2021 Outstanding Graduate and Undergraduate Students

My passion for education has been something I have had since I was very young. My favorite game in elementary school was teacher, and I would create a mock classroom anywhere I could and begin teaching my family and friends. My passion has only grown stronger since I decided to pursue a career in education. Now, I am fueled by knowing that I can make a difference in young lives and create an environment where students feel safe exploring and learning in meaningful ways.

My experience in the College of Education has been unique because of my cohort, they have been with me every semester, class, and we have shared many adventures. Having a cohort has been so rewarding because, as a highly extroverted person, it is encouraging to have friends who are in all the same classes, share the same passion, and enjoy sharing resources and collaborating on ideas. I also strongly value the practicum experiences embedded into my program because hands-on experience in the classroom is where I learn best.

My favorite memory at UF happened right after my acceptance. Growing up in Gainesville, the UF campus has been something I have walked many times before, and it was never something special or felt like a college campus because I was so used to it. However, after my acceptance, I was driving down 13th street, and when I passed the sign that reads “College of Education” in front of Norman Hall, it hit me. That would be my home for the next couple of years, and I saw the campus in a completely different light. Since beginning my journey here at UF, I have grown to appreciate the town I grew up in more and more.

This award affirms that while pursuing my passion, I have started becoming an effective educator. I have poured everything into my education and put forth my best work at all times. This means that my professors have seen my hard work, and it assures me that I am doing something right during my time as a pre-service teacher.

In the future, I hope to impact society by making a lasting impact on our youth. I want to work closely with young learners because I know that early experiences shape who you become for the rest of your life. Suppose I can help my students grow in their educational abilities and shape their social experiences and instill acceptance, persistence, and empathy into their lives. In that case, I think I will help contribute to a next generation that will transform society.

As a young student, I really looked up to my first grade teacher, Mrs. Carter. I started to tell my friends and family that I wanted to be just like her when I grew up. This is where my dream of teaching began and it has only since grown from here. My father’s side of the family is full of people working in the field of education. It is often said that teaching runs in the family and this also rings true for me as well. I have grown up knowing some of the best teachers and administrators as family and have witnessed their dedication and commitment to the field of education. Being surrounded by passionate leaders and exemplars in the field of education has always continued to inspire me to pursue a career in this field. My family and Mrs. Carter have been the people who have inspired me to pursue a career in education and do all I can to continue their positive impact and legacy in this field. 

After years of volunteering, working with kids, tutoring, summer camps and field experiences, my passion is continually fueled by the children I engage with and the positive impact I hope to leave. Being able to interact with children and help them in any setting continually motivates me towards my goals of teaching and always reminds me that I have chosen one of the best and most rewarding careers. After the start of the COVID-19 pandemic this past year, I worked as a day camp counselor over the summer with young children ages five and six.  After their world turned upside down, this reminded me of why I want to be a teacher. I want to help children learn and grow, through all the ups and downs. I want to be someone that works to help the children of the community around them. Additionally, their daily smiles and radiating positivity reminded me that even in a time of so many unknowns, children are always looking up to those around them to lead and help them each day. My passion to teach and help others continues to grow through my interactions with children and their reminders to me that the influence of a positive role model or teacher is lasting and impactful for many years to come.

The support and community that the College of Education provides through its faculty and students is definitely what stands out most to me about my experience as a student. Whether it has been faculty professors or graduate teaching assistants, all of them work extremely hard to be effective instructors and to support students in various ways and make the college of education feel like a community. In my experience, even after a course has ended, I still see faculty professors or graduate teaching assistants around Norman Hall and they continue to check-in, see how you are doing and offer support and encouragement. These positive relationships I have formed are what stand out to me as a student and are my favorite experiences to share with others when they discover that I am in the College of Education. 

My favorite memory at UF is definitely the College of Education Tailgate from the fall of 2019. As a student ambassador for the College of Education, I helped at the tailgate and was able to connect and talk to many college alumni. I loved being able to hear their stories and reflections upon their time at UF and their accomplishments after leaving. It was also super cool to be able to share my current experience with them and my future goals. The community that the College of Education provides is unlike any other and being able to be part of an event connecting students, faculty and alumni was extremely memorable.

Receiving this award is definitely a significant highlight of my undergraduate experience. In my time at UF and in the College of Education, I have worked hard to excel academically and grow as a student and leader with the hope to give back to the amazing community that adopted and inspired me. Being acknowledged by my professors and members of the COE community is truly powerful and made me reflect on how grateful and lucky I am to be part of this strong and dedicated community. I am beyond honored and touched to receive this award and would not be the student I am or involved in the COE if it wasn’t for the mentorship of other students, the amazing faculty at the College of Education and my family and friends who support me each day. 

In the future, I hope to impact society through my commitment and role in the field of education. I hope to impact the students I teach and the families and community members that I engage with and form life-long positive relationships. As a teacher, it is extremely rewarding and exciting that the future of your community, state and country is sitting in your classroom and you have the opportunity to help students learn and grow academically and socially. Being a positive role model for each and every student is a goal of mine along with working to help each student develop a love for learning and to take pride in their individual growth. In my role as a teacher, I will strive to foster future leaders in my students and help them believe they can achieve their dreams and goals. 

Additionally, I hope later in my career to enter administration or higher education to broaden my impact in the field of education and society. There are so many roles in administration that work to help schools improve and offer a chance to have a positive impact outside the classroom. I can personally see teacher coaching and evaluation being an area of interest to help other educators and schools improve. The other role of interest is working as an education advisor at a university. I love helping others, specifically college-aged students, find their passion and pursue their dreams.  Impacting future members of the field of education and providing guidance would enable me to stay connected and help develop the next set of leaders. While I may not know all my future will hold in teaching and beyond, what I do know is I want to be a leader in the field of education and I want to use my passion to help others to positively impact society through my work with students, families and community members.

I chose to go into school psychology because it allows me to combine my passion for education with my passion for psychology. I grew up knowing I wanted to work with kids in some capacity, but had the realization toward the beginning of college that I no longer wanted to be a teacher. I am so happy I spoke to a career counselor and was able to find a field that was perfect for me. I love that I will have the ability to work with students one-on-one, helping diagnose learning disabilities or other disorders while also working on helping them achieve academically and behaviorally. My passion is fueled by the fact that I am able to work with not only students, but their teachers and parents, who have a large impact on the success of their children/students. If a parent shows interest in their child at home, their student is much more likely to try harder and succeed in school. Learning about critical issues in education such as the discipline gap, achievement gap and school-to-prison pipeline have fueled a passion in me to make a change. While I as an individual can’t completely put an end to these issues that have haunted us for decades, I can become an advocate for my students and spread awareness about these problems. I am eager to start graduate school so I can put everything I have learned here at UF to good use as a future school psychologist.

There are two things that have stood out to me about the College of Education. For one, many of our core courses require us to volunteer in some capacity. This has given me the opportunity to gain experience with many different age groups and in many different types of school systems throughout Gainesville. I was exposed to so many individuals with backgrounds much different than mine, and each other, which was an extremely rewarding experience. Being able to connect what I learn in class to what I see in the real world has also been very impactful. The second thing that has stood out to me is our experiential learning requirement. This requirement allowed me to go out of my comfort zone and join a couple different research projects. Working as a research assistant provided me with invaluable experiences that will help me as I go into graduate school and beyond. Thanks to the College of Education and having that research experience, I was able to obtain a graduate research assistantship for next year, which would not have been possible without the opportunities I’ve had and the faculty who have helped me get here.

My favorite memories at UF have definitely come from going to football games. There is something so special about watching an entire stadium full of people come together to support the same team. Even though I’ve been through “We Are the Boys” and singing Tom Petty many, many times, I still get goosebumps every time we sing it. While the passing of Tom Petty was very sad, I love that the tradition of singing “I Won’t Back Down” in the swamp came to life during my years here at UF. I will always be a Gator fan and can’t wait to come back for more games in the future.

Receiving this award means a lot to me as it shows me that all of the hard work I’ve put in over the last four years paid off. All of the late nights doing work or turning plans down to study all brought me here. Being recognized for everything I have accomplished is what really makes me so happy. Knowing others see how involved I have been and how many hours were put into getting here is a very special feeling and I am so grateful to have received this award. Between classes, homework and involvement in other organizations, I sometimes lost track of time and became extremely stressed out, not knowing if I would be able to juggle everything, so being here now and looking back at all I have accomplished with this award is so meaningful. Also, it is extremely special to know I am one of the first students in the Education Sciences major to be receiving this award and I can’t wait to see how this track grows in the years to come.

As someone graduating in May and immediately jumping right back into school in the fall, I have a lot of dreams and things I want to accomplish in the future. First of all, I hope to become an advocate for my students as every student deserves someone looking out for them. I hope to increase mental health awareness in school systems, making it clear that it is always okay to ask for help, especially to other teachers and faculty of the school. I also want to instill cultural competence and having a social justice mindset on to those around me. No matter what I do or where I end up, I just hope the impact I make and the legacy I leave is a positive one. I am a huge advocate of killing others with kindness and advocating for those who can’t advocate for themselves, so this is part of the impact I want to make on society, especially in my role as a school psychologist.

In the field of counseling, I am honored to create a safe space for clients to tell their stories, and being privileged to walk alongside them on their journey. In my research, I am inspired by the need for human connection and what that means in the digital age. My primary research involves adolescents and social media. Through this research, I hope to help adolescents tell their stories and connect with others both in real life and through mindful social media use. 

The environment of collaboration and innovation stands out to me about my experience at the College of Education. I was afforded the opportunity to work alongside and learn from some of the brightest minds in my field, and developed lasting relationships with colleagues and mentors. I was encouraged to share my ideas and empowered to turn them into realities.    

My favorite memory at UF is the time spent in the classroom with my cohort members generating ideas for projects and sharing the passions that fueled our individual research. 

I am humbled to receive this award, and I am grateful for my research efforts to be recognized by the College of Education. 

I hope to make an impact by continuing the dialogue about the internet’s impact on mental health, and introducing ways for individuals to generate healthy relationships with technology. 

In my position as a special education teacher, I provided intensive reading intervention to students with disabilities for the majority of each school day. This experience influenced my passion for teaching foundational reading skills and implementing positive behavioral supports. During my time as a teacher, I also had the opportunity of mentoring special education preservice teachers. My enthusiasm for teaching other teachers and the potential of impacting the field on a larger scale led me to the pursuit of a higher degree in special education with a focus on literacy instruction and intervention.

Mentorship. I feel very grateful for the mentors that have supported me during my time as a College of Education student. I also feel extremely honored to serve as a mentor to preservice teachers currently completing their teacher preparation program and recent COE graduates that are beginning their careers as educators.

So many wonderful memories at UF! Many of my favorite memories come from my experience providing supervision and support during the Summer Adventures in Literacy (SAIL) program. It is a privilege getting to be a part of a program that supports preservice teachers’ learning of literacy intervention practices AND “little” students’ reading development. 

I’m honored to receive this award because it is truly a reflection of the support and mentorship I’ve received throughout my time as a COE student.

My experience in the doctoral program has shown me the importance of fostering and maintaining collaborative partnerships with community organizations. Throughout my career, I hope to continue working with school districts and local organizations to guarantee all students have equitable access to high-quality reading instruction by ensuring their teachers have the knowledge, skills, and support they need.  

As a citizen of a developing country like India, I am the first in my family who has aspired to pursue a higher education and research abroad with an international exposure and an opportunity to demonstrate my potential skills in the context of minoritized international students’ vulnerabilities. Prior to joining the Ph.D. program, I worked as a teacher educator in India for almost five years. During that span, I have worked closely with pre-service and in-service teachers in rural India, with strong interest and passion in curriculum development and coordination, educational management, educational administration, supervision, developing mentor-mentee relationship through academic advising and support. I earned my master’s degrees from India in three different yet related fields of study: English Literature, Education, and English Language Teaching. These educational experiences provided me a much sought-after platform of applying my knowledge of English and education in the practical field of teaching. Being an international student from India, a non-native speaker of English, a multilingual myself being proficient in three languages (Bengali, English & Hindi) constitutes my positionality for my research interests. My research interests focus highly on English language learners and families in rural settings, collaborative educational partnerships, developing linguistically and culturally responsive pedagogy, translanguaging, and teacher education based on the principles of social justice and equity.

India as a multilingual country with rich linguistic and cultural diversity, has recognized the needs of a globalized language like English since the early ages of commercialization and liberalization. There has often been a binary constructed between urban education and rural education in India, posing a disparity in the educational opportunities for the children. I was a witness of this huge disparity as being educated in a private English-medium school with most of the educational resources, while I could notice and experience a handful of challenges and huge gap in the suburban and rural areas during my school internship program as a student and eventually as I joined the profession of a teacher educator. I found in education, lack of enthusiasm, use of unscientific and ineffective teaching methodologies, outdated teaching practices impeding its promising future in India. My interest in working with the school-going children and the teacher trainees became stronger when I experienced the ignorance, fear and lack of confidence engulfing the young minds hindering their overall development. My area of focus was the low poverty rural settings, where I could identify a handful of barriers hindering the process of overall educational development especially in English education. Most of the rural schools being based on regional language educational setting, the need or importance of realizing English as one of the most significant subjects for overall development seem to be lagging. The majority of rural schools having regional languages like Bengali, Hindi and Urdu as their medium of instruction. The students are not provided enough exposure to learning English, which in turn pose problems in higher education. The students, mostly the first-generation learners, do not get the necessary educational environment at home and lack encouragement from their parents. The issues of poverty, low funding for teacher education, lesser realization of the need of learning English as a second language, low accountability of the teachers build up to the grave situation. Lack of use of appropriate teaching aids, structured lesson plans, scaffolded learning and differentiated instruction make student learning and achievement difficult in the rural areas. With my background experience of all these challenging educational contexts during my professional encounters, my goals for the future would be to identify the strength and barriers towards the spread of English education among the non-native English language learners not only in rural India but also in the broader international context and work towards a possible solution.

I have always been interested in teacher education and also with my previous experience as a teacher educator in India, I applied for the doctoral program in Curriculum & Instruction with specialization in ESOL/Bilingual Education at UF, College of Education. My association with UF COE started right from the day I received the acceptance letter from my department and from day one I started developing a relationship with my college. I consider my Ph.D. program as highly competitive and the kind of training we receive here is fascinating — with ample opportunities from day one to work on research projects and publish, plenty of room to grow and achieve, flexibility to choose your advisor, preparing graduate students in this competitive job market. I truly admire our world-class teaching faculty, who consider us as their future colleagues and always supported me despite their busy schedules. I am so grateful to my chair Dr. Maria Coady for her tremendous support, trust on me along with her advising during my crisis situations. I am also thankful to my committee members for their support to help me grow and improve in my dissertation journey. I cherish the mentor-mentee relationship I share with my advisor and my committee members. I believe someone really needs to be lucky to get such supportive faculty members in their graduate career.

In my graduate experience so far, my experience working as a graduate research assistant in a federally funded U.S. DOE Professional Development Grant named Project STELLAR with my advisor, has been an insightful and very productive experience. It has provided me a lens to hone my research interest in rural education for English language learners. Apart from this, I have also had the opportunity to contribute in developing a new website for bilingual education as a part of a team project during my course work. Finally, this recognition of receiving the “Outstanding Graduate Leadership Award” from UF College of Education has been one of the best experiences I had so far at my college. I am so grateful to my advisor and my committee members who trusted on my leadership and academic abilities and performance, and nominated me for this award. This is a huge motivation for me to continue striving towards my dedication to academics and community service.

I have created a lot of fond memories at UF as of now and I sincerely hope to keep on creating more. One of them is when I received the opportunity for a fully sponsored Teaching Abroad Program from the UF Graduate School, to teach Level 7 English to the undergraduates at Universidad del Norte, Colombia in summer 2019. It was such a remarkable experience for me both in terms of teaching and learning about the cultural exchange and for enhancing international relations through education. With this international teaching abroad experience, I was featured as a “Global Gator” spotlight in UF Graduate School news and UF International Center.

My satisfaction lies in the service of leadership while providing opportunities and promote professional development to graduate student and their families in the University of Florida community. All my services during COVID-19 in the leadership position of Mayor in one of Graduate and Family housings, gave me immense satisfaction to find the excitement within our graduate residents on campus and most importantly, I was so fortunate to know that they were able to do something and spend some quality time with their families/neighbors despite this unprecedented time. For this service, I was awarded the “Gators for Good Challenge Award” by the Brown Center for Leadership & Service, UF for providing community service to the University of Florida community during COVID-19. I am glad to share that our student leadership organization, Mayors’ Council recently received the “Adaptability” Impact Award from Student Activities and Involvement at UF for our leadership and service during the past year while adapting to the pandemic situation and conducting virtual events to foster the social and emotional well-being of our graduate residents. I feel myself honored to be an important part of this team.

I think I always wanted to do something where I could have an opportunity to contribute with my service through leadership while creating an impact on others’ lives. Aside to my research and teaching, I think helping others through my leadership service is what I aspire to do in my life while providing folks with a better quality of life. The International Committee of Altrusa International of Gainesville awarded me with “Marilyn Little Scholarship” in March 2020 for my excellence in studentship and service to the UF community. It is a very prestigious scholarship and conferred to only three graduate candidates throughout the university and I was honored to be selected as one of them. Finally, the “Outstanding Graduate Leadership Award” conferred by my own college, for recognizing my abilities, experiences, and skills of investing myself as a true leader has added an immense satisfaction for all my efforts. It feels great to be recognized and honored as a student-leader as I believe hard work really pays off.

I always wanted to do something where I might have an impact on people’s lives. I had this spark within me to go beyond the average and be an all-rounder where my service might also speak apart from my research and teaching. My goal was not just to do well in my academics, but to be an all-rounder where my service in leadership might also count while providing opportunities and increase professional development among graduate students and their families in the UF community. Receiving this award from my own college is a huge boost to my confidence of continuing to invest myself in the leadership roles and helping the UF graduate student community. My overall goal in engaging in community service, is to strive towards maintaining a healthy and safe living environment to foster a meaningful co-existence of the gator community. Since my research interest includes “community” as a significant component, in my practical leadership experiences, I would like to reflect my research interest into actions through my continuous efforts of impacting students’ lives in the gator community. Being an international student myself, I feel dedicated to connect with the emotions and challenges faced by international student community and relate to them strongly in order to find helpful resources to support them. It would be my great honor to advocate for the international student community by addressing their challenges & concerns and help towards developing an inclusive multicultural environment. I will strive towards maintaining a healthy and safe living environment to foster a meaningful co-existence of the gator community.

I have been associated with a couple of student leadership organizations at UF (for the past 2+ years) since 2019 due to my passion and strong interest in serving the student community. I am privileged to have leadership experiences in currently serving as the Social Chair & Parliamentarian in Organization for Graduate Student Advancement & Professional Development (OGAP) which is a student leadership organization involved with the graduate school. I have been actively engaged for planning and organization to host virtual graduate student orientation (Grad Start), being one of the panelists for hosting international graduate student orientation in the past spring/fall semesters. I recently served in the leadership/planning team for Graduate Student Appreciation Week (GSAW) for spring 2021 and was actively engaged in reaching out to faculty leaders and other student organization on campus for various leadership initiatives focused on graduate students’ academic achievements, professional development, and work-life balance wellness. In my role serving as the mayor of one of the five villages of the graduate & family housing (Diamond Village), have been heavily involved in housing and residence education on campus. I try my best to represent graduate residents’ voices regarding any concerns or needs while I meets with them to discuss issues and implement solutions through monthly residents’ meetings along with organizing various multicultural community events catering to their international cultural values. Recently, I have been elected as the Vice President for Graduate Student Council for the upcoming 2021-2022 session and I believe this position would provide me ample opportunity to get involved in another graduate student leadership organization with a diverse focus for advocating the needs, concerns, and experiences of the student community and act in their best interest in terms of graduate life enhancement.

With all these rich leadership experiences, I have gathered some hands-on experience and expertise in team management, organization of events, work ethics while serving students from diverse backgrounds, thus navigating through conforming social and well-being of the graduate student life. I have always tried to create space for constructive dialogue and dedicate myself with a determination to enhance leadership organizational goals through coordination, collaboration, planning and implementing programs for the welfare of the student community. I hope this would also help me to move forward with the positive energy and enthusiasm needed for my continued scholarship and service in the coming years.

Through my research, I would like to continue contributing towards rural English learner education, both in the U.S. context and also in the context of my own home country in addressing the deficit-oriented perspectives and transforming it into a strength-based approach to address the challenges. Since I have a keen interest on exploring the collaborative partnerships among school, parents, and community to enhance inclusive education for rural English language learners, I hope my research might lay an impact intersecting rural education and English language learner education and advocate for the same. I would try to keep on balancing my academic endeavors along with my dedication towards community service and leadership, and encourage student community to be global citizens.