Open house, career night to showcase career paths blazed by education degrees

Posted on Thursday, Feb. 14, 2008

UF’s College of Education has an important message for all UF undergraduates and prospective graduate students still undecided on a degree or career track: Consider the many career paths that a new education minor or an advanced degree from the education college can lead to.

For those interested in learning more, the college has declared Feb. 18-22 as Education Career Week at UF and is staging two special events on campus to introduce more UF students to its versatile and expanding curriculum. A College of Education Open House is planned for Tuesday, Feb. 19, and the college will host Education Career Night on Thursday evening, Feb. 21.

The Open House will run from 1 to 4:30 p.m., in the Terrace Room at Norman Hall, the college’s historic academic hall located on the east side of SW 13th Street, across from Broward Hall. Representatives from the college’s five academic departments—counselor education, educational leadership and policy, educational psychology, special education, and teaching and learning—will be on hand to meet with interested students. Staff from the college’s Office of Student Services and from Recruitment, Retention and Multicultural Affairs also will be on hand.

The college’s second event of the week, Education Career Night, is slated for 7 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, in the Arredondo Room at the Reitz Union. The first 25 attendees will receive a free UF portfolio. Four accomplished UF alumni, from various careers, will talk about the diverse directions their careers have taken after earning their degrees from UF’s College of Education.

Career Night speakers include:

Ӣ Cynthia Chestnut, Alachua County Commissioner and director of Shands Eastside community relations and education coordination;

Ӣ Lillian Webb, professor of educational leadership and policy studies at Arizona State University;

Ӣ Joanne Roberts, advisor and assistant professor at St. Leo University;

Ӣ Connie Weber-Sorice, Volusia County district administrator for school psychology and a UF adjunct professor.

Students attending Tuesday’s open house can learn more about the 20 degree majors the college offers, with some 45 concentration areas in its five academic departments. Advanced degrees in these education specialties can lead to a host of careers such as school principal, guidance counselor, school psychologist, mental health and marriage counselor, college administrator, student personnel advisor, school district administrator, special education consultant, and many other choices.

Attendees also can check out the college’s two new education minors. One prepares undergraduates in non-education majors for temporary teacher certification in Florida; the other is specifically for math or science majors who wish to teach in their field at the middle school or high school level.

For uncommitted undergraduates still considering traditional teaching degrees, staff and faculty from the college’s nationally recognized ProTeach programs will meet with interested students.

The College of Education ranks 44th among the nation’s education colleges in the U.S. News and World Report’s 2008 survey of America’s Best Graduate Schools. It’s the highest ranking education college in Florida and also ranks 24th among public education schools of the elite Association of American Universities (AAU). The college also has three nationally ranked academic programs: counselor education (No. 2), special education (No. 4) and elementary education (No. 23).

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Contacts

Source
        Theresa Vernetson, tbv@coe.ufl.edu, 392-0721, ext. 400

Writer
        Larry Lansford, llansford@coe.ufl.edu, 352-392-0726, ext. 266