Department of Education and Counseling
May 2023
Dear Alumni and Friends of the Department of Education and Counseling,

Welcome to the spring 2023 edition of our electronic newsletter! In this digest, we share department news and the exciting achievements of our students, faculty and alumni. We are a unique group within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences—not only do our students earn an undergraduate or graduate degree, but many also take on the demanding work of completing a professional certification. This distinction makes us exceptionally prepared to enact the Augustinian ideals of truth, unity and love in the service of others. As you will read in this newsletter, the Department of Education and Counseling is a vibrant community of active and engaged students and faculty striving to create a more just, equitable, ethical and compassionate world through the professions of teaching and counseling.

I would like to highlight one of the ways in which our department is collaborating with the surrounding community to ignite change and positively impact the educational experience for all. A few years ago, the department commenced a partnership with the Southeastern Pennsylvania Educators of Color Network (SPECN), a project initiated by Anthony Stevenson, EdD, in collaboration with Jerusha Conner, PhD, and Krista Malott, PhD. This semester, the department hosted a panel discussion with SPECN on the role of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) directors in schools. In this newsletter, I invite you to read more about this event as well as the many notable activities in which our faculty and students have engaged this semester.

While commencement signifies the completion of degree requirements and the academic year, to “commence” means to begin or start. As our graduates conclude one part of their journey and commence another, we are reminded of the significance of the professions they have chosen. As the mother of all professions, education is foundational to the development of a civil society and the continuance of participatory democracy. Counseling is essential to the empowerment of individuals, families and groups in accomplishing their mental health, wellness and career goals. The world needs caring, knowledgeable and principled teachers, counselors and higher education administrators. On behalf of the entire department, I extend warm CONGRATULATIONS and best wishes to our 2023 graduates! Good luck and Godspeed!

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all our faculty, staff, graduate assistants and student workers for their commitment and diligence throughout this academic year. We have achieved much individually and together. Please know that you and your work are valued and appreciated. Happy summer!

With best wishes,

Teresa G. Wojcik, PhD
Associate Professor of Education
Chairperson, Department of Education and Counseling
Department News
Kappa Delta Pi
Chi Sigma Iota
Honor Society Inductions Celebrate Academic Success
The annual honor society induction ceremonies for Kappa Delta Pi (Education) and Chi Sigma Iota (Counseling) provide students and faculty the opportunity to pause, reflect and renew their commitment to their chosen professions. These ceremonies also prompt consideration of the larger purposes for which students and faculty joined the teaching, counseling and leadership professions and the principles that guide work in these fields. As St. Augustine said, “Put yourself to the test. Do not be content with what you are, if you want to become what you are not yet." On March 22, the Xi Phi chapter inducted 16 new members and the Alpha Beta Gamma chapter inducted 18 new members, respectively. The academic successes of these new inductees represent the fruits of perseverance and hard work reflected in St. Augustine’s discourse.

Following the ceremonies, Villanova alumna Tara Rodack Creekmore ’08 CLAS, ’17 MA offered comments as this year’s guest speaker. A Social Studies teacher at Archmere Academy, Creekmore also serves as the Delaware representative to the Middle States Council for the Social Studies.
Three Decades of Service to Villanova  
Rita Siciliano, senior administrative assistant in the Department of Education and Counseling was honored for more than 30 years of service to Villanova University at the Staff Recognition Dinner in April. Our faculty, staff and students immensely value Rita’s expertise, wisdom and generous assistance in the smooth functioning of the department. We extend our warmest congratulations and best wishes to Rita on this landmark anniversary!
DEI Directors in Schools: What They Do and Why It Matters
Contributed by Nick Kennedy ’24 CLAS
On March 15, the Department of Education and Counseling hosted “DEI Directors in Schools: What They Do and Why It Matters” on behalf of the Southeastern PA Educators of Color Network (SPECN). Edward Fierros, PhD, associate dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for the College, facilitated the discussion, and Lakeisha Thorpe, PhD, The Baldwin School, Kristopher Brown, EdD, '08 CLAS, Abington School District, and Oscar Torres, EdD, Tredyffrin/Easttown School District, defended and celebrated DEI work in schools. They drew upon their experiences and the overwhelmingly positive reception and appreciation they have received. Noting that educators often feel frustrated by restrictions on DEI work imposed by legislation, school policy and student guardians, they encouraged educators to take ownership of things in their control. By utilizing various instructional techniques and pedagogical frameworks, practicing de-escalation, and providing students with DEI resources when possible, educators can exercise power in their classrooms. Educators should also ground DEI work in the mission and values of their school.

For educators looking to incorporate or expand on DEI efforts in their classrooms, Drs. Thorpe, Brown and Torres suggested looking at scholarly work on cultural humility and transculturalism—particularly Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students by Zaretta Hammond. Thanks to SPECN for organizing the event and to the panelists for sharing their time and wisdom.
Interview Night Preps Students for Next Steps
Students participated in “Interview Night,” a valuable opportunity to meet and network with administrators from local and regional school districts, as part of their seminar classes with James Capolupo, EdD. The guest panelists shared helpful tips about the interview process and discussed professionalism, differentiated instruction and classroom management.

The Department extends warm thanks to panelists Anthony DiLella, EdD, assistant principal, Tredyffrin/Easttown School District; Melody Dunn, assistant principal, Pottsgrove School District; Nancy Franz, former principal in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia; Jason Hamer, EdD, Principal, Upper Dublin School District; and Bill Keilbaugh, EdD, Superintendent Emeritus, Haverford School District.
Celebrating and Honoring Graduates and Mentors
Field experiences are a vital component of the professional preparation of teachers, counselors and higher education administrators. The annual Cooperating Personnel Dinner and Graduation Celebration provides an opportunity for the department to express our profound appreciation to the cooperating teachers, counseling field supervisors and higher education practicum supervisors who share their time and expertise with our students in clinical sites, schools and universities. The annual Cooperating Personnel Dinner and Graduation Celebration took place on May 9 in the Villanova Room of the Connelly Center and featured cocktails, dinner, awards presentation, recognition of our 2023 graduates, and comments by distinguished guest speaker, Kristopher Brown, EdD, ’08 CLAS, equity officer in the Abington School District.

Congratulations to the following individuals and sites of excellence who were recognized at the event:

  • Medallion of Excellence in Education: Becca Jacobson ’23 CLAS
  • Undergraduate Casciano Award: Graciella Petrelli ’23 CLAS
  • Graduate Casciano Award: Samantha Simon ’23 MA
  • Teachers of Courage and Conscience Awards: Oscar Torres, EdD, director of Equity and Public Programs, Tredyffrin/Easttown School District, and Amanda Glenn, MEd, mathematics teacher, Central High School, School District of Philadelphia
  • Outstanding Graduate Student Award (School Counseling): Daniela Pareja ’23 MA
  • Outstanding Graduate Student Award (Clinical Mental Health Counseling): Hailey Nold ’23 MS
  • Excellence in Counselor Training and Supervision Award: Jacob Glickman, PsyD, and the Therapy Center of Philadelphia
Student News
Maddy autographs her #20 jersey, which the department plans to frame and hang in its office in St. Augustine Center.
Graduate Education Student Maddy Siegrist Shines on the Court and Off
Contributed by Jennifer Carangi ’96 CLAS, ’12 MA
For the past year, Maddy Siegrist ’22 CLAS, has been a member of the most recent cohort in our Master’s Plus Certification program (pursuing Social Studies certification), but it has been her work outside the classroom that has garnered Siegrist national recognition. Since coming to Villanova in 2018, Siegrist has been a star on Villanova’s women’s basketball team, with this year’s team advancing to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament. Her athletic accomplishments and awards are abundant, and her recognition as 2022 – 2023 Big East Scholar Athlete of the Year exemplifies her dedication in the classroom.
When asked about her time in the program, Siegrist shared, “The Education Department allowed me to follow my passion of teaching, while collaborating with my basketball schedule. The people in my cohort became friends and the teachers were extremely helpful and accommodating. I am so thankful to the Education Department for letting me join the program and grow my passion for teaching.” Siegrist was selected by the Dallas Wings as the third overall pick in the WNBA draft. We wish her continued success as she fulfills her dream of playing professionally and, as we say, once a Wildcat, always a Wildcat!
Spring Break Service Trip Expands Learning Beyond the Classroom
Contributed by Oladimeji Fatoki ’24 MA

Oladimeji (Ola) Fatoki ’24 MA is a graduate Education student from Nigeria. He shared the following reflection about participating in the spring 2023 Service and Justice Experiences program organized by Villanova’s Campus Ministry.

“Participants were selected from different programs on the Villanova campus. We spent a week in March with Via International in San Diego to understand immigration justice among the Chicano people. We participated in a series of workshops and projects and learned about grassroots initiatives, history, culture, movements, activism, identity and the struggles of the Chicano community. The people talked about identifying as ‘Chicano’ because of an identity crisis—they are not accepted in Mexico because they speak broken Spanish and are not accepted in the US because they are considered Hispanic/Latino.

I was excited to experience how the Chicanos make sense of their history and tell their stories with art. We visited the Chicano Park which has different murals, the Chicano Museum, the community school, the point of entry, and the new border wall separating families in San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico. We went hiking and sightseeing, participated in the cultural dance of the Chicano, enjoyed the food and interacted with leaders, adults and young activists. I am glad that the competitive scholarship allowed me to embark on this trip which helped me transfer learning in the classroom to real-life situations.”
Student Achievements

Amanda Galczyk ’23 MA successfully defended her master’s thesis, “Beyond Historical Narratives of Victimization and Erasure: Native Survivance and Subversion in United States Higher Education,” on April 26, 2023. She offered a critical, historical analysis of anti-Indigenous violence inherent to US higher education. The paper challenged the assumption that US higher education is an unequivocal good and discussed Native practices of survival and resistance, including the Tribal College and University movement. Seth Fishman, PhD, served as her thesis chair and Jerusha Conner, PhD, and Meghan Petsko ’21 MA, served as thesis committee members.
Becca Jacobson ’23 CLAS is a senior Education major pursuing secondary English certification. Becca shared findings from her original research, “Foregrounding Disability: Factors Influencing 6-12 English Language Arts Teachers in Leading Disability-Related Classroom Discussion,” at a roundtable discussion during the annual conference of the American Education Research Association (AERA) on April 15 in Chicago. The recipient of a Villanova Undergraduate Research Fellowship, Becca was also recently selected as a 2023 Falvey Scholar. Christa Bialka, EdD, served as Becca’s fellowship mentor and chair of her Honors’ Thesis.
Graduate Education student, Oladimeji Fatoki ’24 MA, was awarded a Graduate Student Summer Research Fellowship.

Graduate Education student, Jarryd Kainz ’23 MA, is the assistant director of Outreach and Operations of the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships at the University of Pennsylvania.

Five graduate students in the Higher Education Leadership Program earned nationally competitive summer internships. Three students earned internships through Association of College and University Housing Officers-International: Nicolas Schoppe ’24 MA at Notre Dame, Jared Grizzle ’24 MA at the University of Miami and Janiyah Clinton ’24 MA at the University of California, Berkeley. Two students were awarded internships through Association for Orientation, Transition and Retention in Higher Education: Rose Walton ’24 MA at Xavier University and Carson Long ’24 MA at Providence College.

Graduate Counseling students Jaime Wheatcroft ’23 MS and Sylvia Salas ’23 MS published an article, “It was Hard to Prepare without Knowing What I was Preparing for: Latine Youth Experiences of a First-Generation College-Going Group,” with Stacey Havlik, PhD, and Krista Malott, PhD, in the journal, Professional School Counseling.
Student Organizations
Student Pennsylvania State Education Association
Contributed by Victoria Rozas-Rivera ’24 CLAS, SPSEA President

This semester, the Student Pennsylvania State Education Association held undergraduate info sessions about membership, course registration and graduate programs offered by the Department. In addition, the organization hosted a Q&A with current seniors who shared their experiences with certification exams and student teaching. To close out the semester, SPSEA held a study session on Reading Day.
GET: Graduate Education Team
Contributed by Nicolas Shoppe '24 MA
On April 27, the Graduate Education team hosted its first happy hour. The gathering fostered cross conversations among students in various Graduate Education programs and provided an opportunity for students to meet new people and build community. The group is excited to plan additional events for the fall.
Alpha Beta Gamma Chapter of Chi Sigma Iota
Contributed by Hailey Nold ’23 MS and Pieta Okonya ’23 MS (Co-Presidents)

The Villanova chapter of Chi Sigma Iota enjoyed a busy semester. Some of the organization’s successes include: inducting 18 new members; creating an identity-based career resource guide for students seeking practicum/internship sites or full-time positions; designing a DEI survey to be shared with all counseling students; hosting six faculty-led study sessions for the Counselor Preparation Comprehensive Exam and the National Counselor Exam as well as a self-care hour for those taking the exam. The following students will serve as Alpha Beta Gamma Chapter leaders in 2023 – 2024:

  • Chapter Co-Presidents: Leslie Ann Glossner and Ellie Stanley
  • Chapter Treasurer: Sarah Johns
  • Social Chair: Veronica Jeffers
  • Professional Development Chair: Jessica Nopper
  • DEI Co-Chairs: Sydney Drager and Jordan Williams
  • Community Engagement Chair: Sydney Drager
Faculty News
Recent Faculty Publications, Conference Presentations and Recognitions
Christa Bialka, EdD, was a finalist for the prestigious Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award for Outstanding Teaching, Villanova University. Dr. Bialka was selected by the Villanova Institute for Research and Scholarship as the recipient of a University Summer Grant for her project, “Understanding How Twitter Shapes Public Perceptions of #Disability.” Dr. Bialka also participated in a roundtable presentation, My Disability was Treated Like a Big Secret: Understanding the Nature of Disability-Related Discussions in PreK-12 Classrooms, at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in April with N. Hansen, I.P. Kan, D. Mackintosh, and R. Jacobson.

James Capolupo, EdD, contributes a weekly tip for superintendents and a reflective leadership quote in “Cap’s Corner,” a regular feature of the National Association of School Superintendents (NASS) newsletter. Dr. Capolupo serves on the executive committee of NASS.

Jerusha Conner, PhD, co-published “Burnout and belonging: How the costs and benefits of youth activism affect youth health and wellbeing” in the journal, Youth, with Emily Greytak, Carly Evich, and Laura Wray-Lake. She also published a paper, “Social movements & college student activism” in the International Encyclopedia of Education: Diversity, Democracy, and Social Justice in Education, vol. 2.

Edward Fierros, PhD, was awarded a VERITAS Faculty Research Grant from the Villanova Institute for Research and Scholarship.

Stacey Havlik, PhD, co-presented a session with Dana Brookover, PhD, on “Preparing students experiencing homelessness to go to college” at the Evidence-Based School Counseling Conference at Ohio State University in March.

Krista Malott, PhD, and Terence Yee, PhD, published two articles together with Shanee Barraclough, PhD, of the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. The articles appeared in the International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling: “Overcoming barriers to social justice learning in multicultural counselor education” and “Towards decolonizing diagnosis: A critical review and suggested alternatives.”

Krista Malott, PhD, was awarded a 2023 Villanova Small Research Grant for her project, “How Counselor Educators Conceptualize and Embody Decolonizing Therapy Practices.”

Rayna Markin, PhD, published a chapter, “A little bit pregnant: Counseling for recurrent pregnancy loss” in the second edition of Fertility Counseling edited by S. Covington., Cambridge Press.

Rachel Skrlac Lo, PhD, was awarded a UNITAS Faculty Research grant from the Villanova Institute for Research and Scholarship. Dr. Skrlac Lo also published two articles recently. The first piece, “Revisiting syllabi to create antiracist courses,” was co-authored with Edwin Mayorga, PhD, and published in Teaching Ethics. The second article, “New conceptual tools for be(com)ing antiracist (teacher) educators at PWIS” was co-authored with Caroline Clark, PhD; Ashley Boyd, PhD; Michael Cook, PhD; Adam Crawley, PhD; and Ryan M. Rish, PhD, and was published in English Teaching: Practice & Critique. Dr. Skrlac Lo made presentations this academic year at the following conferences: National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, American Educational Research Association, Literacy Research Association, and the National Council of Teachers of English. Co-presenters included Edward Fierros, PhD, Teresa Nance, PhD, and Sherry Bowen, PhD, of Villanova.

Madora Soutter, EdD, was selected by the Villanova Institute for Research and Scholarship as the recipient of a University Summer Grant for her project, “Teacher Professional Learning Communities for Contextualized Social and Emotional Learning Implementation.” Dr. Soutter published an article entitled, “Orienting all students toward justice: Cultivating social responsibility in privileged schooling environments” with Dr. Shelby Clark in the journal, Education, Citizenship & Social Justice.

Chris Schmidt, PhD, received a Villanova CLAS Faculty Research and Development Grant. His paper, "Counseling High Conflict: Navigating the Complexities of High Conflict Divorce,” was accepted for publication in The Family Journal.

Teresa G. Wojcik, PhD, co-presented with alumna Amanda Adams ’21 MA, “What does it mean to ‘teach with primary sources?’: Towards a taxonomy of primary source use," at the annual conference of the Middle States Council for the Social Studies in February.
Alumni News
Alumni Notes

Master’s Plus alumna Amanda Adams ’21 MA is a Social Studies teacher at Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School in Atlanta, Georgia.

Counseling alumna Zoe Darazsdi ’22 MS co-published an article with Christa Bialka, PhD, in the journal, Autism, “Oh, you couldn’t be autistic: Examining anti-autistic bias and self-esteem in the therapeutic alliance. ”

Kayleigh Giles ’22 CLAS will be attending Harvard University in fall 2023 to earn her Master of Education Degree in the Learning Design, Innovation and Technology Program.

Brendan Lyons ’09 CLAS is the associate editor at The National Catholic Bioethics Center. He is the author of the historical novel, Charley: The True Story of the Youngest Soldier to Die in the American Civil War (2023) and the children’s book I Can Hear Music (2021).

Patrick Moyer ’22 CLAS was promoted to assistant director of admissions at Kutztown University.

Meg Petsko ’21 MA accepted the newly created position of deputy director of Records and Registration in the Villanova Registrar’s Office.

Ariana Ramos ’20 CLAS, ’21 MA begins a new position with Villanova Housing and Operations as the Coordinator for Communications and Operations.

Marisa Somich ’22 MA returns to Villanova as the student involvement advisor in Student Life.
Alumni of the department are invited to share their news and accomplishments for inclusion in future editions of the Education and Counseling Newsletter.  
Save The Date
July 21 – 23, 2023: The department will co-host the Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted Conference at the Inn at Villanova.
Newsletter Editor: Teresa G. Wojcik, PhD
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