April 2019
THE COLLEGE INSIDER
NEWS ABOUT FACULTY, STAFF, AND STUDENTS
OF THE UA COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
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Awards
College of Education doctoral students awarded Maria Teresa Velez Diversity Leadership Scholarships

Congratulations to College of Education doctoral students Amanda Cheromiah , Charlinda Haudley , and Bryant Valencia for receiving the Dr. Maria Teresa Velez Diversity Leadership Scholarship for the 2019-2020 academic year!

The award is given annually to graduate students who, through their teaching, research, or outreach and service, have demonstrated a commitment to furthering diversity in education, higher education, and the community at large. We are so proud of each of you!
Charlinda Haudley headshot
Charlinda Haudley
Amanda Cheromiah headshot
Amanda Cheromiah
Bryant Valencia
Bryant Valencia
Maria Mata headshot
Maria Mata wins 2019 ACPA Latin@/x Outstanding New Professional Award

Congratulations to Upward Bound Program Coordinator Maria Mata on winning the 2019 American College Personnel Association Latin@/x Outstanding New Professional Award ! This award is presented to professionals in the field of student affairs and higher education who have contributed to student culture both on and off campus and have demonstrated commitment to the long-term enhancement of the Latin@/x community. 
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White Guys on Campus awarded AERA Division J Outstanding Publication Award

Associate Professor Nolan Cabrera ’s book, White Guys on Campus , was awarded the American Educational Research Association Division J 2019 Outstanding Publication Award. Cabrera was also awarded the 2019 AERJ Reviewer of the Year, which will be presented at the annual meeting this month in Toronto.      
Celeste Atkins headshot
Celeste Atkins awarded Digital Pedagogy Lab fellowship

Higher Education graduate student Celeste Atkins was awarded one of only 15 fellowships to the Digital Pedagogy Lab in Fredericksburg, VA in August 2019. DPL's mission is to engage the educational community to inspire educational approaches based on pedagogies, policies, and critical practices that support agency, creativity, and inquiry.
While at DPL, Atkins will give a workshop about inclusive excellence in education.  
Honoring dedicated UA employees for their years of service

Every year, College of Education employees who have served the University of Arizona for 10 years
or more are honored with the Service Year Award . On April 4, the following College of Education employees will be recognized for their service and dedication to the university:
What's New?
New partnership program with UA School of Anthropology engages high school students in archaeological digs and visits to national parks

Last month, the Linking Southwestern Heritage Through Archaeology program kicked off its sixth year with a new partnership between the College of Education, UA School of Anthropology , and National Park Service . The School of Anthropology and National Park Service have worked together on the annual project since 2013, but this is the first year for the College of Education’s involvement.

The program uses regional archaeology to connect youth from the Southwest to their cultural history through trips to national parks and hands-on activities like archaeological digs. For the next few months, 13 students and three educators from different high schools throughout Tucson will go on day trips and even overnight camping trips to parks like Saguaro National Park , Montezuma Castle National Monument , and even Grand Canyon National Park . On March 22, the group went on their first day trip to Casa Grande Ruins National Monument (pictured below) where they learned about the importance of preservation. The students learned how to “sling mud” in a practice that helps to stabilize the ancient ruin walls.

To learn more about the program, visit swheritage.arizona.edu .
Linking Southwest Heritage Through Archaelogy group photo at Casa Grande Ruins National Monument
Community Foundation for Southern Arizona logo
An update on the Regional Educator Professional Learning Collaborative

In late March, about 50 local educators met over two days at the Amphitheater School District to create a plan for the new Regional Educator Professional Learning Collaborative. This is the latest update on the 9 month planning grant project that began last fall. The college received the grant from the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona to achieve long-term goals of 1) improving teachers’ professional learning by increasing the visibility of stakeholder professional learning activities, 2) helping PK-12 educators find the best match to their needs, and 3) when needs are not currently being met, work with partners to craft new professional learning opportunities.

On the first day of the meeting, participants heard from three nationally recognized professional development designers: Cindy Callan of the University of Rochester , David Stroupe of Michigan State University , and Kari Theirer , a professional development specialist in the Puget Sounds region. Jean Moon, a nationally recognized leader in this field, served as the chief consultant to the enterprise. Participants analyzed the content of the three design presentations with the goal of using the most promising ideas for the Southern Arizona region. On the second day, participants synthesized the presentations and created a number of design elements that will be used over the next few months to propose the creation of the collaborative and to seek funding.
David Yaden headshot
David Yaden elected vice president-elect of the Literacy Research Association

Professor David Yaden has been recently elected vice president-elect of the Literacy Research Association , a non-profit professional community of scholars dedicated to promoting research that enriches the knowledge, understanding, and development of life span literacies in a multicultural and multilingual world. The organization, which celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2018, embraces practices beyond reading to include a wide range of literacy practices, including writing, digital literacies, and attention to cultural influences on all literacy practices. Yaden will serve as vice president beginning December 2019-2020, president-elect in 2020-2021, and president in 2021-2022.
Campaigns
Indigenous Teacher Education Project logo
Help ITEP expand their program for more future Indigenous educators

Today marks the last day of the Indigenous Teacher Education Project crowdfunding campaign!

Interested in helping ITEP prepare future Indigenous educators to fuse their knowledge, culture, language and aspects of their tribal identities with academic classroom teaching?

Current funding for the program can support 12 candidates, but with more than 100 people expressing interest in joining the program, the need to secure sustainable funding so the program can expand is becoming more and more important.

Help them reach their goal of $5,000 so they can support a greater number of future Indigenous educators and build a more sustainable program. Learn more about ITEP at itep.coe.arizona.edu . Learn more about the campaign here .
Cooper Center logo
#SupportCooperCenter

The Cooper Center for Environmental Learning is an incredible educational partnership between the University of Arizona College of Education and Tucson Unified School District. Since 1964, more than 130,000 kids have visited to engage in hands-on learning about desert plants and animals as a way to explore broader concepts in science and better understand how humans impact the earth.

In 2018 alone, more than 3,000 students from throughout Tucson visited Camp Cooper. These are usually not children who can visit national parks or go off to camp in the summer. For many of them, a trip to Camp Cooper will be their only chance to learn about nature up-close and outdoors, guided by smart, caring staff and UA students who work as instructors.

April 1 kicks off day one of the 2019 crowdfund campaign, which asks those who are passionate about the Cooper Center mission to consider donating so Tucson children can continue visiting for another 55 years. Just $10 pays for a full day and overnight experience for a student, including nighttime astronomy programming and campfire activities.

To learn more about the Cooper Center, visit coopercenter.arizona.edu . Learn more about the campaign here
Events
The 2019 Annual Creative Arts Teen Summit was a huge success!

Authors and illustrators traveled a day early to the Tucson Festival of Books to take part in the Creative Arts Teen Summit. As a kick-off to the Tucson Festival of Books, this collaborative event between the College of Education, UA Bookstores , and UA Early Academic Outreach happens quietly on the Friday of festival weekend. 340 local high school students arrive on buses to attend an author and illustrator panel presentation. Following the panel, they split into small-group workshops to learn the crafts of illustration and creative writing. Participating authors and illustrators included (pictured below from left to right) David Wiesner , Javaka Steptoe , Susan Kuklin , Bill Konigsberg , Adam Rex , Daniel José Older , Kekla Magoon , and Kass Morgan .
Authors and Illustrators at Tucson Festival of Books Teen Summit
Creating equitable design of STEM learning environments through National Science Foundation grant

Last February, 63 people from universities, libraries, museums, public schools, community non-profits and research centers throughout the country traveled to Tucson to explore and discuss the principles for the equitable design of STEM learning environments with funding from the National Science Foundation . For four days, the group worked together at the University of Arizona’s Biosphere 2 to forge new directions and create inspiring action plans. Learn more about the workshop here
STEM group at Biosphere 2
Students to Cyclovia event information
Calling UA bike riders!

Students from Assistant Professor of Practice Matt Ostermeyer ’s TLS 355 class have come together to create Students to Cyclovia , a community event for university students who ride their bikes to campus.

The event will take place on Sunday, April 7, during the popular Tucson event Cyclovia that brings people together to walk, bike, socialize, and play in streets free of cars. In other words, it’s a car-free block party.

The purpose of Students to Cyclovia is to expose UA students and the general public to the strong community and many opportunities available to a bike rider in Tucson. The TLS 355 students have designed a free and easy scavenger hunt consisting of four stations that are on the car-free Cyclovia footprint. People who complete the self-directed hunt will receive a prize that will help further their bike riding in Tucson. The only thing needed is a the mobile QR scanner app and a bike! If you don’t have a bike, you can borrow one from the UA or rent one from TuGo . Learn more about Students to Cyclovia here
True Cost film screening poster
Who really pays the price for our clothing?

In late March, the Cooper Center for Environmental Learning , along with the UA Office of Sustainability and local sustainable clothing company, Fed By Threads , hosted a film screening of The True Cost . The documentary film provided viewers with the untold story about the fashion industry and asked them to consider who are the many people and places behind our clothes?

The film screening was followed by a panel discussion with Fed by Threads COO Skya Nelson , UA Office of Sustainability Director Trevor Ledbetter , and PetSmart Associate Professor in Retailing & Consumer Sciences Sabrina Helm . The event was sponsored by Tucson Federal Credit Union , Transit Tea Company , and Cox for the benefit of the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona .
Faculty Presentations
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Desiree Vega to attend the British Psychological Society’s annual conference through MOU Learning Partner Program

Assistant Professor Desiree Vega was invited to participate in the American Psychological Association-MOU Learning Partner Program going to the British Psychological Society’s 2019 Annual Conference in Harrogate, United Kingdom. At the conference in May, she will deliver a symposium presentation as part of the partnership titled Training bilingual school psychologists to meet the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students .
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Nolan Cabrera delivers keynote presentations in New York City and Miami

The month of March was a busy one for Associate Professor Nolan Cabrera . He kicked off the month with a panel discussion at the Tucson Festival of Books . He was joined by Graduate Center, CUNY Professor and cultural historian Eric Lott for the panel, which was titled Conundrums of Racial Divides in American Culture .

Cabrera also traveled to New York City to deliver a keynote presentation at the Race, Identity, and Liberation inaugural conference at Queens College, CUNY . In addition to the keynote presentation, which was titled White Immunity: Working through the pitfalls of privilege , he also delivered a public dialogue presentation titled The conundrums of Whiteness in educational research .

Cabrera also delivered a keynote presentation as part of the Higher Education Program’s Innovative Inquiry Colloquium Series at Florida International University in Miami. The title of his presentation was Where’s the racial theory in Critical Race Theory?: A constructive criticism of the Crits .
College of Education faculty and students present at the NASP 2019 Annual Convention

The College of Education’s School Psychology Program was well-represented at the National Association of School Psychologists ' Annual Convention in Atlanta, Georgia last February. Students and faculty participated in more than 10 presentations, including sessions like Bilingualism and the Brain: Equity for ELL Students and How School Psychologists Can Protect Unauthorized Immigrant Students .
School Psychology Program faculty and students at National Association of School Psychologists' Annual Convention
Desiree Vega giving presentation
Desiree Vega delivers presentation at Integrated Behavioral Health Colloquium

Assistant Professor Desiree Vega was invited to deliver a presentation at the Integrated Behavioral Health Colloquium at Heidelberg University in mid-March. Vega’s presentation was titled Family-school partnerships to support the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse youth .
Faculty Publications
Shirin Antia offers perspectives on deafness in Co-enrollment in Deaf Education

Professor Shirin Antia co-edited the book, Co-enrollment in Deaf Education , with Rochester Institute of Technology Professor Marc Marschark and Radboud University Professor Harry Knoors . The book, which was published by Oxford University Press , describes a promising new model for deaf education and demonstrates that flexibility in educational programming is crucial for the diverse population of deaf and hard-of-hearing learners.
Nolan Cabrera and Chris Corces- Zimmerman explore the creation and structuring of racial marginalization

Associate Professor Nolan Cabrera co-authored a chapter, Beyond privilege: Whiteness as the center of racial marginalization , with doctoral student Chris Corces-Zimmerman . The full chapter can be read in the book, Marginality in the urban center: Costs and challenges of continued Whiteness in the Americas and beyond, by Peary Brug , Zachary Ritter , and Kenneth Roth
David Yaden headshot
The education of young emergent bilingual children: An update and call to action

Professor David Yaden , doctoral student Camille Martinez , and colleagues, Mileidis Gort of the University of Colorado at Boulder and Robert Rueda of the University of Southern California , co-authored a chapter, The education of young emergent bilingual children: An update and call to action , which will appear in the forthcoming Handbook of Research on the Education of Young Children (4th ed.) published by Routledge . In the chapter, the authors advocate for a different theoretical approach in creating improved research designs that result in deeper insights into bilingual children’s language learning abilities. 
Comparing theoretical models in the measurement of student environmental perceptions

College of Education faculty studied student environmental perceptions using both the Two Major Environmental Values model and the New Ecological Paradigm scale. They compared their findings from the two models in Measuring Environmental Perceptions Grounded on Different Theoretical Models: The 2-Major Environmental Values (2-MEV) Model in Comparison with the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) Scale .

Authors of the article from the College of Education include Dean and Professor Bruce Johnson , Cooper Center Associate Director of Teaching and Research Constantinos Manoli , and Assistant Research Professor Sanlyn Buxner . The fourth author is Professor Franz Bogner of the University of Bayreuth
Bruce Johnson Headshot
Bruce Johnson
Sanlyn Buxner headshot
Sanlyn Buxner
Constantinos Manoli headshot
Constantinos Manoli
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College of Education website, complete and submit the form at the link below.
Please contact Mary Werner ( marywerner@email.arizona.edu ) with any questions.
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Ashlee Parra
Spotlight on Stellar Students!

Born and raised in Tucson, Arizona, Ashlee Parra grew up knowing she wanted to be a Wildcat. She entered the University of Arizona as a pre-education student with plans of becoming a second grade elementary teacher. While participating in the New Start Summer Program during her freshman year, she was introduced to a career path of mentorship in higher education. After working as a peer mentor in the program that following summer, she knew that was the career path she was meant to pursue.

Fast forward a few years and now she will be graduating this May with a bachelor’s degree in literacy, learning, and leadership and a minor in family studies and human development. But her relationship with the College of Education won’t be coming to an end just yet. She was recently accepted into the Master of Arts in Higher Education – Student Affairs Program.

With the knowledge and skills gained through the program, she plans on working in student affairs or academic advising where she can assist marginalized, first generation college students in their assimilation into higher education. She says she has too often heard stories of students not receiving the proper assistance and attention needed during their assimilation to college. A first generation college student herself, she knows first-hand how it feels to adapt to college and she knows the impact a good advisor can have. “The advisors [at the College of Education] have been so helpful and understanding as I embarked on the journey of understanding where I want to end up and what career I see for myself. Every one of my mentors has helped make my dreams become a reality.”

As she makes the next step in becoming an advisor herself, she’s holding close the advice she has received along the way in her academic journey. And she plans on paying it forward. “I want to be a memorable mentor for my caseload and all the students I come in contact with in every capacity.”

In addition to her coursework as a grad student, Parra will be working at the UA THINK TANK as the Academic Skills graduate assistant. In this role, she will further her experience as a mentor, gaining experience as a supervisor and contributing to the development of the Academic Skills tutor program, among other duties.

With a younger brother in his freshman year of high school, she stays motivated to continue working hard in her academic career. A mentor at her core, she leads by example so that he will soon follow in her footsteps to higher education.