West-Olatunji

West-Olatunji has held leadership positions at the branch, division and national levels of the ACA, which has more than 43,000 members. She currently serves on the association’s executive committee and on the governing council as a representative of the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development. She is a past president of the latter group.

She joins an impressive lineup of national leaders from UF’s counselor education program, spanning several decades. The program is ranked second nationally in its specialty area in the U.S. News & World Report’s survey of America’s Best Graduate Schools, and has consistently held a Top 5 national ranking since the mid-1990s.

“Dr. West-Olatunji continues the long-held tradition of UF counselor education faculty serving as national and international leaders of the profession,” said UF education dean Glenn Good, who also has a counseling background.

West-Olatunji said she expects the ACA to be dealing with several major emerging trends during her presidency—including the globalization of counseling and new counseling theories based on patients’ cultural backgrounds, learning how emotional responses to traumatic events (such as natural disasters) can contribute to psychological distress, and “a flurry of theories related to counseling young children age 5 and younger.”

“The next decade in counseling will be very exciting times in which counselors will need to be more responsive than ever,” she said.

West-Olatunji’s research specialty is in multicultural counseling and the role of cultural identity in the psychological, emotional and educational development of socially marginalized students. She has worked with local school communities to improve supportive parenting practices among students in low-income African-American families.

With an unusually high number of natural disasters occurring worldwide in recent years, she has been promoting the need to train more practitioners who can provide counseling for victims of disasters and their surviving family members and friends. She has taken graduate counseling students to New Orleans to assist in post-Katrina disaster recovery efforts. (She earned her master’s and doctorate degrees in counselor education from the University of New Orleans.)

She also has organized national teams of counseling students, faculty and practitioners to travel to South Africa and Botswana for community-based counseling of HIV and AIDS patients.

After visiting post-earthquake Haiti and other recent disaster sites, West-Olatunji has designed a new online certificate program in disaster counseling at UF for licensed mental health professionals and state-certified school counselors drawn to the field. She is developing a training model that can be used in places like New Orleans, Port Au Prince, Haiti, and Japan, and is planning a trip to Latin America for another outreach trip next year.

She has received numerous awards for research and service to the profession from groups such as the AMCD, Florida Counseling Association, Counselors for Social Justice, and the Association for Black Psychologists.

CONTACTS

     SOURCE: Cerecie West-Olatunji, associate professor, UF College of Education; (w) 352-273-4324; cwestolatunji@coe.ufl.edu

     WRITER: Larry Lansford, director, news & communications, UF College of Education, 352-273-4137; llansford@coe.ufl.edu

Patricia Snyder

The McEvoy award annually recognizes a community member, parent or professional who has made significant contributions, on a national or international level, to early intervention and early childhood special education that improve the lives of young children with special needs, their families, or those who work on their behalf. The DEC is a division of the Council for Exceptional Children, the largest international organization of professionals in the field.

McEvoy, the former director of the Center for Early Education and Development at the University of Minnesota, was a nationally respected researcher and advocate in early childhood studies. She was one of seven passengers who died with Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone in a 2002 plane crash on their way to a political debate and funeral service. She was 49.

“Mary McEvoy set the bar high for those of us in early-childhood-studies science, policy and practice. Those who have previously received the award named in her honor have raised the bar even higher,” Snyder said. “Much of what we envision for our center at the University of Florida is influenced by the work of Mary, her colleagues, and previous award recipients, which makes this honor even more meaningful.”

Snyder is the inaugural occupant of the David Lawrence Jr. Endowed Chair in Early Childhood Studies at UF’s College of Education. Prior to her UF appointment in 2007, she was the founding director of the Early Intervention Institute at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center and subsequently was the director of research at Vanderbilt University’s Center for Child Development for two years.

UF Education Dean Glenn Good said Snyder’s selection for the McEvoy Award reflects UF’s national leadership role in early childhood studies. “Dr. Snyder spearheaded the creation of the university’s center for excellence in 2010 by mobilizing the university’s top specialists in early childhood studies for collaborative research and training activities.

“She has worked to create exceptional interdisciplinary programs and projects for her entire career.”

Snyder interacts with a toddler at Baby Gator.

The new center she heads has quickly gathered some early momentum. While UF’s Baby Gator Child Development and Research Center serves as the hub for model demonstration and training activities, Snyder set up the center’s administrative and research offices in newly renovated quarters in the College of Education’s Norman Hall.

Joining Snyder on the center’s interdisciplinary leadership team are Baby Gator director Pam Pallas, education professor James Algina, associate scholar in education Kelly Whalon, and UF pediatrics professors Marylou Behnke and Fonda Davis Eyler. World-class scholar Maureen Conroy also was recruited back to UF for a leadership team post. Conroy promptly landed a $4 million federal grant to examine the efficacy of a social and behavioral intervention in early learning settings. The center also has hired its first research scientist, Tara McLaughlin, a December doctoral graduate of UF’s early childhood-special education program with several national research and editorial honors.

Prominent businesswoman Anita Zucker, a 1972 UF education graduate, kept the momentum building last year when she pledged $1 million to create an endowed professorship in early childhood studies.

In the research arena, Snyder is working on a $6 million federal grant to expand a job-embedded, advanced degree track in early childhood studies and teacher leadership for teachers in Miami-Dade schools. She recently completed a highly competitive, $1.3 million federal grant to study the impact of professional development on preschool teachers’ instructional practices. In early February, she and her colleagues received a prestigious postdoctoral fellowship training grant from the Institute of Education Sciences.

“We are developing new early learning interventions in collaboration with local, state and national partners and supporting the next generation of early-childhood studies leaders and researchers,” Snyder said.

She served as editor of the Journal of Early Intervention from 2002-2007.  Barbara Wolfe, a professor emeritus at the University of St. Thomas, says the high standards Snyder set as editor “played an important role in how early childhood intervention research is viewed and used by others.”

Snyder also advises state and federal early-learning commissions and is a local volunteer for United Way and the Children’s Movement of Florida.

“Pat has had a major impact on the field (of early childhood studies), has contributed significantly to the development of future leaders in our field, and has made a difference in the lives of children and families,” Wolfe wrote in nominating Snyder for the McEvoy Award.

Several of her doctoral students lauded Snyder in their nomination letters for her effective mentorship and the collaborative research opportunities she offers. Concerning her leadership style, Snyder says that among her leadership mantras are to “lead quietly, competently, and by example.”

“I consider it the supreme compliment when peers and practitioners say the quality of their work is enhanced through their collaborations with me, my colleagues, and our students,” Snyder said. “At the end of the day, my litmus test for the work we do is how much it improves services and supports for young children and their families.”

CONTACTS

SOURCE: Patricia Snyder, the Lawrence Endowed Professor in Early Childhood Studies, UF College of Education, 352-273-4291; patriciasnyder@coe.ufl.edu

WRITER: Larry Lansford, director, news & communications, UF College of Education, 352-273-4137; llansford@coe.ufl.edu

]]> http://education.ufl.edu/news/2012/02/15/early-childhood-service-award-has-special-meaning-for-patricia-snyder/feed/ 0 http://education.ufl.edu/news/2012/02/15/performing-arts-students-to-stage-spelling-bee-musical-comedy-at-annual-spring-show/ http://education.ufl.edu/news/2012/02/15/performing-arts-students-to-stage-spelling-bee-musical-comedy-at-annual-spring-show/#comments Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:08:30 +0000 lansford http://education.ufl.edu/news/?p=9157

SAVE THE DATES: March 23-31.

That’s when the Performing Arts Center at P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School will be presenting the musical, “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.”

Spelling Bee features another super-talented cast of students from PKY’s award-winning Performing Arts program and promises to be another P.K. Yonge landmark production.

Spelling Bee won two Tony awards during its Broadway run and features one of the funniest, most original concepts in Broadway history.  Young people in the throes of puberty, overseen by grown-ups who barely managed to escape childhood themselves, learn that winning isn’t everything and that losing doesn’t necessarily make you a loser. They are a quirky, yet charming cast of outsiders for whom a spelling bee is the one place where they can stand out and fit in at the same time.

Tickets for reserved seating go on sale soon. For more information, contact the P.K. Yonge Ticket Hotline 352.392.1850, or online at http://springmusical.pkyonge.ufl.edu/.

In her latest book, COE alumna Margaret Rosenberger, 90, writes poetry to sway elementary students away from criminal tendencies and toward a more positive future.

UF education alumna Margaret Rosenberger (BAE ’49, MEd ’52), a fifth-generation Florida native and a 1939 graduate of P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School, has been writing poetry since she was 10. Now, at 90, she is looking to publish her latest book of poetry, “A Guide: Ways to Succeed,” to sway troubled elementary students away criminal tendencies and toward a more positive future.

The idea for the book was born in 2005 at a meeting of the Alachua County Children’s Committee, which Rosenberger founded in the 1950s. The committee surveyed adults and students and found there were a startling number of elementary students involved in crimes. Rosenberger took concerns cited in the surveys and wrote poems about them.

“People tend to remember things better in poetry form,” said Rosenberger, a longtime Gainesville teacher and principal and a retired member of the School Board of Alachua County. She said the poems would be a good discussion starter for elementary classrooms.

She said once the collection is published, proceeds from book sales would go to a foundation with programs to keep youth from crime.

Rosenberger, who worked as a teacher and principal for more than 30 years in Gainesville and in over 20 countries during World War II, said the book is designed for teachers to read one poem each day and discuss different opinions with the students. Poetry topics range from character-building and handling temper tantrums to student health and hygiene.

She said her favorite poem is titled, “You’re not a brat.” It was inspired from her teaching experience at an Army base in Germany when students would introduce themselves as “Army brats.”

“I said, ‘I don’t like that word, ‘brat,’ and once we looked it up and read the definition, the kids decided they didn’t either,” Rosenberger said.

She recently has gained some public support from former J.J. Finley Elementary sixth-graders in the form of nominations to be the namesake of a new Alachua county elementary school being built at NW 39th Avenue and 112th Street in Gainesville. Her former Finley students have written multiple letters to the Gainesville Sun expressing their gratitude for Rosenberger’s guidance. A decision on the school name is expected soon.

Rosenberger's 1939 high school picture

Rosenberger has written 13 poetry books and continues to write in her free time along with directing the chorus at her retirement community, playing the piano and composing music. Rosenberger’s best-known composition is the “St. Augustine Song.” She’s been writing one book, about the history of the churches in Micanopy, for 60 years – and it’s still not finished. Her Sunday school teacher gave her the materials to pen the history of the churches in the area, and she said she keeps finding more and more information.

Some of Rosenberger’s older books are available for sale on Amazon.com, and those interested in buying a copy of her new book should contact her directly at 352-375-4816.

Here is one of Rosenberger’s poems from her latest collection . . .

THE ROAD TO SUCCESS

If we think of a mountain as the road to success,
We’ll keep trudging along up hill.
We’ll take time to sigh and a time to rest;
Find peace in our hearts and share goodwill.

We may twist and turn as we continue on.
Cares may press down a bit.
Things may go wrong sometimes,
But to succeed, we rest but never quit.

Success is leading and following.
Success is failure turned upside down.
Success is appreciating those who  help.
Success is working with no thought of a crown.

Millions may stay at the base of the mountain.
Fear and doubt may make them stop.
But success comes to those who continue to climb,
And along the way, all who help reach the top.

© Margaret A. Rosenberger 2011

CONTACTS

MEDIA RELATIONS: Larry Lansford, director and editor, news & communications, UF College of Education, 352-273-4137; llansford@coe.ufl.edu

WRITER: Jessica Bradley, intern, news & communications, UF College of Education

Special education professor Mary Brownell was quoted in the Gainesville Sun in an article about the recent decision to free some states, including Florida, from some of the dictates of the No Child Left Behind Act. Brownell was quoted as saying, “We are very concerned about schools watering down expectations for (students with disabilities) if there aren’t clear guidelines.”

The college’s counselor education program has about 150 students, but they all felt the loss of David and Brian Marshall, according to Ana Puig, a doctoral student in counselor education at the time and now an associate scholar and research director in the college’s Office of Educational Research.

The Marshall brothers were killed in a single-car crash on a trip back to Florida from their hometown of Gloucester, Mass. Brian, 31, was a pursuing an M.Ed./Ed.S. degree in mental health counseling  and David, 39, was working toward a doctoral degree in counselor education. Both were awarded posthumously in 2007.

Esther Marshall

Brian was one of Puig’s students, but she knew both brothers well. She remembers their generous spirit, something their mother, Esther Marshall, wanted to recognize with the scholarship. Esther took out a life-insurance policy and has pledged the benefit amount from her estate toward the $30,000 needed to create a permanent endowed scholarship.

“She wants to make sure the annual scholarship goes to counselor education students who are known for being like her sons were–always active, always involved, always helping other people,” Puig said.

College officials say the $30,000 goal hasn’t been reached yet, but Puig said faculty and students in the counselor education program still hope to raise the money needed to contribute toward the permanent endowment. Meanwhile, the college has already awarded a scholarship for each of the past five years to a deserving counselor ed student with funds contributed by others who knew, or have since heard about, the Marshall brothers and what they meant to the program.

The scholarship is open to graduate students of counselor education. Interested students can find more information on how to apply for the $500 scholarship at http://education.ufl.edu/student-services/scholarships/.

The Marshall brothers were always together and known for their love of sports (especially the Boston Red Sox and the New England Patriots), their generosity and hosting Gator football game-day parties with New England clam chowder and chili.

David was founder of the Florida Center of Performance Excellence, a sports psychology counseling center. They both worked closely with athletes as part of their internship training and David developed a popular undergraduate course focused on sports performance.  The course was modeled after one developed by the U.S. Military Academy and augmented with material developed by the U.S. Olympic Committee.  Offered as an undergraduate elective by the counselor education program, it proved especially attractive to Gator student athletes, many of whom attended the college’s memorial service for the brothers.

David and Brian Marshall received their degrees posthumously in a spring 2007 memorial ceremony at the Norman Hall. Pictured from left during the presentation are former COE Dean Catherine Emihovich, Esther Marshall, Michael Marshall (Brian's twin brother), and former UF counselor ed assistant scholar Kitty Fallon.

They were both heavily involved in student organizations including UF’s student Beta chapter of Chi Sigma Iota International, the counselor education profession’s honor society, for whom David served as president. David even cut his famous ponytail to raise over $1,000 for Relay for Life, one of the organization’s fundraisers. He also won an international Outstanding Service Award from the group, in part, for this creative fundraising idea.

“If you needed something, you’d call Brian or Dave, and they’d come,” Puig said. “If you’d call one, the other would always show up. They were inseparable.”

As namesakes of the scholarship started by their mother, they shall be remembered that way for many years to come at the College of Education.

CONTACTS

Source: Ana Puig, associate scholar and director of research, UF College of Education; anapuig@coe.ufl.edu; 352-273-4121

Media Relations: Larry Lansford, director of news and communications, UF College of Education; llansford@coe.ufl.edu; 352-273-4137.

Writer: Jessica Bradley, intern, news and communications, UF College of Education.

Catherine Cavanaugh in Education Technology was quoted in EdWeek.com’s article addressing lack of research in online education. The article discusses the lack of knowledge about the field. Cavanaugh spoke about the success of online higher education and the lack of information and research about K-12 online education.

A profile of COE civics education professor Elizabeth Washington graces the back cover of the Spring 2012 edition of Graham Central, the newsletter of the Bob Graham Center for Public Service at UF. The profile identifies Washington as one of the nation’s leading experts on civic education. It also mentions her partnership with the center and the University of Central Florida to improve civics education in Florida.

The Independent Florida Alligator quoted Lastinger Center director Don Pemberton in an article about a $6-million federal grant awarded to expand the center’s Florida Master Teacher Initiative in Miami-Dade County.

The Lastinger Center for Learning was featured in the South Florida edition of UF in Your Neighborhood, a booklet produced by the UF Foundation. The edition serves the Miami-Dade area and begins with a one-page feature on how “improving teacher practice and student achievement is at the heart  of (the Lastinger Center’s) newly expanded program in Miami-Dade County.” The booklet also contains a mini-profile of UF alum, David Lawrence, Jr.