education Award from the National Council on Rehabilitation Education. And Francesca López, Waterbury Chair in Equity Pedagogy and professor of education, was named one of 18 American Educational Research Association Fellows for 2022.

I am humbled to be working in a college full of so many elite faculty members who are truly involved in their students’ learning, staff members who make our students feel welcome and who provide them with the resources they need to succeed, and advisers who truly get to know their students and show a level of caring that makes a palpable difference in those students’ college experiences.

We may still have a long way to go in fulfilling our mission of improving the equity and inclusivity of our education systems, but we also must celebrate the progress we have made. I invite you to continue to follow what’s happening in our college through Bridges, our e-newsletter. If you don’t receive that twice-monthly email newsletter and would like to, please email edrelations@psu.edu and ask to be added to the subscription list.

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News & Notes

Boldt, Rothwell recognized as distinguished professors

Kristine Altland

College welcomes recruitment director Kristine Altland joined the College of Education as director of recruitment and student engagement in January. She came to the college from the Penn State Undergraduate Admissions Office, where she was an outof-state recruiter.

In her role in the college, Altland works to recruit and retain prospective undergraduate students through a combination of virtual and in-person programming. With the help of the College of Education Student Council and active alumni volunteers, she welcomes prospective families, connects them to Penn State and helps them to learn more about the student experience in the college.

Altland earned a master’s degree in higher education and student affairs from the College of Education, and a bachelor’s degree in English literature and writing from University of Redlands in California.

As a graduate assistant in the Higher Education Program, Altland worked with the Parents Program in Student Affairs and with the Presidential Leadership Academy.

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Gail Boldt and William Rothwell have been awarded the title of distinguished professor in the College of Education at Penn State.

Gail Boldt The distinguished professor title, awarded by Penn State’s Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs, recognizes outstanding academic contribution to the University. This special academic title is bestowed upon a limited number of outstanding professors for whom endowed chairs or professorships are otherwise unavailable.

“Drs. Boldt and Rothwell have reached this pinnacle through their dedication to their respective areas of expertise and the deep care they have shown their students and colleagues,” said Dean Kimberly Lawless. “I am thrilled their careers here at Penn State have been recognized by their peers and the University. I can’t wait to continue to partner with them on the next chapter of their academic journeys.”

Boldt, professor of education (language and literacy education) and women’s studies, joined the faculty in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction (C&I) in 2007 as associate professor. She was promoted to professor in 2014.

“This recognition is the highlight of my 15 years at Penn State,” said Boldt. “My teaching, research and service are all shaped through my commitment to addressing how experiences of success and failure are constituted in school through expectations for normative forms of participation. My goal is to increase our understanding of children’s lives through counter-narratives and pedagogic alternatives

that challenge traditional approaches that pathologize and marginalize children.”

Boldt defines herself as a curriculum theorist William Rothwell with interests in literacies, elementary and early childhood education, identity and postidentity, childhood studies, cultural studies and disability studies. She works primarily with narrative research, drawing analytic lenses from Deleuzo-Guattarian, poststructural and psychoanalytic theories.

Rothwell, professor of education (workforce education) in the Department of Learning and Performance Systems (LPS), joined the College of Education in 1993 as a tenured associate professor of human resource development. He was promoted to professor in 1997.

“It is an honor to be named a distinguished professor in the College of Education at Penn State.

However, I was even more humbled when I learned that over 100 of my past students advocated for this nomination,” Rothwell said.

“Developing future scholars and leaders has been, and continues to be, one of my primary passions.”

Rothwell has been professor-incharge of the Workforce Education and Development Program, and with the help of alumnus and current faculty member Wes Donahue, worked to create the Master of Professional Studies in Organization Development and Change. Since it launched in 2014, it has become a feeder program for the doctoral program.

Read more on Penn State News at https://bit.ly/3oSuKoS online.

News & Notes

Faculty to co-edit top AERA research journal Four faculty members in the Penn State College of Education have been named co-editors of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) journal Review of Educational Research (RER) for 2022–25. Mildred Boveda, Karly Sarita Ford, Erica Frankenberg and Francesca López will succeed P. Karen Murphy, who has been editorin-chief of the journal since 2017.

next three years is a testament to the nationwide respect for the work of our outstanding faculty,” Lawless said.

Mildred Boveda

“Congratulations to my colleagues on being selected as the incoming editors of the No. 1 Education/Education Research journal in the world. I could not be more excited to be passing the journal on to such capable scholars,” said Murphy, head of the Department of Educational Erica Frankenberg Psychology, Counseling and Special Education, and distinguished professor of education (educational psychology).

College of Education Dean Kim Lawless said she cannot wait to see how the journal continues to advance under the newly named co-editors. “The fact that the editorship of this journal has been with our college for the past five years and will continue for the

Karly Sarita Ford

Francesca López

The team was appointed by AERA President Na’ilah Suad Nasir. Their appointment culminated an extensive search driven by the AERA Journal Publications Committee, which is charged with making editorial recommendations to the president. As editors, the new team began receiving new manuscripts on April 1.

“I am thrilled with the appointment of such an outstanding team of scholars,” said AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine. “Under their leadership, the journal will continue to build on its strengths while also focusing on equity concerns among the journals’ readers, authors and content.”

The co-editors will be joined by a distinguished group of associate editors that includes Hollie Kulago, associate professor of education (curriculum and supervision).

RER publishes critical, integrative reviews of research literature bearing on education. For details, check Penn State News at https://bit.ly/3ufp37V online.

Lawless featured in video series on leadership In a video series titled “Perspective: Leaders at Penn State,” Kim Lawless, Dean of Penn State’s College of Education, reflects on her passion for remaking furniture while sharing her approach to creating classrooms where students can discover and embrace their unique talents.

“Honoring and empowering the qualities and assets that students bring into our classrooms and will take with them when they move into their careers — when we embrace those differences, you can help students identify with education in a very different way,” Lawless said in the video. “The motivations that students have for being here — as an educator, when you identify those motivations, there are absolutely no limits to what can be learned.”

Photo: Michelle Bixby

Watch the ‘Perspective: Leaders at Penn State’ video featuring Dean Kim Lawless at https://youtu.be/JykiNYvXV3Y

The series gives a glimpse of the personal passions that have driven our leaders and have shaped their perspectives and impact at Penn State and beyond.

Learn how Lawless works with a community of scholars who deeply believe in the power of education and are working to change education by educating for change.

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Features

Award-winning education graduate making most of his opportunities

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By Jim Carlson

ince his days as an education and public policy major in Penn State’s College of Education, Elijah Armstrong has interned for a U.S. Senator and a Colorado congressman, earned a master’s degree from Harvard, received the Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leader Award and founded a scholarship for students with disabilities. He believes his current appointment as a fellow with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBC) in Washington, D.C., ultimately will enable him to help more people.

Translation, the young activist is just getting started.

The genesis of his advocacy role stems from his days in a Florida college preparatory school that refused to accommodate his needs when his photosensitive epileptic reaction to flashing lights in a school classroom continued to make him ill and force multiple hospitalizations.

He hasn’t stopped standing up for those with disabilities since.

Armstrong started a No Hate Penn State organization in 2017 designed to create a Penn State experience that is safe and inclusive for all students. He also had a hand in developing Equal Opportunities for Students, a student-led national organization that deals with educational equity and promotes civil rights in education that is in conjunction with the American Association of People with Disabilities.

“Obviously, this was something I was hoping for and worked really hard for, but I had no idea that this was going to be the way that it turned out. Having the support of professors during my time at Penn State really helped me to get

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Photo provided

Elijah Armstrong has found a home in the heart of Washington, D.C., where he has an appointment as a fellow with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. Armstrong is an activist who stands up for people with disabilities.

to where I am now,” Armstrong said, citing education professors Dana Mitra and Mimi Schaub and agricultural sciences professor Mark Brennan as a few who provided valuable assistance.

“Elijah connects his keen intellect with the use of personal narratives to help to make policy

issues compelling,” said Mitra, professor of education (education policy studies). “He also seeks out opportunities and makes the most of each one, so that his influence builds and he continues to learn and share his wisdom with others.”

Armstrong checks a lot of other boxes, too, Mitra said. “Elijah is

Features an honorable human being. He is dedicated to issues of equity. He is a role model. He is wise, responsible, hardworking,” she said.

Armstrong started a six-month stint in January serving in a Congressional office as part of the CBC. “And then the next six months after that I am on a committee; I’m not sure what committee yet,” he said. “There’s also a social justice project, which goes on at that point over the course of the year, which I’ll be presenting on in December.”

He believes he would not have his role with the CBC were it not for the internships with Congressman Ed Perlmutter (D-Colorado) and U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-Pennsylvania).

“It’s a very competitive program and you have to have a master’s, and the fact that I was able to come in and say I already have experience on both the House side and the Senate side, I think, very much played a role in me being able to get these positions,” Armstrong explained.

“That internship with Senator Casey’s office was done through the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD). It was a special internship program where they have disabled youth from across the country. They place them in nonprofits in federal government and local areas and companies too, and I was one of those interns in 2018. And I’m still in contact with a lot of people from AAPD,” he added.

Armstrong won the Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leader Award in 2021 and with the $7,500 stipend that accompanied it, he founded the Heumann-Armstrong Award, in conjunction with Judy Heumann, known by many, Armstrong said, as the mother of the disability rights movement.

Armstrong said his in-school struggles prior to enrolling at Penn State set him reeling and he “didn’t get his feet under him” and “feel good about himself” until he was a second-year student. His HeumannArmstrong scholarship award allows students with disabilities to tell their stories.

“I think the true change-agent comes when someone’s able to change it themselves without having to convince someone else of the need for something to change.”

— Elijah Armstrong

“Oftentimes students with disabilities have to fight for their own accessibility, they have to do so much advocacy and so much building their own way around so that they can create their own accessibility,” he said.

“But a lot of times that labor goes unacknowledged. It’s a way for them to get financial compensation, a way for students with disabilities to specifically be able to compete for an award for them because very rarely are there specifically student education awards for students with disabilities. We have conversations about ableism in education, but we don’t really hear the student voice too much.”

Photo: B.J. Reyes

Armstrong is aware that being a change-agent is a vitally important role but claims he hasn’t reached that status just yet.

“There’s a level of systemic power which I don’t have to make the kind of change that I want to,” he said.

“At the same time, I recognize I do have privilege; I do have a level of institutional respect just based on the fact that I have college degree(s), but I also recognize the fact that there’s a lot of changes that I want to make that I don’t currently have the power to.”

He noted that a lot of the activism he does involves a lot of convincing people to change their minds. “I don’t want to be in a position where it’s constantly trying to convince people that as a marginalized person, you need rights,” Armstrong said. “I think the true change-agent comes when someone’s able to change it themselves without having to convince someone else of the need for something to change.”

He knows he’s already helped people at this young stage of his life and agrees that service is likely his life’s calling, but he remains uncertain how that role will unfold specifically.

“I very much feel like at the current moment and for the foreseeable future, that this is something I definitely need to be doing because it’s important and it’s been having a huge impact,” Armstrong said.

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Features

Education student helping children foster interest in STEM subjects

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By Jim Carlson

aria Rebecca Duiker is interested in promoting STEMrelated courses because she believes it to be critically important for others younger than she to have rich experiences in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The third-year elementary and early childhood education major in Penn State’s College of Education is an intern in the Teaching Elementary Science Leadership Academy (TESLA). She also has a paid internship at Discovery Space Museum in State College where elementary and early childhood education majors can build confidence in STEM teaching and take on leadership roles.

“There are a lot of reasons why STEM is important in the classroom but, primarily, if we are going to create a new generation that is able to make discoveries and contribute to the knowledge base that we have right now, we need students in classrooms who are becoming experienced in STEM-related subjects,” Duiker said.

“Giving children a space where they’re able to engage in discovery will capture their interest, and they might grow up to be the next generation of scientists, doctors or other STEM professionals.

STEM involves a lot of creativity … fostering creativity in our young children is vital to create a society that is better able to engage with writing, reading, the sciences and math in critical ways.”

Carmen Vanderhoof, assistant teaching professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, said the TESLA program was re-launched in

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Photos provided

Maria Rebecca Duiker conducts an experiment at the Discovery Space Museum to help students interested in STEM subjects.

January 2021 with the mission to provide access to STEM education to local families at Discovery Space.

A contributing factor, she said, is that the COVID-19 pandemic forced many elementary schools to reduce instructional time for science, further increasing inequities.

“Our TESLA interns gained valuable teaching experience by planning and teaching workshops, volunteering on the exhibit floor at Discovery Space and helping with day camps,” Vanderhoof said. “One of our main program goals is for our pre-service teachers to develop leadership and STEM teaching skills so that one day when they get their

own classrooms, they can act as advocates for elementary STEM education.”

The volunteer hours at Discovery Space and experience in a classroom-like setting appealed to Duiker, a State College Area High School graduate who also is completing a Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages certification.

“When I saw this opportunity to practice teaching STEM-related courses to children, I thought it would be great for me to have some practice with an area that I’ve always loved but in which I haven’t

Features had much educational experience,” Duiker said.

“I knew I had to jump on the opportunity.”

The recipient of a Student Engagement Network (SEN) grant, Duiker spends her Fridays at Discovery Space and acts as a docent for the museum’s marine science center.

“After I was accepted, the marine biologist at Discovery Space taught me lots of fun facts and information about tank maintenance so that I could effectively lead children through certain discoveries while they are exploring the space,” Duiker explained.

“We have a microscope that kids look at and examine specimens. We have a lot of artifacts that children can touch, like different types of shells, a sand dollar, shark teeth, things like that. It’s fun to see the children’s engagement and excitement about seeing something that they may not have had access to before.”

Vanderhoof noted that Duiker will present to other interns lessons learned from marine life exhibits along with ideas for lessons on aquatic life.

“This will be one of many ways TESLA empowers our pre-service teachers to take on leadership roles, develop expertise in STEM teaching and broaden their subject-area knowledge,” Vanderhoof said.

“And most importantly, the interns will gain experiences working directly with children and families, showing them how much fun science learning can be.”

Photos provided

Youth, sometimes with their parents and sometimes independently, participate in a variety of experiments under the guidance of Maria Rebecca Duiker and other College of Education interns at Discovery Space Museum.

After Duiker’s SEN grant expires at semester’s end, she is going to Puerto Rico to do linguistic research through the Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) program and Penn State’s Center for Language Science. PIRE seeks to catalyze a higher level of international engagement in the U.S. science and engineering community.

After graduation in 2024, Duiker said she plans to join the Peace Corps for two years in the education sector and teach English. Her father is from the Netherlands and her mother is from Spain.

“I grew up originally speaking Spanish and then transitioned once I got into school,” she said.

“Just seeing how my language developed that way influenced me to want to be able to help children who were also in that situation, to feel more comfortable and more at ease, learning both languages simultaneously.”

Duiker also assisted Vanderhoof in designing and distributing 190 STEM kits for students in the Hazleton One Community Center.

“We would get the materials and we’d set up the kits and send them over so that the students could use them at some of their STEM nights and work through a variety of STEM activities,” Duiker said.

Duiker said Penn State and the College of Education have a resource to share with schools in surrounding areas and support STEM education in general.

“But we also have a lot of future teachers who are really willing and wanting to engage in volunteer experiences or wanting to engage in substituting experiences at the schools, which then provides students with kind of a fresh perspective into STEM,” she said. “And it gives students a lot of younger teacher role models to look up to who are also interested in STEM-related subjects.”

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Features

Research team develops framework to help military students succeed

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By Stephanie Koons

ome children of military families can experience more social-emotional risk than the average student due to stressors such as frequent moves and parental absence, according to Cristin Hall, associate professor of education (school psychology) and faculty affiliate for the Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness at Penn State.

Hall is principal investigator (PI) for a Penn State-led, fiveyear project to help schools build durable, flexible frameworks to set up military students for success.

“We want to have conversations, establish trust and build relationships where we can say, ‘We want to help you build something that’s going to make your life easier, that’s going to make your job easier and that’s going to help these kids,’” Hall said.

The Schools Empowering AtRisk Students (SEAS) Project is funded by a $2.65 million grant from the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) Military-Connected Academic and Support Programs. The project’s goal is to help military students succeed by facilitating access for student support personnel to online training materials and providing technical assistance, coaching and consultation in ways that are sustainable and manageable given the unique needs of each school and community.

DoDEA is responsible for planning, directing, coordinating and managing prekindergarten through 12th-grade educational programs on behalf of the Department of Defense (DoD).

The Clearinghouse, housed in the Penn State Social Science Research

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Photo: Provided

Cristin Hall, center, is the principal investigator on the Department of Defense Education Activity Military-Connected Academic and Support Programs, and collaborates with co-PI Jeremy Moeller, assistant teaching professor of special education, (left) and Brooke Kanaskie, project manager for Schools Empowering At-Risk Students project.

Institute, is an interdisciplinary team of research faculty and staff, and creative services professionals committed to providing outstanding support to professionals who provide programs and services to military families. Their vision is to ensure United States military families are always supported by practices and programs that are known to be effective based on science and evidence.

The SEAS Project has been supporting student support personnel (school counselors, psychologists and nurses) at schools on military installations since its inception in 2016, but the most recent grant, which was awarded in 2019, enabled the researchers to expand their services to all educators who serve militaryconnected children, including those attending civilian public schools.

Features In previous awards, the SEAS project focused more specifically on preventing suicide and self-harm; violent threat behaviors; and problematic sexual behaviors in children and youth (PSB-CY).

For the pilot project, the SEAS team is working with DoDEA schools in South Korea, Germany and Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The researchers also are collaborating with a school in California with a high percentage of students from Coast Guard families. The team has conducted mostly online meetings with the educators but they have met in person with educators from the North Carolina and California schools.

unique needs of military-connected children.

Hall said a unique challenge that DoDEA schools face is the high annual turnover of both students and educators. The turnover rates create challenges for the continuity of the training programs the researchers are trying to implement.

“In a DoDEA school, you might need to reboot every year because there are a lot of new kids,” said Hall.

“Our coaching framework is really set up and designed to talk through some of those realities and prepare for them because it’s just what is in their schools.”

A key feature of the now expanded SEAS Project is The SEAS team is in the process of refitting and the piloting of a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS), extending a webpage hosted by the Clearinghouse a framework many schools use to give targeted support for Military Family Readiness that was designed to to struggling students. Hall said in an attempt to provide access to materials for school practitioners that address social, serve militaryemotional and connected behavioral students. The adjustment, development some schools of the website “silo their risk” occurred in by developing 2017 as part multiple of an ongoing programs for previous separate issues project funded — which makes by the National implementation Institutes difficult of Food and since the Agriculture programs are (NIFA) and disjointed and — Cristin Hall includes a fragmented. portfolio of When materials including online learning modules, handouts, DoDEA informed the team that they had challenges printables and other resources. with PSB-CY in a couple of schools, she added, they decided to combine the work they had been doing on While the SEAS team’s goal is to have an up-andother problem behaviors with PSB-CY interventions running MTSS framework for social and behavioral into an MTSS framework. adjustment for pilot schools by the end of the project in 2024, Hall said that educators will be able to tweak “It’s been a series of projects that have evolved to the framework as the need arises. The team continues this point,” said Hall. “We’re trying to help students to consult with DoDEA leadership on how MTSS can be and teachers, and help schools function in a more used system-wide. positive and peaceful manner.”

“We want to have conversations, establish trust and build relationships where we can say, ‘We want to help you build something that’s going to make your life easier, that’s going to make your job easier and that’s going to help these kids.’”

While many military students are well-adjusted and don’t exhibit behavioral issues, Hall said some may be at a greater risk due to the transient nature of the military service and the potential of having one or both parents absent due to deployment or other assignments.

“Given that most military service members move on average every two to four years, transitional stress is a challenge for students and for the educators that serve them,” she said.

The SEAS project is designed to address not only the needs of student support personnel and teachers related to social-emotional risk but also to support the

“My team’s intention is to take these materials and adapt them so they can be used outside of the DoDEA system as well,” she said. “Within this framework, (educators) can make continuous decisions about what’s working and what’s not working.”

Hall’s collaborators on the SEAS Project are coPI Jeremy Moeller, assistant teaching professor of education (special education); Timothy Mazer, program manager for the SEAS team; Brooke Kanaskie, project manager; Savanna Woika, graduate assistant for the Clearinghouse and research assistant for the SEAS team; and Juliana Boucher, a second-year doctoral student and a graduate assistant for the SEAS team.

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Features

Student starting early to bring change to education

By Jim Carlson

Giani Clarke is a firstyear student in her second semester in Penn State’s College of Education who already has an overflowing resume and plans to match.

The future elementary education major someday would like to become a school superintendent.

While achieving that goal may be a couple of decades away, she’s already begun to develop those required leadership skills by involving herself in as many academic, social and student government activities as possible.

Whatever it might take to effect change, Clarke is all in. She’s a first-year representative in the University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA), attends Black Caucus meetings, serves on the Student Pennsylvania State Education Association, has a student leadership role with the Multicultural Education Student Association (MESA), and is on the THON dancer relations committee on which she has a diversity/equity/ inclusion (DEI) liaison role.

A social justice minor and likely involvement in the D.C. Social Justice Fellowship and Philadelphia Urban Project are on the horizon, she said.

An established dancer who also plays piano and violin and performed with her high school orchestra in Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Austria and Croatia, Clarke carried her DEI involvement from Wilson High School in the Reading suburb of West Lawn to Penn State.

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Photo: Provided

First-year College of Education student Giani Clarke says Penn State is unmatched in terms of opportunities outside of campus that she’ll have available to her.

“Everything regarding critical race theory and all that stuff in the classroom was a big deal and my school board was affected, and I got to see that firsthand because I was their student representative,” Clarke said.

“So I got involved in a DEI taskforce and equity taskforce in high school ... just making sure that all student voices are heard and everyone’s included. I think I can represent the community I come from very well and I’d love to learn from other communities that people identify as. So that’s where the passion came from.”

Clarke said she enrolled in the College of Education because nearly all her teachers attended Penn State and her mother, who teaches English as a Second Language, did as well. “So they were obviously huge influences, but once I actually started researching the College of Education, I saw all the opportunities, I saw that I would have a mentor within the college, which was really cool.

“And I just think Penn State’s unmatched with the amount of opportunities outside of the actual campus that I’ll be open to just because I’m a Penn State student.”

Features Admittedly, Clarke is a planner, and DEI topics are on her itinerary.

“I would like to see more curriculum regarding DEI and sustainability and just more hot-button topics or more current events incorporated into classes,” she said.

are underrepresented. The UPUA specifically has a great relationship with upper administration, which I think is an essential part and getting things done, because if we don’t have their attention, then we’re not going to make changes.”

“I feel like unless you’re taking the classes that have these titles — I’m taking a race and gender in literature class — that you’re not really getting any of that material.

I feel like if we incorporate it in those required classes that everyone has to take, then everyone has to hear it and everyone has to get educated on the (DEI) topic.”

When not involved in class or her various activities, Clarke likes to hang at the Office of Education and

That, Clarke said, would help effect change. “If you persuade one person or make them change their mind on something, or even hear them out with what they’re thinking and then say, ‘oh, but maybe you can think this way,’ that’s going to affect another person Giani Clarke, right, is all smiles for a selfie with College of Education Dean Kim Lawless. that they talk to and keep Social Equity (OESE) in Chambers affecting, so I think a changeBuilding. It’s a comfort zone where agent could be as small as one friends can chat among themselves conversation with someone,” she or speak with OESE administrators said. such as Brenda Martinez, a student “It’s important to me because I advocate specialist within OESE. love learning about other people’s “Giani is truly a wonderful perspectives, and then sharing student,” Martinez said. mine and coming to sort of a middle ground about it. Student “In her first semester she hit government is important to me the ground running and knew because we get to advocate for that she wanted to get involved in student voices that sometimes something that makes a difference

for the student body. She has been part of student leadership in MESA within the college and served as a critical person in getting the organization re-established.”

It’s clear that Clarke not only wants to make an impact now but also wants to put things in motion to have a greater impact, specifically with students of color.

“Giani is very self-aware and does not shy away in asking for help. It is a joy to have seen her blossom and come into her own in her first semester. I am excited for the lasting footprint she will leave in her later years but even more to see her engage in experiences that will truly make her a wonderful educator,” Martinez added.

If Clarke does achieve her goal of overseeing a school district, she will stress representation.

“I want to inspire everyone Photo: Annemarie Mountz that could see themselves in me and make them believe that they can do it too,” she said.

“Growing up in the area I did, I had one Black teacher, so I have minimal experience with having someone in the classroom that looked like me. I want to build a community that everyone feels safe in, and I want to make sure that I’m pleasing as many people as possible and keeping the kids in mind at all times, because they’re the most important.”

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Features

Change-makers make memorable impressions

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uring the course of our lives, we typically encounter a few people who make a strong, positive, memorable difference to us. People who do not subscribe to the “one-size-fitsall” philosophy of education, but rather identify and then respond to the needs of their students. People who are committed to inspiring and nurturing leaders who go on to make a positive impact locally, nationally and globally. We asked current students and alumni about people in the College of Education who made that kind of difference to them. Excerpts of responses recognizing current members of the college follow.

Suzanne Brokloff, academic adviser “Suzanne is a source of passion and information and has pushed me to chase after so many opportunities while studying here. She has helped me build my toolkit as an educator and is prepared to make sure I succeed when my time here has come to an end.” ~ Terrance Jefferson, undergraduate

David Gamson, faculty, EPS “Dr. Gamson runs a very interactive class with different activities and projects that we were able to do. He taught me a lot both about the history of education, as well as how to be a good teacher. When I struggled on a test, he helped me by giving me different studying methods as well as tips when taking the test itself.

He cares for not only the subject he teaches, but also his students.” ~ Kailee Warner, undergraduate

Tania Germino, faculty, C&I “Professor Germino’s love and excitement instilled in learning is infectious. I would be so excited to go to class every day, not only to learn, but because I got to spend time with my role model. She created powerful connections with every single one of us and I had never previously been in a college classroom environment such as this.” ~ Hope Morrison, undergraduate 12 Penn State Education

Jennifer Hanna, faculty, EPCSE

“Dr. Hanna is extremely understanding, knowledgeable, great at teaching, comforting and a great listener. She cares about her students and enjoys teaching them about things in and outside of class. She always is grateful for having us be part of her class and is willing to take time to help and guide us in the best way she can.

As much as she’s grateful for us, I hope she knows that we’re just as grateful for her.” ~ Nadine Mumaw, undergraduate

Richard Hazler, faculty, EPCSE

“He has helped me and many other counselor education students navigate the muddy waters of graduate school in every way possible. Dr. Hazler’s wisdom and foresightedness helped us think bigger than ourselves by seeking a bigger impact on the community.

His vast knowledge, experience and interpersonal style inspired me to work harder and walk in his shoes in my future career.” ~ Mahmood Salim Almaawali, graduate student

Stephanie Hopkins, academic adviser

“Stephanie Hopkins is a shining light in the Penn State education community. She values each student immensely and ensures they have the tools and information needed to be a successful and happy student.” ~ Loren Perry, undergraduate “I hope that Stephanie knows how much she has helped me in feeling stable in my time at Penn State.” ~ Caroline Clontz, undergraduate “She made me realize that although teaching can be stressful, it is going to be worth it in the end. She knew I had a drive and passion for it, and she expressed this greatly in our meetings.” ~ Ava Massetti, undergraduate

Jim Krombach, faculty, C&I

“As a supervisor, Jim made the whole process of student teaching seamless. I knew that I and my fellow student teachers could always turn to him for guidance and help with anything. I am so thankful to have him

as a supervisor and a mentor during my last semester of college.” ~ Megan Campbell, alumna

Susan Land, department head, LPS

“Dr. Land gave me the freedom and guidance to create a unique area of research focus, and supported my interests in non-traditional, non-academic jobs. She was also very understanding of my personal challenges related to immigration, motherhood and health. At every step of my Ph.D. I felt supported and encouraged.” ~ Sonia Tiwari, graduate student

Brenda Martinez, staff, OESE

“Brenda has helped create a physical space in the College of Education building where I can freely vent about what’s on my mind while getting advice or just support. She makes sure I know I can go to her with any problems and welcomes me into the Office of Education and Social Equity between classes. Having a place to hang out with other students and staff, watch a movie or get solid advice has changed my experience.” ~ Miranda Lucero, undergraduate “From helping me with the financial aspects of college to checking in on me during my hard times, I have always felt genuine care and understanding from Brenda. It also gives me great hope to see someone who shares my cultural identity as such a leader in a huge campus like this one. She is my real-world example of the representation readings and I understand my future role as a leader even more.” ~ Melanie Tobar, undergraduate

Scott McDonald, faculty, C&I

“Dr. McDonald challenged us to create thoughtful and welldesigned lessons that would push our students and push us as educators to understand the world around us a little better. I am forever grateful for the opportunity to have learned with and from Dr. McDonald.” ~ Douglas Womelsdorf, alumnus

Features Several former members of the College of Education also were recognized as change-makers in people’s lives. Those individuals, and the people who wrote about them, follow.

Claudia Anderson, former faculty member, recognized by alumna Amanda Gifford Lockwood.

Terry Blue, former academic adviser, recognized by alumnus Craig Pritcher.

J. David Boyle, former faculty member, recognized by alumnus Rick Wertz.

Bernard Bronstein, former academic adviser, recognized by Carole Klein.

Melissa Butler, former graduate assistant, recognized by alumna Tricia Shelton.

William Caldwell, professor emeritus of education, recognized by alumnus C. Jay Hertzog.

Wayne L. Detwiler Sr., former faculty member, recognized by alumnus Michael Murphy.

Victor L. Dupuis, former faculty member, recognized by alumnus Sylvester Kohut Jr. Joseph French, professor emeritus of education, recognized by Samuel Castiglione.

Dan Grow, former faculty member, recognized by alumnus Jonathan Klingeman.

Joe Kincheloe, former faculty member, recognized by alumnus Steve McLaughlin.

Fred Loomis, former faculty member, recognized by alumnus J. Adam Linetty.

Jane Madsen, former faculty member, recognized by alumna Ann Troyan.

J. Dan Marshall, professor emeritus of education, recognized by alumnus Larry Napoleon Jr.

Mimi Schaub, faculty, EPS “Dr. Mimi Schaub indelibly shaped the arc of my life. I took her EDTHP 416 Sociology of Education course during my junior year in 1999. She opened my eyes to the social foundations of education in America. I went on to earn a Ph.D. in sociology of education, and I’ve built an enormously rewarding career advancing the careers and impact of college and university leaders.” ~ Jim Sirianni, alumnus

Bonnie Meyer, professor emerita of education, recognized by graduate student Jia Yu Sylvia.

Jim Nolan, professor emeritus of education, recognized by alumnus Jeff Tranell.

Patrick Shannon, distinguished professor emeritus of education, recognized by alumna Carrie Koch.

Martin W. Sharp, former faculty member, recognized by alumnus Stephen F. Gambescia.

Twyla Shear, former faculty member, recognized by alumnae Jeanne Bricher Bender and Virginia Vincenti.

Deno G. Thevaos, former faculty member, recognized by alumna Karen Verbeke.

John W. Tippeconnic, former faculty member, recognized by alumna Katherine Campbell.

Horst von Dorpowski, assistant dean emeritus, recognized by Barbara J. Michael.

Barbara K. Wade, recognized by alumnus Michael Murphy.

Paul Welliver, former faculty member, recognized by alumni Mark Demyanovich and John R. Vincenti.

Randy Wiesenmayer, former faculty member, recognized by alumnus Dan Vandenberg.

George Zortich, former faculty member, recognized by alumna Darlene D. Large.

Pia Smal, faculty, EPCSE

“When teaching her students, she shows passion within the different topics and is always checking up on the students to see how they feel or what thoughts they have.

Outside of class I think Dr. Smal is a great, understanding and incredibly strong person who I will always be grateful for, for being a listener, providing advice and giving me the strength to be confident in myself and my capabilities.” ~ Nadine Mumaw, undergraduate

Rayne Sperling, associate dean “Dean Sperling has always believed in me and helped me throughout my education, teaching and leadership journey. Her creative ideas, listening skills and thoughtful thinking have helped shape my future as an educator. She is dedicated and driven to help make students’ experiences as meaningful and powerful as possible.” ~ Lisa Greeley, undergraduate

Mark D. Threeton, faculty, LPS “Our Workforce Education and Development department is full of influential faculty who make magical impacts on each of us. Dr. Threeton inspires me through his wisdom and encouragement. He never fails to provide hope when I am frustrated.

He constantly inspires students to be confident and take pride in their work, and have the courage to publish it. He went beyond the advisor, always a true mentor to me.” ~ Farhan Sadique, graduate student

Rachel Wolkenhauer, faculty, C&I “When we first met, I distinctly remember telling someone, ‘I want to be Rachel when I grow up,’ because she beautifully navigates the university and school district worlds while keeping students at the center. She introduced me to the idea that I can have an impact in both scholarship and practice simultaneously, which led me to take the leap into my current role.” ~ Danielle Butville, alumna

Hyung Joon Yoon, faculty, LPS “Dr. Yoon is a kind soul who strives to serve his advisees with a positive attitude, encourages you to get ‘uncomfortable,’ and helps you celebrate success. He demands the same high standards of his advisees that he holds himself accountable.

He is a wonderful listener and a true champion of students. He helped me become a better researcher, scholar and person.” ~ Joseph P. Harford, alumnus Penn State Education 13

Research

Project supports social-emotional learning for students of color

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By Stephanie Koons

ocial-Emotional Learning (SEL) has been widely accepted by educators and researchers as a methodology that helps students of all ages to better comprehend their emotions, to feel those emotions fully and demonstrate empathy for others. However, in an increasingly racially and ethnically diverse school population, a one-size-fits-all approach may not be effective in environments where students of color are impacted by circumstances that do not support a traditional SEL framework.

Aaron Campbell, assistant professor of education (special education) in the Penn State College of Education, has established a partnership with two institutions in which she is evaluating the efficacy of an intervention program she designed to address the needs of African American students at risk of emotional and behavioral disorders.

Photo provided

Elementary students in the McKeesport Area School District are participating in a socialemotional learning program designed by Aaron Campbell.

“I would like to see African American students, especially males, have a more positive outlook when it comes to education,” said Campbell. “If we can teach them how to regulate emotions in elementary school, as they matriculate into middle and high school, they’ll have fewer instances where they’re being written up, fewer negative interactions with administrators, fewer interactions with school resource officers.”

Assisted by Meghan Allen, a second-year doctoral candidate in special education, Campbell has established partnerships with two participating research sites: an urban primary school in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, and a rural Head Start program in northwestern Pennsylvania. She and Allen are working with the McKeesport elementary school, in which 89% of the students are African American and many are struggling with behavioral difficulties. In the fall, Campbell will start a project at Head Start working with younger children of color.

Campbell and Allen are implementing a package of two interventions that normally work independent of each other — the Strong Start SEL curriculum, a program designed for promoting social and emotional learning of young children; and Check-In/Check-Out (CICO), a behavioral intervention in which a student and a mentor work together to improve behavior.

Campbell said recent research shows that SEL curricula alone are not sufficient for students of color in urban schools. “They need extra constraints when it comes to building relationships with authority figures,” she said.

14 Penn State Education

By pairing with Strong Start, Campbell said, the CICO program has been altered to align with SEL competencies. Traditionally, the “teacher would just ask the student a bunch of questions about daily goals.” In Campbell’s SEL-centered CICO, the teacher will consider the larger context of the student’s situation. For instance, when asking a student about what they did the previous night, they might learn that the student didn’t have dinner or slept in a car.

Accessing that kind of information, Campbell said, can enable the teacher to address the issue so that the students are on the same footing as their classmates.

In addition to revising the CICO program, Campbell’s project involves tweaking the Strong Start curriculum so it is more culturally responsive to African American students. Campbell has selected readaloud books, based on the students’ grade level, that contain characters that “look like the students they are catering to” while other books have animal characters.

The stories touch on culturally relevant issues such as how style choices impact public perceptions, and lessons on self-esteem and self-love for young Black girls.

Allen, a second-year doctoral student, said she is interested in the effect of SEL curricula on students that are disproportionately represented in special education. “I don’t think any of the students are operating from a malicious point of view,” said Allen.

“Knowing they have teachers that want to work with Dr. Campbell and provide that support in the classroom is really encouraging and hopefully that’s a pattern we can see spread across districts as we move forward.”

Research

Professor leads effort to bring mindfulness curricula into schools

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eborah Schussler, professor of education (educational leadership) in the Penn State College of Education, is part of a group of researchers who have demonstrated that school-based mindfulness programs (SBMPs) have benefits for students’ psychological, cognitive, behavioral and physical development. However, there has been relatively little research on the school structures that impact these outcomes for different students in diverse settings and on the role that teachers play in implementing mindfulness curricula.

By Stephanie Koons “The purpose was to talk about supports and challenges to implement school-based mindfulness and how it occurs in different contexts,” Schussler said.

Schussler, who received the Spencer Conference Grant in spring 2020, facilitated the conference with co-principal investigator Julia Mahfouz, an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at the University of Colorado Denver, who received her doctorate from the Penn State College of Education in 2017, and

mindfulness. The researchers conducted in-depth interviews spanning 12 to 20 months with three 11th-grade health teachers to capture their perspectives at three to four time-points during their professional development and implementation of Learning to BREATHE (L2B). L2B, which was developed by Broderick, is an SBMP developed for adolescents that has been implemented in a variety of contexts.

While the researchers found that the L2B program aligned well with the teachers’ overall teaching beliefs and values, they discovered some tensions that implementing To address L2B elicited. those issues, One of those Schussler forged tensions, ties with a group Schussler of national and said, is that international Photo provided mindfulness scholars and is supposed to A conference hosted by Deborah Schussler drew mindfulness scholars and practitioners from around the world. school-based be invitational practitioners. while school, for Sebrina Doyle, a doctoral candidate the most part, is directive. As part Schussler hosted a conference, in educational leadership in the of their L2B training, teachers were “Mindfulness-based intervention Department of Education Policy encouraged to ask students if they implementation and sustainability Studies. want to participate in a mindfulness in diverse school contexts” Feb. activity but if they decline, to give 4-6 in Philadelphia. The conference, Schussler and colleagues their classmates space to do it. which was funded by a Spencer examine mindfulness-based Conference Grant of just under programs from the teacher’s A major takeaway from $50,000, convened international perspective in a new paper, both the study and the Spencer scholars and practitioners from “Shifting to Embodiment: Conference, Schussler said, is that multiple disciplines studying or a Longitudinal Qualitative mindfulness-based curricula should implementing mindfulness-based Investigation into the Experiences be a holistic effort that involves interventions in K-12 settings of High School Teachers Teaching not just students but also teachers, in different sociocultural and Mindfulness.” educational leaders and community geographic contexts. Participants, members.

The purpose of the researchers’ who joined both in person and via qualitative investigation was to “When (mindfulness practices) Zoom, represented educational explore how teachers experienced are part of the fabric of school, institutions from the United implementing an SBMP over time, the ways of being of a school as a Kingdom, Israel, Canada and across including their embodiment of whole, it’s much better.” the United States.

Penn State Education 15

Research

Using experiential learning within health, safety courses becoming more prevalent

By Jim Carlson

Research shows that career and technology education instructors are using experiential learning to teach safety and health subjects in their secondary education programs.

Mark Threeton, associate professor of education (workforce education) and associate director of the Professional Development Center for Technical Education (CTE), says inherent dangers within CTE careers such as biotechnology, electromechanical engineering technology, and mechatronics technology, to name a few, can exist within the instructional processes of the related technical courses, which are offered in schools.

Experiential learning, according to Threeton’s research titled “An Investigation of Experiential Learning Strategies,” provides students with an opportunity to actively engage in the educational process through a combination of doing, feeling, watching and thinking activities while constructing new meaning and application from the learning experience.

“I have been conducting research on experiential learning practices for several years, and when implemented correctly by educators, the transfer of student learning is greatly enhanced,” Threeton said. “As a simulated educational environment for STEM-related technical fields, these educators must provide a safe learning environment while simultaneously preparing students to work safely in school, in order to transfer these skill sets to realworld applications and future careers.”

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“Based on this research, I have developed experiential learning practices to better assist educators in promoting enhanced learning and skill development for their students.”

— Mark Threeton

Threeton said to accomplish this, technical educators utilize certain instructional strategies, which aid in promoting the transfer of learning.

“One of these strategies is experiential education,” he said.

“However, there have been few studies that actually examined these instructional strategies.

A better understanding of this instructional approach could lead to enhanced teaching, learning and safety practices in schools and beyond.”

Threeton’s qualitative research revealed that experiential learning — learning by doing, handson learning and providing an experience to students — is being used by a majority of teachers for safety and health subjects. His three-state study — conducted via Zoom because of the COVID-19 pandemic — included 42 secondarylevel CTE educators actively teaching in Colorado, Kansas and Pennsylvania.

He found that professional development opportunities should be provided to educators on the fundamentals of promoting the transfer of learning through authentic experiential learning

practices, and that the study should be replicated on a larger scale within diverse STEM-related educational programs nationwide.

“A majority of the educators in this study were utilizing experiential education, which is a positive sign. However, more emphasis should be placed on the thinking, reflecting and processing elements of the model, as this is critical for students to construct new meaning and application from learning experiences,” Threeton said.

“Based on this research, I have developed experiential learning practices to better assist educators in promoting enhanced learning and skill development for their students.”

Threeton cited the four modes of Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle — 2005 research from Kolb and Kolb — as concrete experience (feeling), reflective observation (watching), abstract conceptualization (thinking) and active experimentation (doing).

Threeton said examining the transfer of learning through experience is paramount to keeping students safe within school and in their future careers.

Research Researchers examine link between residential and school segregation

Students’ sense of belonging related to mental health during pandemic

School segregation has remained a hot-button political issue since Brown vs. Board of Education, a landmark 1954 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the justices ruled that state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional.

Among the many challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic has presented to the higher education community, one of the most serious is arguably the toll on college students’ mental health. Penn State researchers have found that students’ sense of belongingness in a higher education institution not only has an impact on their academic Maithreyi Gopalan performance but might also buffer them against anxiety and depression amid the global pandemic and a renewed racial awareness in the country.

Erica Frankenberg

In a new article, “Student Assignment Policies and Racial and Income Segregation of Schools, School Attendance Zones and Neighborhoods,” Erica Frankenberg, professor of education (educational leadership and demography) and director of the Center for Education and Civil Rights, and lead author Kendra Taylor, who received a doctorate from the Department of Education Policy Studies, shed light on how school district leaders’ use of diversity-focused student assignment policies could disrupt the link between residential and school segregation.

The researchers examined racial and income segregation at the neighborhood, school zone and school levels in the districts to explore the relationship between districts’ diversity policies and school, attendance zone and residential segregation. They found that in the context of similar residential segregation, educational segregation varies.

“This highlights that there can be a complex relationship between the different types of segregation that exist within a school district ... and that comparing segregation at these multiple scales can help us understand the dynamics of segregation in school districts and best target potential solutions,” the researchers wrote.

Visit https://bit.ly/3rB4i4S to read the full story.

“The global pandemic has really shone a light on how academics and mental well-being are really intertwined especially for a population like college students,” said Maithreyi Gopalan, assistant professor of education (education and public policy). “I think institutions need to be thinking a lot more about what they are doing to promote students’ sense of belonging and what effect that might have, which goes much beyond academic outcomes.”

In a new paper published recently in the Journal of Adolescent Health, “College Students’ Sense of Belonging and Mental Health Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic,” Gopalan and colleagues at Penn State’s Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Center examine a key protective factor — students’ sense of belonging with their college — to understand how belongingness varies overall and for key sociodemographic groups amid COVID-19; and if feelings of belonging buffer students from adverse mental health in college.

In their paper, Gopalan and colleagues report that studies have shown that students from underrepresented racial/ethnic

minority and first-generation backgrounds report lower belonging, which might be damaging to their mental health.

Additionally, barriers to belonging might be higher for students transitioning into a new college environment amid the global pandemic.

Visit https://bit.ly/3GljEPb to read the full story.

Two projects involving Education faculty receive seed funding The Penn State Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence (CSRAI) recently announced the results of its second seed funding competition, awarding more than $96,000 to advance seven interdisciplinary research projects that feature researchers from 11 colleges and institutes, including the College of Education.

The two projects involving College of Education faculty selected for funding are: “Automated Techniques for Educational Meta-Analyses to Improve Diversity, Equity and Inclusion of Educational Policy and Classroom Methods,”

by Rebecca J. Passonneau, College of Engineering; and Brian Belland, Brian Belland College of Education.

“Study with Me: Self-Regulated Learning with Virtual Studying Environments and Personalized Study Companion,” by Syed Billah and Prasenjit Mitra, College of Information Sciences and Technology; and Marcela Marcela Borge Borge, College of Education.

Visit https://bit.ly/3AJs41x to read the full story.

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Impact

Parle honored with Alumni Achievement Award

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ollege of Education alumna Christina Parle is among those recognized this year by the Penn State Alumni Association with the Alumni Achievement Award. The award recognizes alumni 35 years of age and younger for their extraordinary professional accomplishments.

These prominent young alumni demonstrate to students that Penn State alumni succeed in exceptional fashion at an early age.

Parle, who graduated in 2016 with a master’s degree in higher education, is co-founder, team lead, educator and consultant at Social Responsibility Speaks, an organization that seeks to create a culture of belonging and mattering through a focus on equity, inclusion and justice.

“Christina Parle already has proven her capacity to be a catalyst for change in the equity/inclusion/ diversity arena. In addition to her paid professional positions, she volunteers as director of equity and inclusion for the Association for Student Conduct Administration Board of Directors,” said Dean Kimberly A. Lawless. “As a dynamic speaker, National Coalition Building Institute facilitator, and student affairs professional and leader, Christina is poised to share her breadth of knowledge and expertise with College of Education faculty and student groups, as well as Penn State Student Affairs staff.

She will be a phenomenal resource and partner in helping the college achieve its strategic plan goals — especially those that relate to equity, inclusion and diversity.”

Parle previously served as director of chapter services and conduct for Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity Inc. (ZBT), the world’s first and largest Jewish fraternity, from February 2019 to March 2022. Prior to her work at ZBT, she was the assistant director of student conduct and community

18 Penn State Education

Photos: Annemarie Mountz

While Alumni Achievement Awardwinner Christina Parle was on campus to receive her award, she spent time with students, faculty and staff in the College of Education, above, and gave an interactive presentation on leadership.

contributions to the field of fraternity/sorority advising. standards at the University of Kansas (KU) where she served as the student housing liaison and then transitioned to a focus on student organization misconduct.

Before KU, she was a fraternity and sorority adviser at Western Carolina University, where she advised the Panhellenic, Interfraternity and National Pan-Hellenic Councils.

In 2019, Parle was named to Sigma Kappa’s inaugural class of 35 under-35 honorees for facing the world with bravery, strength, intelligence, compassion and understanding. In 2020, she received the Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisers Gayle Webb New Professional Award, which recognizes outstanding

Parle is president-elect of the Association for Student Conduct Administration, a national organization dedicated to upholding the integrity of the student conduct process, resulting in the ability to build safer educational communities and positively impact the higher education experience.

In 2021, Parle delivered the keynote talk, “Empowerment & Authenticity: It Starts with Uncomfortability,” for the College of Education GOLD Women’s Leadership webinar series.

In addition to her graduate degree from Penn State, Parle holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and political science from the University of Central Missouri.

Impact

Alumnus seeks to empower underrepresented educators

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By Stephanie Koons

onathan C.W. Jones, who graduated from the College of Education in 2007 with a master’s degree in special education and a focus on augmentative and alternative communications, is driven by three overarching goals in his career: utilize technology to help students with disabilities, address inequalities in funding opportunities in under-resourced communities, and unify and empower Black male educators.

Jones recently began a new position as assistant principal at Washington Technology Magnet School, Saint Paul Public Schools, in Minnesota. In addition, he is founder of Ideation4, a for-profit business that explores economic opportunities for under-resourced communities through proposal workshops, coaching and consulting. Jones also is executive director of UpLIFT Movement, a national nonprofit organization with a mission to recruit, retain and engage so that Black male educators thrive and excel.

Jones said his journey to Penn State was facilitated in large part by his connection with Jhan Doughty, who graduated from the College of Education in 1994 and 2001 and now is senior program adviser for National Assessment of Educational Progress at Educational Testing Service in Princeton, New Jersey.

Jones, who grew up in Saint Paul, attended Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans, where he majored in special education and where Doughty earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology. Doughty and her mother, Marva Doughty, an administrator at Xavier, encouraged him to apply to the Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP), an eight-week research program designed to interest undergraduate students from underrepresented groups in academic careers.

Jones applied to the SROP and was accepted into a cohort at Penn State.

While in SROP, Jones worked with David McNaughton, professor of education (special education) and Janice Light, professor of communication sciences and disorders and the Hintz Family Endowed Chair in Children’s Communicative Competence. Jones delved into research examining the role of technology in special education.

“My experience with doing research and learning how to do research has been very significant in my career,” Jones said. “By the time I got out of graduate school, I knew I had the passion as well as the skill set

Photo provided

College of Education alumnus Jonathan C.W. Jones is assistant principal at Washington Technology Magnet School in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

to do this work.”

In his first year of teaching, Jones said, he worked with students with special needs attending Northeast Metro Intermediate School District 916 and started building his knowledge about the lack of resources in schools and how to go after funding. He pointed out that organizations led by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) individuals tend to be the least-funded nationwide.

The impetus behind starting UpLIFT Movement, Jones said, was to create a sense of community among Black male educators and help build Black male educator pipelines across the country. To date Jones has developed and published two editions (digital and print) and impacted 90 Black male educators from across the country including teachers, professors and administrators.

“The Board of Directors has decided we will continue developing the publication on a yearly basis, identify geographic areas to focus on and really try to build our nonprofit as a networking hub for other Black male educators across the country,” he said. “We’re very excited to build on this and see where it takes us.”

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Alumni A College of Education degree is more versatile than some people may imagine.

Many of our graduates go into fields that are directly related to their degrees. But many others use the knowledge gained during their time as students to succeed in other fields. This recurring feature profiles graduates who have used their College of Education degrees to succeed in their careers. Meet Val Barner and Jessica Steiger, both of whom earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the College of Education.

Val Barner

Jessica Steiger

Education: B.S. in rehabilitation and human services (1990); M.Ed. in counselor education (2007)

Education: B.S. in education and public policy (2018); M.A. in educational theory and policy (2019)

Current position: I currently am CEO of Skills of Central Pennsylvania, a role I have held since Dec. 1, 2021. As the CEO, I am responsible for the entire operations of the Skills organization, which is a nonprofit organization that provides an array of services across 17 counties in central Pennsylvania. Skills is a $65 million a year organization that employs more than 1,000 people. I joined Skills in 2017 as the organization’s regional vice president for Centre, Lycoming, Clinton, Huntingdon, Mifflin and Juniata counties. In 2018 I was selected to serve as Chief Operating Officer, providing oversight of Skills’ daily operations to ensure that our programs meet the needs of the people we support and follow all regulatory requirements.

Current position: I currently work for the New Jersey Office of the Secretary of Higher Education as a policy analyst. My first job out of college was as a guidance officer at New Jersey SEEDS, a community-based organization focused on college access. I also worked part time as an advocate and instructor for Seton Hall University’s Upward Bound program. My background always has been focused on the transition from secondary to postsecondary institutions. My first two jobs out of college/graduate school helped me explore whether I wanted to take on a practitioner or more policy/ consultative role. I loved working with students and making lesson plans, but in these roles I really missed the technical writing, analysis and strategy aspect of writing policy so I began exploring other options and found a posting for NJ OSHE’s new position as an entry level policy analyst, which is my absolute dream job.

My undergraduate degree provided me with the knowledge and the foundation to be successful in my career. My internship experience proved to be very valuable. I completed my required internship at the Centre County Mental Health/Intellectual Disabilities Office and was hired as a case manager immediately after graduation. I didn’t know it at the time, but my internship really helped to launch my human services career. I worked there full-time as the assistant administrator for mental health services while I obtained my master’s degree. As a returning adult graduate student, I was able to apply my classes and coursework to actual work experience, which was so beneficial. My courses helped me look at real-world issues differently and allowed me to take a different approach to developing solutions. In 2010 I became regional director for Universal Community Behavioral Health/Meadows. In 2015 I became manager of outpatient services at Divine Providence Hospital, and worked there until I joined Skills in 2017.

Advice to current students: If you can, work or volunteer in the field to establish an understanding of the needs of individuals with disabilities and to look at all aspects of their life.

20 Penn State Education

My degrees have been invaluable in both finding a job well-aligned with my goals and also being able to perform and meet the direct needs of my organization.

The education theory and policy program trained me well in the research, analysis, technical writing and strategy components to feel successful in the field I’ve found. The professors have such specialized and unique backgrounds that I was able to explore all areas of education policy prior to entering in the field, and I felt more confident about what I wanted to study. Also, our internship component for graduation really helped me get exposure to different but related fields and that early exposure allowed me to build connections while also exploring future pathways.

Advice to current students: Always be open to opportunities that present themselves because you never know who you’ll meet or how the work may show up down the road. Also, reach out to your professors and get to know them. I think the earlier you can start directly working on projects/research outside of coursework the easier the job hunt will be – more specifically, finding a meaningful career.

Alumni Message from the Alumni Society Board President The Penn State College of Education Alumni Board keeps working for you.

During the past two years, the Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc with educational institutions and their support systems. Clearly, all those working in educationrelated fields have learned to adapt and deliver educational opportunities for students, families, and alumni.

I am pleased to share that the Penn State College of Education Alumni Society Board (ASB) also has learned to adjust “on the fly” in order to provide great opportunities for alumni and current students.

Yes, not even a pandemic can stop the work of the ASB! The Academic and Career Enrichment Committee supports K-12 educators including a New Teacher Webinar series coming this July. Penn State Proud – Teachers Helping Teachers prepares infographics and resources for new teachers.

The Alumni Student-Teacher

Network has reached out to more than 500 Penn State student teachers with supplemental learning activities during the pandemic.

The Outreach and Engagement Committee has created newsletters titled “Emeri-TIES” to keep former board members engaged with the college.

The Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) Committee has begun the important work of making others aware of the lack of student exposure to racially diverse teachers across Pennsylvania. This effort will be broadened in the coming months and years.

The Constitution and Policy Committee will be receiving input and recommendations from a special Nominations and Elections Ad Hoc committee that will potentially afford all Penn State College of Education Alumni Association members an active voice in the selection of Alumni Society Board members.

Truly, your Alumni Society Board

has been incredibly active in spite of pandemic obstacles.

I will be concluding my term as the president of the Alumni Society Board in June. It has been a distinct honor to serve. And it has been my pleasure to meet a wide variety of alumni and current students.

For the Glory,

Joseph H. Clapper ’92 D.Ed. Curriculum & Instruction

Nominate outstanding alumni for annual excellence awards College of Education alumni are honored with awards from the college’s Alumni Society as well as from the Penn State Alumni Association.

• Outstanding New Graduate. This award recognizes recent graduates who have distinguished themselves in their new careers.

The College of Education Alumni Society supports awards in several categories, presented each year to graduates and student teachers who have distinguished themselves in their profession.

• Service to Penn State. This award recognizes those alumni and friends who have made significant contributions of time and talent to the college and/or the University.

Award categories are: • Alumni Excellence. This is the highest honor bestowed upon alumni of the College of Education. It is awarded to recognize careerlong, sustained excellence of contribution and achievement in the nominee’s chosen profession.

• Outstanding Teaching. This award recognizes an exemplary individual in a full-time teaching capacity in the education profession.

• Leadership and Service. This award recognizes those alumni who have distinguished themselves in their chosen profession, in or out of the field of education.

• Outstanding Student Teaching. This award recognizes up to four outstanding student teachers every academic year. (Note: Nominations for this award are solicited through the College of Education’s Office of Curriculum & Instruction Field Experiences.)

• J.E.D.I. (Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion).

This award recognizes alumni who showcase exemplary insight and fortitude in workplace and/ or community diversity.

Nominations are accepted throughout the year, with recipients chosen each spring. For information, and to submit a nomination, visit https://ed.psu.edu/alumnigiving/alumni-society-awards online.

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