Student FEA chapter, president earn top national honors
Posted July 22, 2010
UF’s student chapter of the Florida Education Association won top honors in its category in the National Education Association’s 2010 excellence awards program, and UF chapter president Laura Roberts received the national organization’s Outstanding Local Student Leader Award.
Laura Roberts
UF won in the category of local NEA chapters with less than 100 members. Roberts, UF’s FEA chapter president for 2009-10, was chosen over 15 other national nominees for her award. Under her leadership, chapter membership increased by 50 percent to 30 active members through intensive efforts to communicate chapter activities to all UF education students. Several special events also were held to enlist new members, including participation in the university’s Back to School Bash.
Roberts credits an active executive board and membership for the chapter’s success. The chapter partnered with the college’s Education College Council to host twice-monthly professional development workshops for all education students. The workshops covered topics such as arts in the classroom, technology in education, resume and career-building, and science in the classroom. As a grand finale, a workshop on “Decorating Your Classroom” was held, with participants converting a Norman Hall classroom into a third-grade classroom, complete with a reading corner, bulletin boards and ocean theme.
The chapter’s major community service event was “Read Across America Day,” an annual affair. Student volunteers “took over” first-grade classes at a local elementary school with reading, arts-and-crafts activities and a special visit from The Cat in the Hat to celebrate Dr. Suess’s birthday. The party carried over to a local park in a widely publicized event for all local children. Leftover books were distributed to local community centers around Gainesville.
The student FEA chapter also was active politically, attending and organizing local and state rallies in support of education and schools and supporting the school board candidacy of a local advocate for public education.
Roberts has built an impressive record of leadership in local, state and national positions with the NEA and FEA. She matched her 2010 chapter presidency with the state FEA presidency and organized the state student FEA conference. She also serves as the elections chair for the NEA student program. She served as an official delegate in the NEA’s Representative Assembly in 2009 and also attended the group’s 2010 southeast regional conference.
