2000s
Chance Chinese Course Leads to International Opportunity |
 Jane Hanson’s mom, a veteran teacher, always told her that education would take her places.
“She spoke of the world as a wonderful and fascinating place, ripe for adventure,” Hanson said.
In the summer of 2008, those words proved true. Hanson’s experience studying Chinese while working toward her doctorate in foreign language education earned her an opportunity to spend time in China during the recent summer Olympics.
Hanson (PhD ‘08), who worked in International Programs while at the UI, was the faculty director of the Beijing Summer Olympics Ambassadors Project, sponsored by the International Programs Office of Study Abroad. The project took 23 UI journalism students to China for nine weeks. The students served as volunteers for the Olympic News Service.
Hanson said she was anxious to put her Chinese language education to use and was awed by China’s history and the Chinese people’s hospitality during her stay.
“It was truly awesome to walk where emperors had walked and see the architectural and historical treasures of the Chinese culture,” she said.
Hanson, now a lecturer in the Intensive English Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and an adjunct faculty member at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, said the experience left a lasting impression on her and affirmed her passion for teaching and studying foreign languages.
“China and its people will be major players in the century to come, and positive relationships between our people and countries will benefit all of us. This can only be accomplished through dialogue and conversation by people who can communicate well,” she said. “In teaching ESL to foreign students who have come to the US to study, I can help Chinese students, and those from many other nations, acquire the language skills they will need for this communication and for future careers.”
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Sara Abdo Gott (BA ’00) is an assistant principal at Davenport Central High School.
Ellen Sunshine (MA ’01), an academic advisor for the University of Minnesota, received a John Tate Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Advising. The Tate Awards serve to recognize and reward high-quality academic advising, calling attention to the contribution academic advising makes to helping students formulate and achieve intellectual, career, and personal goals. The award highlighted Sunshine’s outstanding advising, and identified her as a professional model.
Yunghung Hsiao(MAT ’02) has been teaching Chinese at the Indian Trail Academy in Kenosha, Wisc., for seven years.She received the Cheng & Tsui Professional Development Award for Teachers of Chinese, which is designed to enhance the knowledge and skills of teachers of Chinese, especially teachers new to the field. The award is from the ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) and the Cheng & Tsui publisher.
Jacqueline (Randall) Werly (BA ’03) teaches Spanish and English at Grant Community High School. She also coaches track together with fellow Hawkeye, Blair Schoell.
Blair Schoell (BA ’06) is in his fourth year teaching U.S. History and Government at Grant Community High School. He coaches football and also coaches track together with fellow Hawkeye, Jackie Werly.
Yi Ding (PhD ’08) is an assistant professor at the University of Toledo, where she serves as the school psychology practicum placement coordinator. She teaches a series of psycho-educational assessment and intervention classes and serves as the coordinator of school psychology field practicum. Her research areas include attention deficit hyperactivity disorders (ADHD), learning disabilities (LD), autism spectrum disorders (ASD), the use of functional behavioral analysis (FBA) in children with genetic syndromes and developmental disabilities, international school psychology, and special education issues.
Ding has presented at the state, national, and international levels. She has published in various journals and translated textbooks into Chinese.
Joni L. Swanson (PhD ’08), an assistant superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction at Geneseo CUSD #228 in Illinois won the 2009 National Association of Secondary School Principals’ (NASSP) High School Dissertation Award.
Swanson’s dissertation, “An Analysis of the Impact of High School Dual Enrollment Course Participation on Post-secondary Academic Success, Persistence and Degree Completion,” examines the impact of high school students’ participation in dual enrollment courses upon college persistence and degree attainment.
This research suggests that dual enrollment course participation may result in higher levels of student persistence in college and thereby increase the likelihood of earning a post-secondary credential. Studying the impact of dual enrollment programs upon student outcomes in post-secondary education may positively impact high school reform by enriching course options beyond the traditional menu, and by enhancing communication regarding student readiness between secondary and post-secondary institutions.
Eric MacTaggart (BA ’09), University of Iowa distance runner, was named winner of the Big Ten’s oldest award, the Medal of Honor. First awarded in 1914, the Big Ten endowed a Medal of Honor to be given annually to a student in the graduating class of each university that demonstrated proficiency in scholarship and athletics.
MacTaggart earned All-American honors in outdoor track and is a six-time NCAA qualifier. A three-time all-region honoree in cross country, he has been named to the academic All-Big Ten team four times during his Hawkeye career. He also received the UI’s 2008 Robert F. Ray award, presented annually to a student athlete who demonstrates outstanding academic and athletic excellence and leadership.
MacTaggart missed the 2007 cross country season to fulfill an academic requirement to play in the Hawkeye Marching Band. He currently teaches music for West Jefferson High School in Terreton, Idaho.
Aimee Mapes (PhD ’09) is the recipient of one of the most prestigious national postdoctoral positions offered to Ph.D. students in literacy. She has received the three-year postdoctoral fellow appointment in the esteemed Thompson Writing Program at Duke University in Durham, NC. Renowned for its innovative, interdisciplinary approach to teaching first-year writing, Thompson Writing offers fellows small teaching loads and opportunities to further their research. All fellows are invited to design a course for the program. Mapes’ course focuses on the representation of college students as youth in educational literature and mainstream media, a syllabus she developed as part of her Language, Literacy, and Culture comprehensive exam. As postdoctoral fellow, Mapes will conduct teacher-research with Duke students by exploring their engagement in literacy.
