UF names Holmes Scholars
Six UF doctoral students have been named as Holmes Scholars for 2006. Evelyn S. Chiang and Katherin E. Garland are receiving the award for the first time, while Nicole Fenty, Sophie Maxis, Jyrece McClendon and Tyran Wright were awarded the scholarship for the second year in a row.
The national Holmes Scholars Program was founded 15 years ago to address the underrepresentation of men and women of color in leadership positions in higher education. The program awards several dozen assistantships each year to enrich the scholarly experience of minority graduate students in education.
“The students can attend the national conference, which is an opportunity for them to network with other minority graduate students who are preparing to become the next generation of professors,” said Nancy Dana, director of the Center for School Improvement at UF’s College of Education. “In addition, three of our Holmes Scholars receive assistantships to engage in school-university partnership work through the UF Alliance, the Lastinger Center for Learning and the Center for School Improvement.”
This year, Dean Catherine Emihovich is serving as the Holmes Scholars Program’s vice-president for research, and is engaging one of UF’s Holmes scholars in a national study of school-university partnership work. In addition, three scholars, who already have assistantships in their departments, will receive travel support to attend the national conference.
All of the Holmes scholars will serve the college this year by designing and delivering a brown bag lunch series for graduate students focused on writing for publication and interviewing for a first job.
This year’s Holmes scholars include:
- Evelyn S. Chiang, who received her undergraduate degree in general studies from New College in Sarasota and her M.A.E. in Educational Psychology at UF. She is currently working on a study of readers’ representations of spatial information in narrative text and studying children’s ability to make logical inferences in narrative text. Chiang plans to receive her Ph.D. in spring 2007.
- Katherin E. Garland, a third-year doctoral student in English Education with a focus on media literacy. She received a bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education with a minor in English from Western Michigan University. She holds an M.A.T. in English from Jacksonville University. She plans to work in a teacher education program at a research university and to research media literacy.
- Nicole Fenty, a doctoral student in special education. Fenty received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of South Florida and masters in special education from UF. Her research interests include struggling readers, technology as a method of instructional delivery and professional development and the connection between reading difficulties and problems remaining engaged during instruction.
- Sophie Maxis, a doctoral student in counselor education. Maxis received her Ed.S. and M.Ed. from UF’s Counselor Education department studying school psychology with an emphasis in mental health. She obtained a bachelor’s degree in mathematics education from Oakwood College in Alabama.
- Jyrece McClendon – information not available
- Tyran Wright, a doctoral student in special education. Wright obtained her undergraduate degree from UF and holds a master’s degree in Educational Leadership. Before returning to graduate school, she worked as a classroom teacher, reading coach and a curriculum specialist in Lake City. Her research focus is the prevention and remediation of reading difficulties. She is a research assistant on Project Access to Books for Children, a federally funded research project that examines the impact of increased access to books on the literacy of young children. In addition, she works with the Lastinger Center for Learning in various capacities.
