Wrase Receives Faculty Award Micah Wrase has been an adjunct
instructor of psychology and interdisciplinary studies at Schreiner University for seven years, but his involvement with the school goes back still another decade. Wrase, who was named Part-Time Faculty of the Year, started here as a freshman from Boerne in fall 1999. With the exception of a couple of years, he’s been part of the community ever since. “The Schreiner soccer coach talked with me when Boerne played Tivy. I came up and took a walk around,” says Wrase. “I liked the small feel of the campus, the beautiful setting, and the people I met were fantastic.” The soccer team was “competitive” during his four years on the Mountaineer squad, which also featured former Tivy foe Matt Goodwyn (now assistant dean of students) and assistant coach Kiley Miller (now chemistry professor). Wrase graduated in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, and started graduate studies at Our Lady of the Lake University. A year later, Dean of Students Peg Layton recruited him to be full-time director of Schreiner Campus Recreation and a residence hall director. “That was an amazing position and hugely pivotal in my relationship with Schreiner,” says Wrase. “I didn’t have a background in recreation, but I had worked for a camp before. … and a psych major can really pertain to almost any field.” After two years, he left the campus recreation post to do a full-time internship with the Boerne school district as part of his graduate work. Wrase and his family continued to live on campus until he completed master’s degree in psychology and left to work in schreiner.edu Summer 2016
Tyler, Texas. After a year there, as he says, “the Hill Country locked in on us and pulled us back.” Since 2008, Wrase has been a licensed specialist in school psychology with the Kerrville Independent School District. He works with individuals and groups on nine campuses, and chairs the district’s Character and Kindness Academic Excellence Committee composed of teachers, counselors and administrators. And a couple of evenings a week he teaches psychology at Schreiner. His family—wife Elizabeth (a fourth grade science teacher in the KISD), sons Ethan, 12, and Luke, 10; and twin daughters Addison and Olivia, 6—“is very supportive” of his work at Schreiner, says Wrase. “They’re fantastic.” Wrase is co-chair of the Schreiner Diversity Committee, and also works with the Organization for Latino Engagement. In his spare time, he still plays soccer with friends from his collegiate days at Schreiner, sometimes as part of an indoor soccer league. The teaching award is very meaningful to him. Having this affirmation from other faculty members is “icing on the cake,” adds Wrase. “When faculty, to whom I’ve looked up to since I was an undergraduate here, look at my work and recognize me for it, that’s pretty humbling.” “I think the students understand that I love what I’m doing, and I’m not doing it for any other reason than to help them learn and grow as individuals” He says that interaction with students helps him grow too. “I selfishly hope I will learn from their unique life experiences and backgrounds, and knowledge that I may not have.”
Karen Backor, Ph.D.
Award Winners
Excellence in Research, Scholarship, and Creativity
Margaret Huddleston, Ph.D.
Margaret Hosler Award for Excellence in Teaching
Kathleen Hudson, Ph.D.
Elmore Whitehurst Award for Creative Teaching
Julie Lunsford, DNP
Harriett Garrett Award for Teaching Excellence
Clay McClure Faculty Service
Micah Wrase
Part-Time Faculty
Retirements David U. Byrne, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology Member of the faculty since 1987
Changes
Fred Stevens, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus of Biology Member of the faculty 1978-2014
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