HDOSE Graduate Student Excellence Awardees
HDOSE Celebrates Inaugural Graduate Student Excellence Award Recipients
The University of Florida’s School of Human Development and Organizational Studies in Education (HDOSE) proudly announces the recipients of its inaugural Graduate Student Excellence Award, honoring eight outstanding graduate students for their exceptional achievements in coursework, research, and service.
Representing each of the school’s four program areas, the 2025 awardees exemplify the academic excellence, research productivity, leadership, and community engagement that define HDOSE’s mission. The 2025 awardees are:
- Counselor Education: Codee Keighley and Matthew Stock
- Educational Leadership and Policy: Katharine Harris-Walls and Tiffany Tan
- Higher Education Administration: Hope Allchin and Matt Capaldi
- Research and Evaluation Methodology: Anna Pauline Aguinalde and Bowen Wang
This new award was established to recognize graduate students who demonstrate excellence across multiple dimensions of their academic journey. Each recipient was nominated by faculty and selected for their commitment to advancing knowledge, supporting peers, and contributing meaningfully to their field.
HDOSE Associate Director, Dr. F. Chris Curran, noted “Our Graduate Student Excellence Awardees exemplify the oustanding students we have in HDOSE. Not only have they excelled in their academic studies, but they have driven impact in research and practice that are improving education and human development.”
The HDOSE Graduate Student Excellence Award reflects HDOSE’s ongoing commitment to fostering a vibrant and impactful academic environment. These students stand as examples of what it means to lead with purpose and integrity and are examples of the emerging researchers and practitioners that make HDOSE a leader in graduate education.
Awardee Profiles in the Words of their Faculty Nominators
Codee Keighley, Counselor Education
Codee Keighley, a graduate student in the Counselor Education program, exemplifies what it means to be a leader both in and out of the classroom. Though Codee’s intellectual engagement is matched by a strong sense of integrity and a genuine passion for learning, Codee has left a mark on the program through service. Whether mentoring peers, volunteering for events, or stepping up to help with program initiatives, his commitment to service and support of others reflects a deep sense of responsibility and character. He leads with humility, creativity, and purpose. Codee has served as an executive board member on Chi Sigma Iota (Counseling Honor Society), and most recently served as a student rep on the search committee for the program’s recent hire.
Matthew Stock, Counselor Education
Matthew Stock, a graduate student in the Counselor Education program, has distinguished himself as a model of academic excellence and leadership. His outstanding performance in the classroom reflects a deep intellectual curiosity, disciplined work ethic, and a commitment to the highest standards of scholarship. Matthew also sweetens the pot—quite literally—as he is known to share his love for baking by bringing homemade treats for his peers to enjoy. This thoughtful gesture not only brightens the day of those around him but also reflects his generosity of spirit and caring nature. It is a small but meaningful example of the warmth, kindness, and community-mindedness that define his character.
Katharine Harris-Walls, Educational Leadership and Policy
Katharine Harris-Walls is a fourth year doctoral candidate in Educational Leadership and Policy. During her time at UF, she has co-authored publications in the leading journals in the field including Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, AERA Open, and the Review of Educational Research. She has also emerged as a national leader with the Association for Education Finance and Policy’s graduate student organization, leading mentoring opportunities for graduate students nationwide. At UF, she has co-led the annual research symposium and served as a collaborative member of many grant funded research projects. She co-developed the online Introduction to Education Policy course for undergraduates in the BAES Program. This fall, she will begin a position as an Assistant Professor with a focus on teaching quantitative methods at Augusta University.
Tiffany Tan, Educational Leadership and Policy
Tiffany Tan is a fourth year doctoral candidate in Educational Leadership and Policy. During her time at UF, she has served as a research assistant on numerous projects, contributing to publications in some of the leading journals in the field including Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. For the past year, she has worked part-time as a policy analyst with the Learning Policy Institute, a position she will assume full-time this fall. Her work has contributed to our understanding of important issues including the teacher shortage and school staffing issues.
Hope Allchin, Higher Education Administration
Hope Allchin is a doctoral student in the Higher Education Administration Program. She has been a major contributor and co-author for numerous high-quality publications, including recent work in Education Finance and Policy and American Educational Research Journal. Hope has also conducted rigorous individual research focused on key issues in higher education policy and leads multiple teams of graduate research assistants on multiple externally funded grant projects.
Matt Capaldi, Higher Education Administration
Matthew Capaldi is a doctoral student in the higher education administration program. Matthew has been a model for how doctoral students can give back to their program and fellow students. One of the most significant ways that Matthew has contributed has been through his instruction in EDH 7916: Contemporary Research in Higher Education (“The R Class”). He served as the course’s teaching assistant for one year and as a co-instructor for two years. During his time with EDH7916, Matthew brought real teaching excellence to the table. He went above and beyond his formal responsibilities by jumping in to troubleshoot coding issues during class and holding weekly office hours to provide additional support. When students got stuck, he shared his own early struggles with coding, creating a supportive environment where students felt less intimidated by programming. He also maintained an excellent course website with tutorials and resources that students could access anytime. Beyond the classroom, Matthew has been a constant support for his peers as they learn and grow in their ability to conduct academic research. His service has gone beyond the university as he has facilitated a professional development workshop at the 2024 Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) annual meeting. He also created a program to streamline the process of downloading IPEDS data in Stata and R, an invaluable tool for higher education researchers.
Anna Pauline Aguinalde, Research Evaluation and Methodology
Pauline began her combined Master’s and Ph.D. program in Research and Evaluation Methodology in Spring 2023 and has demonstrated exceptional success and momentum ever since. She successfully defended her Master’s thesis in Spring 2025. Pauline has quickly established herself as one of the most productive and promising students. She has co-authored a journal article on research methods in Natural Language Processing (Shin & Aguinalde, 2025), published in one of the top-tier journals in the field (Research Methods in Applied Linguistics)—a rare accomplishment for a student at this stage. In addition, she has co-authored four highly competitive conference proceedings, including venues such as Educational Data Mining, Learning Analytics and Knowledge, and IEEE, with Pauline leading three of them as the first author. She has also presented her work at five major international and national conferences and has made substantial contributions to two additional journal articles currently under review. Achieving this level of scholarly productivity within just two years speaks volumes about Pauline’s extraordinary work ethic, creativity, independence, and future potential as a leading junior scholar in the field.
Bowen Wang Research Evaluation and Methodology
As a doctoral candidate in the program of Research and Evaluation Methodology at the University of Florida, Bowen Wang has authored multiple peer-reviewed publications on psychometric models and AI-driven process data analyses. He presented his research at national conferences such as National Council on Measurement in (NCME). He had two competitive psychometrician internships—one at Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) and another at National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME)—and further contributes to the field by serving as a proposal reviewer for NCME. These accomplishments reflect his strong commitment to advancing both the theory and practice of educational measurement.
About HDOSE
HDOSE faculty research and teach the foundations and structures of educational and community systems for people to thrive in their learning and development. We cultivate researchers, leaders, counselors, and administrators, empowering them to make evidence-based decisions that enhance human potential and educational growth.
To learn more about HDOSE degree programs, click here.
Note. This HDOSE highlights story was written using generative AI-assistance.
