CEHS Magazine: Spring 2018

WVU COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND HUMAN SERVICES | SPRING 2018

INSIDE THE ARTIST’S STUDIO RBA STUDENT MOLLY MUST EXPLORES HISTORY, CULTURE, COMMUNITY THROUGH ART

SPRING 2018 E. Gordon Gee President, West Virginia University Sharon Martin Vice President, University Relations

ADMINISTRATION Gypsy Denzine, PhD Dean, College of Education and Human Services Dale Niederhauser, PhD Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Laura Porter, EdD Assistant Dean for Student Services and Accreditation Jeffrey Daniels, PhD Chair, Counseling, Rehabilitation Counseling and Counseling Psychology Reagan Curtis, PhD Chair, Learning Sciences and Human Development Barbara Ludlow, EdD Chair, Special Education Sam Stack, PhD Chair, Curriculum and Instruction/Literacy Studies

LETTER FROM THE DEAN Dear Alumni and Friends,

This spring, the College of Education and Human Services is celebrating another successful semester. In all that we’ve accomplished, we’ve

remained focused on our land-grant

mission, continually seeking ways to meet West Virginia’s needs.

In September 2017, we officially

opened the WVU Center for the

Future of Land-Grant Education,

the first of its kind in the nation. Our

Land-Grant Center is bridging the gap between academic inquiry and public need through research that defines the role of land-grant institutions in our state’s and nation’s future.

Our new minor in addiction studies

will provide students with the knowledge and skills they need to assist individuals

Jayne Brandel, PhD Chair, Communication Sciences and Disorders

who have been affected by the opioid crisis. We are already seeing students in

ADVANCEMENT STAFF

impactful area of study.

fields ranging from social work to exercise science interested in pursuing this In March, we faced a statewide teachers’ strike that opened the door for

Amy Lutz Director of Advancement, editor

important dialogue about the status of the teaching profession not only in West

Lindsey Kudaroski Communications Specialist, editor

West Virginia history to educate our future teachers about the complexities of the

Virginia, but throughout rural America. We capitalized on this unique moment in

Lauren Seiler Assistant Director of Development and Outreach

profession and to encourage them to stay in the state to teach.

Jennifer Edison Professional Technologist

and we are grateful for your support.

Our College has the vision and the momentum to move West Virginia forward,

Kim Mocniak Program Assistant

ART DIRECTION Becky Moore Graphic Designer

Gypsy Denzine

Dean, College of Education and Human Services

PHOTOGRAPHY Brian Persinger WVU University Relations, photojournalist Jenny Shephard WVU University Relations, photojournalist Lindsey Kudaroski Communications Specialist

Visit our website cehs.wvu.edu

WVU is an EEO/Affirmative Action Employer — Minority/Female/Disability/Veteran. The WVU Board of Governors is the governing body of WVU. The Higher Education Policy Commission in West Virginia is responsible for developing, establishing and overseeing the implementation of a public policy agenda for the state’s four-year colleges and universities. (388550)

CONTENTS FEATURES

DEPARTMENTS

12 Inside the Artist’s Studio

RBA student Molly Must explores history,

culture, community through art

2 Matter of Fact

17 Alumni Spotlight

4 Student Briefs

18 Success Story

8 Student Scholarships

26 Giving Back

16 Faculty Q&A

28 In the Classroom

20 CEHS Hosts Teacher Strike Teach-In

The causes, context and goals of the

2018 West Virginia teacher strike

30 Land-Grant Leadership

SNAPSHOT Molly Must's Studio

In her Morgantown, W.Va., studio, Molly Must explores the intersection of historical, cultural and personal elements through various artistic forms.

LINDSEY KUDAROSKI

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MATTER OF FACT

LINDSEY KUDAROSKI

Hearing aid recipient Jolyn Lentz works with audiology students to test her new hearing aid.

Hearing Aid Fund Established to Help Low-Income Clients CEHS has partnered with the Morgantown Rotary Club to provide hearing aids to low-income clients of the WVU Speech and Hearing Clinic through a fund created to honor the late Dr. Hugh Lindsay.

For Lindsay, a Morgantown physician, former WVU professor and devoted member of the Morgantown Rotary Club, the cost of hearing aids was a shock that inspired him to help others. He found that used hearing aids could be recycled, and he decided to raise awareness for this cause.

Lindsay worked through the Morgantown Rotary Club to collect the used hearing aids. After Lindsay’s death in 2015, his fellow Rotarians wanted to continue to help with this cause, as well as to honor his memory. After crossing paths with a representative from CEHS, the Rotarians discovered that the best way to connect people with hearing aids was to create a fund for the WVU Speech and Hearing Clinic. The first recipient of a hearing aid through the fund was Jolyn Lentz of Wallace, W. Va., who received her hearing aid in April 2018.

JOB ACCOMMODATION NETWORK RECEIVES $12.7 MILLION FUNDING RENEWAL Housed at CEHS, the Job Accommodation Network, known as JAN, is the nation’s leading source of free, expert and confidential guidance on workplace accommodations and disability employment issues. JAN, which was founded in 1983 and is led by Project Director D.J. Hendricks, recently received a $12.7 million funding renewal for the next four-and-a-half years from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy.

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WVU COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND HUMAN SERVICES

JAN’s consultants provide job accommodation technical assistance for any type of disability, any job and any kind of business. The funding renewal allows JAN to continue its services, including offering the most current information to clients, conducting training sessions throughout the country and producing informational videos. Each year, JAN’s 30 employees answer more than 55,000 inquiries through its toll-free hotline and online chats.

CEHS Raises Record

$9.8 million

CEHS MOURNS THE LOSS OF LONGTIME PROFESSOR Dr. Richard “Dick” Walls, a long-time professor of educational psychology, passed away on Nov. 1, 2017.

Walls was a two-time graduate of WVU with his BS in mathematics and biology education in 1961, and his MA in guidance and counseling in 1963. He received his PhD in educational psychology from Pennsylvania State University in 1968.

After graduating from his doctoral program, Walls returned to WVU as a professor of educational psychology, where he remained for the rest of his career. He was a nationally recognized scholar in educational psychology and disability studies, having published countless articles in notable academic journals and books.

Walls mentored numerous CEHS students during his tenure as a researcher and educator, and received the Outstanding Teacher Award from WVU in 1971, 1972 and 1988. He was also recognized with the Benedum Distinguished Scholar Award in 1998 and was selected as a recipient of the College’s Jasper N. Deahl Award in May 2017.

In addition to his many professional achievements, Walls was a passionate musician and member of The Pass-Fail Band, featuring a lineup of CEHS faculty members.

On Dec. 31, 2017, West Virginia University’s A State of Minds Campaign came to a close with more than $1.2 billion donated. Generous contributions, totaling $9,876,999 from alumni and friends, set CEHS well above its $6.6 million goal.

During the campaign, CEHS established 53 new scholarship funds, 20 research funds, 17 program support funds and three professorships/ directorships. For the 2017-2018 academic year, a total of $196,775 was awarded in aid to CEHS students from these funds.

The first-ever WVU Day of Giving was included in this success, with more than $337,000 being donated to CEHS by alumni and friends on Nov. 8, 2017. On this day, out of 145 donors, 56 made their first donation to the University via a gift to our College.

“This accomplishment is amazing,” said CEHS Dean Gypsy Denzine.

“Our alumni and friends devote their entire careers to educating and helping other people. They also make giving to their alma mater a financial priority. We have the most loyal donors, who care deeply about the success of our students and the future of the College of Education and Human Services. CEHS students and faculty members have greatly benefitted from the generosity of our donors, and they will continue to thrive in the future.”

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Established as part of West Virginia University's A State of Minds Campaign.

3

STUDENT BRIEFS

MEET OUR

STUDENTS

LINDSEY KUDAROSKI

Jermaine Jackson Charles Town, W.Va. Senior in Elementary Education, Special Education Starting in high school, Jermaine Jackson knew he wanted to pursue a career in education. As a participant in his school’s teacher cadet program, he quickly found a passion for working with younger children.

“My high school’s teacher cadet program taught you how to do lesson plans, develop curriculum and more,” Jackson said. “I worked in the local elementary school once a week and looked forward to going every time.”

Teacher cadet programs in West Virginia are designed to attract talented young people to the teaching profession to meet the need for highly qualified teachers. The program seeks to provide high school students insight into the nature of teaching and the critical issues affecting the quality of education in the nation’s schools.

For Jackson, the program guided him into the profession and also motivated him to find ways to break down stereotypes linked to classroom teachers.

“I was the only male in the teacher cadet program at my school,” Jackson said. “While I enjoy working with kids, I am also driven to find ways to change the stereotypical idea of what a teacher is.”

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WVU COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND HUMAN SERVICES

Jackson is a senior in CEHS’ Five-Year Teacher Education Program, pursuing a degree in elementary education with specializations in early childhood education and special education. Frequently one of the only males in his courses, he often looks to his female peers and mentors for advice on how to handle interactions with students, parents and colleagues.

“There were never male teachers around me in high school, especially African American males,” Jackson said. “As a teacher, I hope to shed a positive light on a nontraditional career for African American men. Though it feels challenging at times, I’ve always said, ‘You can be whatever you want to be if you have the desire and heart to do it.’”

Outside the classroom, Jackson works with the Council for Exceptional Children, volunteers at SteppingStone in Morgantown, W.Va., and contributes to a new diversity initiative at WVU, the Successful M.A.L.E. Initiative. The initiative is a support program for WVU men of color that empowers them to bring about sustainable change and to seek out, encourage and motivate others.

“As a student, I’ve seen WVU continue to become more diverse through various initiatives and I admire and respect that they are bringing more diversity into the community,” Jackson said.

Currently, Jackson is student teaching in a pre-K classroom and hopes to continue teaching younger-aged children near his hometown after graduation.

Ashley Stewart Morgantown, W.Va. Doctoral Student in Instructional Design and Technology Ashley Stewart’s academic career has been characterized and shaped by her interest in diverse languages and cultures. Stewart, who earned both her bachelor’s degree in English and her master’s degree in secondary education from West Virginia University, is now exploring the intersection of language, culture and instructional design as a CEHS doctoral student in instructional design and technology.

Stewart began her teaching career as a Spanish teacher at Suncrest Middle School in Morgantown, where she sought ways to integrate technology into her teaching.

“I’ve always used a lot of technology in my teaching and pedagogy,” Stewart said.

“I was really interested in blended learning and various technology tools in teaching.”

Eventually, Stewart’s work led her to assume the position of technology integration specialist and academic coach at Suncrest Middle School, a position that is informed by her work as an instructional design and technology doctoral student.

“One of the things I really like about the program is that a lot of it is online,” Stewart said. “Being an online student is also really beneficial because I plan to one day design classes and content for the virtual learning environment.”

Now preparing to write her doctoral LINDSEY KUDAROSKI dissertation, Stewart will integrate her experiences with world language instruction and technology to study one aspect of an issue that’s of great Stewart looks forward to the opportunity to use the expertise importance to her – the global refugee crisis. from her program to address this issue. According to Stewart, Specifically, Stewart intends to study instances where Western there has been very little research that seeks to understand designers develop online courses for displaced university students these cultural and linguistic negotiations. from different cultures. Stewart explained that what course “This global crisis really concerns me, so I want to help out in designers have been doing is taking content from U.S. university any way I can,” Stewart said. “There aren’t too many volunteer professors and developing courses that are delivered to refugee opportunities here in West Virginia, and I want to help more than students through various organizations. just by donating to an organization. I want to help in my area of “I’m interested in the language that designers use when expertise, so that’s my hope with the dissertation. I know it’s just designing content for non-native English speakers,” Stewart said. a drop in the ocean.”

“This is relevant in terms of students who are refugees because Ultimately, Stewart believes that a key to solving the refugee there are a lot of programs in which Western designers are crisis is allowing college students who are refugees to continue designing these courses for students who have different linguistic their education. and cultural backgrounds. There’s a need to look at cultural and “If nations want to rebuild themselves, education has to language negotiations between designers and students.” continue at all levels – for adults, too,” Stewart said.

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STUDENT BRIEFS

Julie Hazen The Woodlands, Texas Senior in Secondary Education, Social Studies When senior Julie Hazen isn’t attending classes, organizing events for the American Association of University Women, or tutoring history and German through the Honors College, she can be found riding a broomstick around WVU’s recreation fields as the president of WVU’s Quidditch Club.

Hazen had her sights set on WVU’s Quidditch Club almost as early as she set her sights on WVU. Though Hazen graduated from high school in Texas, her mother is a WVU alumna and native of Wetzel County.

“It’s the only school I applied to,” Hazen said.

“I looked at some other schools but I always knew I wanted to come home. My parents move around a lot, so being here really close to family is a good home base.”

An avid Harry Potter fan, Hazen also knew that she wanted to bring her favorite books to life by playing Quidditch when she started college.

“I knew that West Virginia had a team and that when I got here I wanted to be a part of it,” Hazen said. “On the first day of classes my freshman year, they had their first practice. And so, I went out to the rec fields by myself, tried it and loved it.”

Quidditch, a sport popularized and inspired by the Harry Potter series, is what Hazen describes as a combination of basketball, dodgeball and rugby. Though WVU’s Quidditch team doesn’t have the ability to fly, they do play this complex sport while riding broomsticks like their Harry Potter counterparts.

Hazen has served as president of the Quidditch Club for the past two years, a role that has tasked her with the administrative responsibilities of coordinating team practices and tournaments.

The Quidditch Club, the only team in West Virginia, often travels to Pennsylvania and Ohio to play teams from institutions such as the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University and Case Western Reserve University.

Though the official Quidditch season occurs during the fall semester, the team practices and participates in matches throughout the academic year. Hazen’s goal is to give her team members opportunities to hone their skills in order to improve the team’s United States Quidditch ranking.

“I think we’ll play in some official tournaments this year because we’re getting better,” Hazen said.

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WVU COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND HUMAN SERVICES

LINDSEY KUDAROSKI

While the WVU Quidditch Club has undoubtedly been a significant part of Hazen’s career at WVU, her time in CEHS’ Five-Year Teacher Education Program has been equally rewarding. Though she wasn’t sure about pursuing a career in teaching when she arrived at WVU, her first education course quickly convinced her that teaching was her calling.

“I really fell in love with the opportunity to make an impact for future students,” Hazen said. “The people who make up the program are really qualified and awesome, so it’s been a blessing to be here.”

Hazen will remain at WVU next year as she completes the final year of her program and looks toward becoming a social studies teacher. She’s still working out her career plans, but she hopes to stay in West Virginia to teach.

“I want to stay and make the state better so that people want to live here and love the state as much as I do,” Hazen said.

LINDSEY KUDAROSKI

Haley Glover Circleville, W.Va. Master’s Student, Speech-Language Pathology The struggle to stay in the state they love rings true for many West Virginians, and for CEHS master’s student Haley Glover, that’s part of the reason she landed at WVU. “It is my husband’s and my long-term plan to land back in Pendleton County,” Glover said. “There is such a high need for human services professionals and it seems that more people get out than come back. We’d like to come back and work in the community we grew up in.”

Originally an education major, Glover realized how much she enjoyed working with language and ended up changing her major.

In 2017, she graduated from CEHS with her bachelor’s in speechlanguage pathology and audiology. Now a first-year graduate student in the Speech-Language Pathology Program, Glover is gaining the necessary expertise to land a job back in her hometown.

Glover knew early on that she had an interest in working with children, and her graduate program has confirmed that plan.

Through multiple placements in Morgantown, W.Va., she’s had the opportunity to work with a variety of clients, from children with speech delays to adults with Down syndrome.

“I am drawn to working with children, particularly on language development and early intervention, because I believe success in language correlates with successful communications,” Glover said.

“From birth to age three, kids are learning so much, including how to communicate, and language is the key to everything.”

When discussing the most challenging aspects of her program, Glover identified two parts – understanding the professional terminology and learning best practices for client interactions.

Though the terminology was initially a foreign language for Glover, it soon became a part of her everyday lingo.

“There is a plethora of treatment strategies, assessments, diagnoses, disorders and syndromes, on top of learning how to be a good clinician,” Glover said. “It takes time to become comfortable, but once you do, you quickly become confident in your abilities. When it comes to my client interactions, I am a softie and it is hard for me to not become emotionally involved.

Informing families of diagnoses can be challenging, but I’m learning how to remain professional while also providing support.”

While Glover is confident in her plan to return to her hometown and to work with children, she is open to unexpected opportunities that could present themselves.

“I believe all speech pathologists love all aspects of our field, such as swallowing, speech, memory, and language and fluency, but we each find our niche,” Glover said. “While I believe I found mine with early intervention, I am still being exposed to all of the areas in our field so I may fall in love with something else. Only time will tell.”

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STUDENT SCHOLARSHIPS

2018

Scholarship Awards ALEX AND BETTY F. SCHOENBAUM TEACHER PREPARATION SCHOLARSHIP/LOAN

‣‣ Graciana Darby ‣‣ Hilary Henry ‣‣ Abigail Lightner ‣‣ Jamie McBride ‣‣ Kasey Noll

‣‣ Michalla Sanders ‣‣ Dana Skerbetz ‣‣ Caroline Snyder ‣‣ Kathleen Sprouse ‣‣ Chelsea Wilfong

AMERIGO S. CAPPELLARI ENGINEERING EDUCATION GRADUATE ASSISTANT

‣‣ Laura Twentier

ANN AND BOB ORDERS STEM TEACHING SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Sydney Hudson

ANSEL-LYNCH COMMUNICATIONS AND DISORDERS SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Courtney McCausley

ARLAND IMLAY, PHD SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ McKenzi Barnett

BOB WAGNER SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Tonya Lewis

BRADLEY J. RAMSEY MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Leah Underwood

C. KENNETH AND SHARON MURRAY SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Brittany Cavey 8

WVU COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND HUMAN SERVICES

CAROL DIANE COOK ELDER SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Megan Davis ‣‣ Kourtney Snyder

CARTER FAMILY FOUNDATION TEACHER EDUCATION SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Megan Houchins

CEHS GENERAL SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Erika Dangler ‣‣ Karen Davis ‣‣ Alexandria Kinder

‣‣ Charity Sigley ‣‣ Haley Slagle ‣‣ Emily Swoger

DELMAS MILLER ENDOWED SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Samuel Lusk

DONNA HOYLMAN PEDUTO ANNUAL SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Hannah Wineman

DR. C. SUE MILES SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Shelby Hall

DR. DIANNA M. VARGO SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Eleni Nardone

DR. ROGERS McAVOY EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Ashley Stewart

DR. THOMAS P. LOMBARDI SPECIAL EDUCATION SCHOLARSHIP

JESSEE FRANCES BROWN LILLY SCHOLARSHIP

ED JACOBS COUNSELING SCHOLARSHIP

JILL CLAMPITT MEMORIAL SPECIAL EDUCATION SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Brooklyn Reel

‣‣ Matthew Purdy

‣‣ Terri Blake

‣‣ Emily Columbus

EDDIE C. KENNEDY ENDOWED SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Adam Shickley

EDNA AND JAMES M. (JUNE) BECKETT, JR. SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Brooklyn Vrolyk

ELIZABETH CAPUDER TIANO EDUCATION SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Kelly Erlendson

GENERAL FEDERATION OF WOMEN’S CLUBS WV SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Kristen Rutledge ‣‣ Katelyn McClure ‣‣ Donna Minnix

HARRY B. AND DORA MORGAN HEFLIN GRADUATE SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Dawn Ward

HOWARD AND MIRIAM JONES SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Jesse Lackey

JEANNETTE LUCHOK MORIAK MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Gianna Everhart

JENNIFER MARIE BAXTER MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Holly Hale

JOHN ALBERT KASUBA AND WALTER L. KLAS CEHS SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Hannah Ballengee

JONE PHARR COOK MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Sarah Lewis

JOSEPH AND MILLI CIPOLLONI ENDOWED SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Sydnie Hoffman JOSEPH KEEN EDUCATION SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Stephanie Burt

JUNE HITT BLAKE SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Sarah Hott

KATHRYN A. DAVIS EDUCATION SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Jenna Custer

KATHRYN C. VECELLIO EDUCATION AND HUMAN SERVICES SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Becca Hall

KATHRYN CRAMER MORGAN MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Hope Anderson ‣‣ Sydney Bauer ‣‣ Kristen Clayton ‣‣ Santazzia Collins ‣‣ Austin Grant

‣‣ Mikayla Hargis ‣‣ Olivia Holliman ‣‣ Mark Morgan ‣‣ Deanna Prestigiacomo

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STUDENT SCHOLARSHIPS

LEON AND MAE NEWELL McKOWN SCHOLARSHIP

PAULA JAN BARBER MUSCATELLO SCHOLARSHIP

LESTER H. KINCAID MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP

PHYLLIS AND JAY SLAUGHTER FAMILY FELLOWSHIP

‣‣ Jennifer Hatton

‣‣ McKenzie Lewis

M. WOOD STOUT AND LOVA MARTHA CASTO STOUT SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Bethany Daetwyler

MARGARET B. FITZGERALD EDUCATION SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Sarah Wilcoxen ‣‣ Kaylee Williams

‣‣ Paige Weber

‣‣ Rebekah Kisamore

RAMSBURG FAMILY EDUCATION SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Erica Conaughty

RITA RIFFEE LeHERE TEACHING SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Bethany Daetwyler

MARY AULT GROVES EDUCATION SCHOLARSHIP

RUBY A. CARTER SCHOLARSHIP

MARY C. AND ALLEN G. WELSH SCHOLARSHIP

SCOTTISH RITE FOUNDATION SPEECHLANGUAGE AND PATHOLOGY SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Nicole Hamilton ‣‣ Ashley Aber

MICHAEL AND JANETTE HEITZ ACADEMIC AFFAIRS SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Sarah Hott

‣‣ Emily Morgan ‣‣ Danielle Williams

‣‣ Jacinda Hickman ‣‣ Rachel Kaczmarczyk

SHEILA S. GOLDEN ENDOWED SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Karlee Raines

MOORE FAMILY ENDOWED SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ John Sprouse

MORGANTOWN SCOTTISH RITE/DR. I.A. WILES SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Melissa Carr

NORMAN AND MARTHA LASS SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Tia Ruefle

PAULA BAJUS COMFORT ENDOWED SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Amanda Butler 10

WVU COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND HUMAN SERVICES

TAYLOR FAMILY SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Chelsea Black

THE PELUSO-ATKINS FAMILY SCHOLARSHIP ‣‣ Michelle Stickel THOMAS J. JR., AND BARBARA P. WITTEN CEHS SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Connor McLaughlin

VERIZON PRESIDENTIAL SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Lindsay Grace ‣‣ Sara Parrucci ‣‣ Casey Rollins

WALTER W. COLE SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Melissa Haslebacher ‣‣ Amelia Sark

WILLIAM “BILL” THOMAS McLAUGHLIN II EDUCATION SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Jaclyn Stamile

WILLIAM C. WATERS SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Sara Earl

WIRT C. AND MAE S. BELCHER GRADUATE EDUCATION AWARD Amy Burt

Myriah Miller

Stephanie Jones

Natalya Suznetsova

Elizabeth Kee

BERLIN B. CHAPMAN GRADUATE STUDENT AWARD Olivia Scott

WILLIAM JOSEPH STURGIS ENDOWED SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Nicole Majewski ‣‣ Taylor Mikalik ‣‣ Myriah Miller ‣‣ Ruth Mullens Tinnel ‣‣ Rachel Nieman ‣‣ Tyler Ogden ‣‣ Erica Skorlinski ‣‣ Joshua Young ‣‣ Jing Zhang

WILLIAM S. AND KAREN E. BINGMAN EDUCATION SCHOLARSHIP ‣‣ Hannah Raines WOODROW AND VIRGINIA BONDS ENDOWED SCHOLARSHIP

‣‣ Lauren Merrill

JOHN J. PATERSON STUDENT RESEARCH AWARD Ashley Murphy

WILBERT AND ANNA MICK SCHOLARHIP

‣‣ Lorena Ballester ‣‣ Zachary Carowick ‣‣ Alyson Carpenter ‣‣ Nicolette Ciampa ‣‣ Alesa Dang ‣‣ Barbara Ede ‣‣ Christina Glance ‣‣ Casey King ‣‣ Anne Lituchy ‣‣ Kayla Lutz

2018 Graduate Student Awards

Jeniece Shaw

JOHN AND BARBARA PISAPIA DOCTORAL RESEARCH AWARD Chelsey Morgan

DR. ANNE H. NARDI PH.D. IN EDUCATION STUDENT RESEARCH AWARD Samantha Jusino

ROBERT E. STITZEL GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH AWARD Hilary Bougher

MIKE REED STUDENT RESEARCH AWARD Megan Mikesell

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INSIDE THE ARTIST’S STUDIO RBA STUDENT MOLLY MUST EXPLORES HISTORY, CULTURE, COMMUNITY THROUGH ART Written by Lindsey Kudaroski

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WVU COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND HUMAN SERVICES LINDSEY KUDAROSKI

M

olly Must’s first solo art studio was in an old oneroom schoolhouse on her parents’ property in Pocahontas County, W.Va. It was here, after years away from home, where Must would paint a mural to tell the story of her home and celebrate the community that shaped her.

Growing up in one of West Virginia’s more remote counties meant that Must often looked for creative sources of entertainment. With no cable or satellite television and few other children nearby, Must spent much of her free time drawing and painting.

“I grew up around art,” Must said. “My mom encouraged that hobby for sure. My parents would take me to museums every once in a while, and I guess I was just always drawn to it.”

On a high school French club trip to Montreal, Must was inspired and intrigued by the beautiful graffiti murals she saw throughout the city.

“I was always really inspired by the street art I would see in urban places,” Must said. “It was extra stimulating to me because I had never seen that growing up.”

These early experiences with art stayed with Must as she considered the next steps in her education.

“I would walk under there to go downtown from where I lived at the time,” Must said. “It was huge expanse of bare concrete. I just kind of started working on the idea to paint it.”

After the success of this massive project, Must began her second large public art project in Asheville, a mural in the city’s Triangle Park that depicts the history of the community’s African American business district. To tackle the project, Must collected memories, stories and photographs from individuals who had grown up in the neighborhood, which had been diminished by urban renewal.

Like much of Must’s work in public art, the Triangle Park mural was as much about community organizing as it was about art. Must built meaningful relationships with the community’s residents through activities like weekly block parties in the park.

“It was so humbling because I entered that project not being part of the community, and in the end, I was very much accepted and embraced,” Must said. “It got me thinking about what my story is and what my community is, and I was excited to come back to West Virginia, where I am part of the fabric of the community. It felt like I should work on telling the stories of my home and my community.”

COMMUNITY THROUGH CONCRETE Must’s pursuit of higher education began at the University of North Carolina Asheville, where she began to engage in the public art scene. Though Must intended to complete her bachelor’s degree, she ultimately decided to concentrate on the art projects that were drawing more and more of her focus.

“I was more passionate about public art than I was about school at the time, and I was struggling to declare a major,” Must said. “What I really wanted to do was what I was doing outside of school, so I dropped out for a while.”

At first, Must organized public murals around Asheville for no pay and waited tables to make ends meet. As she gained more credibility and notoriety for her work, she was able to apply for grants to fund her projects. This led her to pursue the largest public art project she’s completed to date – a 3,000-square-foot mural underneath the Lexington Avenue Gateway that took two years and six artists to finish.

Lexington Avenue Gateway Mural Asheville, N.C.

SUBMITTED

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LINDSEY KUDAROSKI

Art from Must's personal collection.

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The Last Forest Mural Marlinton, W. Va.

WVU COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND HUMAN SERVICES

LINDSEY KUDAROSKI

The Last Forest Mural Marlinton, W. Va.

BEAUTY AND BALANCE Must started her RBA degree in fall 2016, and she anticipates completing the program in spring 2018. Along the way, Must has assembled a unique program of study that has allowed her to integrate courses in subjects such as history, geography, Native American studies and painting.

“The RBA has allowed me to have a lot of flexibility, pursue my actual interests

Must in her Morgantown, W. Va. studio.

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At the end of the Triangle Park project, Must returned to Pocahontas County where her own story began. She set up shop in the old one-room schoolhouse and started to work on a mural for a brick building in Marlinton, W.Va. The mural, based on the works of famed West Virginia authors G.D. McNeill and Louise McNeill, documents the area’s cultural and historical transitions.

“Their writing combined, kind of illustrates a pretty broad span of time from virgin forests to timber industry to the building of the paved roads,” Must said.

Afterwards, Must participated in a public art project in Charleston, W.Va., and then returned to Marlinton to create another mural, this time about the history of the Civil War in the region.

“There are so many stories to be told,” Must said. “I feel like that was part of the reason I was drawn to public art in the first place. The built environment around us is a product of all these relationships and power dynamics that are not really visible to us when we see the end product. Too often, we don’t really understand how things came to be that way, so I like the idea of public art bringing that to light while also beautifying and bringing color to a place.”

Now that she had used her talents to tell some of her community’s stories, Must decided that it was time to turn her attention to finally earning her bachelor’s degree. Upon evaluating a variety of programs, Must found her best fit in CEHS’ Regents Bachelor of Arts degree.

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HOMEGROWN HISTORY

LINDSEY KUDAROSKI

Art from Must's personal collection.

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Civil War Mural Marlinton, W. Va.

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The Last Forest Mural Marlinton, W. Va.

and take some fascinating classes that have, in turn, helped inform my worldview and my art,” Must said.

Throughout her studies, Must has been exploring a different facet of her craft by switching from public art to personal art. Her recent work, comprised of much smaller pieces than her previous murals, draws mainly from her own photographs. Must’s time in the painting studio at WVU has offered an opportunity for exploration and experimentation that she didn’t have before.

“Because I was always working on something that was going to be on permanent exhibit in public, I didn’t have much room for experimentation,” Must said. “Or I designed it all beforehand and painted according to specific designs and the approval of specific people.

And, at some point, it started to feel a little limiting in terms of my own personal artistic exploration, so that’s been one of the best things about this time.”

As Must continues to grow and develop as an artist, she grapples with her role as a storyteller and the implications of her work as she seeks to balance the purity of her craft with the potential power of its message.

“On the one hand, I’m really enjoying working on simply translating the visual things around me into a painting and being very honest in the present moment,” Must said. “There’s so much that can happen when you’re just working with color and your eye.”

Still, Must acknowledges the propensity for art to bring people together.

“There are people who believe that there really is no place for political art or that art with an agenda is not honest,” Must said. “I hear that, but I also think that I disagree. Visual art, graphics and print are different tools that we can use to express our voices. I think that if we are going to come together in any way, it has to be through our feelings. When people feel moved about something, things really stick. And I think that art can move people.”

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Faculty Q&A:

Margaret Glenn Dr. Margaret Glenn is professor and coordinator for CEHS’ Clinical Rehabilitation and Mental Health Counseling Program.

A longtime meditation instructor, Glenn not only incorporates meditation into her own life, but also into her profession.

During her time at WVU, Glenn has lent her expertise to various campus wellness initiatives, including establishing a self-care component for her students and helping to set up a meditation room for WVU’s Collegiate Recovery Program.

Here, she offers her insights about why meditation works and how people can use this practice.

How did you become interested in meditation as a counseling practice? A number of years ago, I decided that we needed to look at ways we could augment the work counselors do. Talk therapy, the cornerstone of counseling, often uses complementary practices to help a client to grow and develop as a person. Back then, the field of integrative mental health therapy was just being introduced. My first experience with meditation was at a conference held by the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, and from there, I attended more trainings, took online courses, and continued to read and learn more about meditation.

Why have meditation and mindfulness become such trendy topics?

People are stressed and unhappy, and not a lot may work for them. With the neuroscientific investigations that are available now, we can use MRIs to see the incredible changes in people’s brains that result from meditation. I

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honestly think that any time research that demonstrates the effectiveness of a practice starts to kick in, people pay attention and the practice becomes more widespread. I love how much is happening. It’s fascinating, actually, to watch the tide roll in.

How do people’s brains change as a result of meditation? When we’re stressed or threatened, we go into what’s called fight, flight or freeze mode. These physiological reactions are part of a natural evolutionary process of our brain development meant to help us respond to threats.

Reactive responses are generated in our amygdala, triggering neural and hormonal responses to create an energy boost.

This starts to create immune and physiological issues because we are responding to stressful events so often in our modern lives. Meditation helps us engage higher-order thinking in our prefrontal cortex, literally changing the way parts of our brain communicate with each other. This is where we can be calm, thoughtful and reflective. So many of us react and don’t think – that’s the nature of the Western world.

Meditation opens the path so you can begin to be an observer of your thoughts. Making better choices is really what it’s all about, along with taking action in alignment with our values.

Is meditation a way to clear your mind? Meditation is not about clearing your mind or controlling your thoughts.

It’s about observing your thoughts and letting go of your thoughts. Have you ever tried to control an outcome? It’s not effective; it’s painful. If you let go of the outcome, you may actually come up with a better one because you let go of the stress and the reactivity blocking your creativity in the moment.

What’s the best way for someone who’s interested in meditating to get started? Focusing on breathing is a great way to start. One of the things I tell people is that if they’re going to get into a regular practice of meditation, they should find somebody who is well-trained in it and work with them.

Meditation is always healing and that means that sensations occur, as well as the thoughts and memories we may have suppressed. It’s not unusual for someone to feel like they need to go into counseling or attend retreats. Something worth mentioning for busy folks is that it’s not necessary to spend large chunks of time in meditation. Studies show that just two minutes per day will make a difference. You gain so much from the time you spend meditating that it has an exponential effect in your life, so you find yourself seeking more time to do it. And there are many ways to engage contemplative activities in your life — walking, being in nature, dancing, listening to music or being with your pets.

BRIAN PERSINGER

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT

CEHS

Hall of Fame Three outstanding individuals were inducted in the CEHS Hall of Fame for 2017 at the College’s annual induction ceremony on Oct. 26. The three inductees were Dr. Diane L. Kendall, Dr. Mary Marockie and Michael A. Oliverio, Sr. Diane L. Kendall, PhD, CCC-SLP, is professor and chair of Speech and Hearing Sciences at the University of Washington and a research scientist at the VA Medical Center Puget Sound in Seattle. Both in practice and in scholarship, Kendall has made invaluable contributions to her profession, specifically in the area of adult language disorders. In 2013, Kendall received a Fulbright Scholar Award and was in residence at the University of Pretoria in Pretoria, South Africa. She was also named a 2006 Erskine Fellow at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. She has 57 scholarly publications and has been awarded more than $1.7 million in grant funding for her work. Kendall holds her BS in speech pathology and audiology from WVU, her MA in communication disorders from California State University and her PhD in communication sciences and disorders from the University of Pittsburgh.

Mary Marockie, EdD, was chosen as the 2017 Distinguished Alumni. Marockie is a former curriculum and research director and interim director for Regional Educational Service Agency VI in Wheeling. She was also the founder of Ohio County’s award-winning beginning teacher program, which was recognized as the best of its kind in the nation by the National School Personnel Educators Administration. Marockie has taught courses at WVU and Ohio University, served as a consultant and designer for numerous educational programs and school systems, and written grants that amounted to millions of dollars in funding for education. Currently, Marockie serves as a co-editor and co-writer of the West Virginia Reading Association’s publication, WVRA Interchange. Marockie holds her BS in elementary education and psychology from the University of Charleston, her MA in elementary education and psychology, and her EdD in curriculum and instruction with a major in reading and psychology, both from WVU. Michael A. Oliverio, Sr., a counselor, statesman, educator and civic leader, was inducted posthumously into the Hall of Fame. Before his passing in 2014, Oliverio spent his life as a leading advocate for people with disabilities and for service to others. Among many professional achievements, Oliverio served as the national president of both the National Rehabilitation Association International Advocacy Group for Persons with Disabilities and national president of the National Rehabilitation Counseling Association. He also served as a consultant to President Jimmy Carter on reorganization plans for the U.S. Department of Education and briefed President Gerald Ford on elements for better efficiencies in health agencies. Oliverio was actively involved at the College of Education and Human Services, having taught courses in the Department of Counseling, Rehabilitation Counseling and Counseling Psychology for 22 years. Oliverio earned his BS in physical science and mathematics from Fairmont State University and his MA in guidance and counseling from WVU.

This is the 14th class to be inducted into the CEHS Hall of Fame. The award recognizes those who have distinguished themselves in their field, exemplified outstanding leadership qualities and possess strong community and West Virginia ties. Special consideration is given to those who have demonstrated support of and/or service to the mission and values of the WVU College of Education and Human Services. Inductees are representative of the tremendous successes of many CEHS graduates and friends of the College.

SUCCESS STORY

Pictured, L to R: LLNBC participants Nancy Kincaid, Shawna Zervos, Nicole Majewski; Dr. Aimee Morewood, LLNBC participant Brande Boehke, Dr. Jim Denova, Dr. Allison Swan Dagen, LLNBC mentor Teresa Campbell, LLNBC participant Mallory Painter

BRIAN PERSINGER

LEARNING TO LEAD CEHS Partnership Produces State’s First National Board-Certified Pre-K Teachers

WRITTEN BY LINDSEY KUDAROSKI

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ccess to a high-quality education from an early age is critical for students to succeed later in life, especially in early literacy. Numerous studies demonstrate that students who do not read at grade-level by third grade will fall behind in their preparation for college and careers.

It’s this notion that inspired CEHS professors Allison Swan Dagen, PhD, and Aimee Morewood, PhD, to create the LLNBC program. Short for Literacy Leadership through National Board Certification, the program was created via a grant provided by the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation. Designed to encourage West Virginia’s top pre-K teachers to pursue their National Board Certification in early literacy, the program produced 17 National Board Certified pre-K teachers in December 2017.

“We have long considered National Board Certification to be the gold standard for quality teaching,” said Jim Denova, vice president of the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation.

“It’s very hard to achieve, and it takes a lot of support for those educators who seek that certification.”

The teachers, who represent 12 counties throughout West Virginia, were offered extensive professional development in early literacy education through two graduate literacy courses, as well as access to a system of CEHS-affiliated, Board-certified mentors.

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Online Outreach The program, offered fully online and at no cost to the participants, allowed teachers in any West Virginia county to complete their coursework virtually and connect with Swan Dagen and Morewood through video chats.

“The classes were phenomenal,” said Mallory Painter, an LLNBC participant and pre-K teacher in Berkeley County, W.Va. “This was like a professional learning community. We felt like we actually knew the members of our class because we talked on Google Hangouts. The virtual aspect was really awesome, because once a week we were actually sitting around and chatting with colleagues from all over West Virginia.”

The professional online learning community that Swan Dagen and Morewood created allowed them to build relationships throughout the state.

“The online community that we built across the state was amazing, and it gave teachers who are somewhat isolated access to WVU,” Morewood said. “There were a lot of relationships that we would not have had the opportunity to build without this program, particularly with pre-K teachers.”

The two online courses that the LLNBC participants took were designed to enhance their knowledge of content and pedagogy in early literacy. According to Painter, the courses opened

This opportunity has helped me mold myself into a reflective practitioner who knows how to look at her practice, understand methods of teaching that are appropriate for students and fine-tune that. I can’t say how much it impacted my professional development.”

Nicole Majewski, LLNBC program participant

her eyes to how students’ literacy development progresses after pre-K. “I wore my textbook out,” Painter said. “It transformed the way I teach literacy. There’s a developmental continuum that shows the order in which students learn. Because there’s no curriculum map in pre-K, my colleague and I made our own based on that developmental continuum to define how we’re going to do things when we teach literacy.”

The LLNBC participants took the literacy education principles and pedagogical tools that they learned in the program into their classrooms to enhance their students’ literacy learning experiences.

“There were a lot of learning opportunities for us that translated into our daily practice, and we could not only learn that for ourselves, but we could learn amongst our peers and our colleagues who were within those courses,” said Nicole Majewski, an LLNBC program participant and teacher in Marshall County, W. Va. Meaningful Mentorship In addition to the coursework that provided the necessary content knowledge for National Board Certification, the teachers in the LLNBC program were able to access mentors who walked them through the complex certification process. The mentors, all CEHS graduates and Board-certified teachers, proved to be a critical component of the LLNBC program’s success.

“My mentor is an expert in literacy and was able to give me a lot of quality feedback that I could carry over to my classroom,” Majewski said.

To become Board-certified teachers, candidates completed a rigorous, four-part submission process that required them to reflect on classroom instruction, student assessment data and literacy content knowledge. Teachers were required to write detailed reflections on their practice and film themselves teaching in order to identify areas for improvement.

Throughout each part of the submission process, the candidates’ mentors were able to offer advice on everything from pedagogy to paperwork in order to help the candidates stay on track.

“We know what high-quality professional development looks like,” Swan Dagen said. “And when we think about the way we have structured this grant, we’ve utilized every element of research-based, effective professional development that we know, especially with the mentorship piece and the supportive community.”

Lasting Results Having now completed the National Board Certification process, the 17 successful candidates have brought their heightened knowledge of early literacy into their teaching and have grown as practitioners as a result.

“I was grateful for the entire process,” Majewski said. “I knew that I wanted to increase my knowledge base of teaching to students’ needs, but didn’t know where I wanted to go. This opportunity has helped me mold myself into a reflective practitioner who knows how to look at her practice, understand methods of teaching that are appropriate for students and fine-tune that. I can’t say how much it impacted my professional development.”

Majewski, one of the teachers who earned her National Board Certification, will now be eligible for incentives at the state and county levels. In West Virginia, all teachers who attain National Board Certification receive a salary increase, and additional benefits are offered on a county-by-county basis.

Pre-K students throughout West Virginia will now also benefit from highly trained educators in literacy at a critical stage of their literacy development. According to Denova, the impact of this quality literacy instruction will be significant for the state’s economy years after these students complete their pre-K programs.

“The workforce is a key ingredient to economic development, and literacy is a fundamental workforce attribute,” Denova said.

“We are very lucky to be part of this network of teachers and to have an impact on improving the quality of education in West Virginia,” Swan Dagen added. “This is the highest you can go in certification and teaching.”

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CEHS HOSTS

TEACHER STRIKE TEACH-IN Written by Amy Lutz

The Causes, Context and Goals of the 2018 West Virginia Teacher Strike

LINDSEY KUDAROSKI

Teacher Strike Teach-In Panelists:

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n Feb. 28, 2018, Audra Slocum, PhD, assistant professor of English education at CEHS, hosted a panel called the “Teacher Strike Teach-In,” sponsored by the Department of Curriculum and Instruction/Literacy Studies at CEHS and the Department of English at the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences. The event provided students and community members with context regarding the history, causes and goals of the 2018 West Virginia teachers’ strike, as well as the opportunity to engage in discussion around the socio-political issues in education today. The panel included a range of personal, professional and scholarly perspectives.

The History

William Hal Gorby, PhD, teaching assistant professor of history at the Eberly College, discussed the similarities and differences between the 1990 and 2018 West Virginia teachers’ strikes.

Gorby shared that in March 1990, teachers from across the state of West Virginia refused to go to work as a result of low pay and increasing insurance premiums, implementing the first statewide teachers’ strike in West Virginia. Hundreds of schools shut down for 11 days as teachers waited for legislative leaders and Gov. Gaston Caperton to come to an agreement regarding pay raises.

In Feb. 2018, 20,000 teachers and 13,000 service employees from all of West Virginia’s 55 counties walked out of their classrooms, beginning the second statewide teachers’ strike. Much like in 1990, teachers were advocating for an increase in pay and a halt on planned increases in their

• Toni Poling, NBCT English Teacher, Fairmont Senior High School, Marion County, W.Va., and 2017 West Virginia Teacher of the Year • Keisha Kibler, NBCT English Teacher, West Preston School, Preston County, W.Va. • Anne Lofaso, PhD Arthur B. Hodges Professor of Law, WVU College of Law • Joshua Weishart, JD Associate Professor of Law and Policy, WVU College of Law • William Hal Gorby, PhD Teaching Assistant Professor and Director of Undergraduate Advising, WVU Eberly College of Arts and Sciences • Lee Cheeks Band Director, Spring Hills High School, Berkeley County, W.Va. • Jessie Butcher, NBCT Science Teacher, Hedgesville Middle School, Berkeley County, W.Va.

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WEST VIRGINIA TEACHERS’ STRIKES: A COMPARISON 1990

2018

result of low pay and increases to PEIA

result of low pay and increases to PEIA

47 counties, 11 days

55 counties, 9 days

Average teacher salary was $21,904 compared to the national average of $32,880; ranked 49th in the nation (according to NPR)

Average teacher salary is $45,622 compared to the national average of $58,353; ranked 48th in the nation (according to NEA)

Received a $5,000 salary increase over three years (average salary increased from 49th to 34th in the nation)

Received a 5% raise and 17-month pause on PEIA changes (bringing starting salary from 48th to 43rd)

insurance premiums. All public schools in the state shut down for a total of nine days as counties waited for Gov. Jim Justice and legislative leaders to once again come to an agreement that would leave all parties satisfied.

According to Gorby, while there were many similarities between the strike in 1990 and 2018, one of the largest differences was in communications.

“Communication was much more difficult during the 1990 strike,” Gorby said. “Newspapers were very antagonistic against teachers.”

Gorby emphasized the important role social media seemed to be playing in the 2018 strike by portraying teachers and their goals and motivations for striking in a more positive light.

Illegal v. Unlawful

During both the 1990 and 2018 West Virginia teachers’ strikes, questions arose regarding the legality of teachers going on strike. According to panelist Anne Lofaso, PhD, of the WVU College of Law, there are a number of questions one must ask in order to find the answer.

Per Lofaso, the United States Constitution suggests that the private and public sectors do have a constitutional right to strike. Within the West Virginia constitution, however, it is stated that public employees do not have the right to strike.

“Why are we hearing that strikes in West Virginia are not legal?” Lofaso asked. “This statement is true, in the sense that teachers are not constitutionally protected to strike. It is not illegal; they just do not have the right.”

Lofaso went on to explain that while there is not a statute that protects West Virginia teachers who choose to go on strike, there also is not a statute that makes it illegal. While the state constitution may not grant teachers the right to strike, they still have statutory rights.

Joshua Weishart, JD, also of the WVU College of Law, argued that it was best to view the teachers’ strike as an effort to vindicate the constitutional right of children to an education, despite the media focus on teacher pay and insurance changes.

“I don’t want to diminish these issues, because they are important,” Weishart said. “But I think the most legally significant aspect of the teacher strike is that it has caused us to take a hard look at our state’s investment in education.”

Weishart stated that while the United States

“In conclusion, it is our opinion that any strike by public teachers is illegal and may be dealt with accordingly by school officials.”

Roger W. Tompkins, then-attorney general, wrote in a letter to State Superintendent of Schools Dr. Henry Marockie on March 8, 1990.

“Let us make no mistake. The impending work stoppage is unlawful. State law and court rulings give specific parties avenues to remedy such illegal conduct, including the option to seek an injunction to end an unlawful strike.”

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrissey on March 1, 2018.

Supreme Court has consistently declined to recognize a right to education under the United States Constitution, each state constitution has an education clause. The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia was the first in the nation to define what the right to an education would mean. The State’s education clause defines a thorough and efficient education as one that develops the minds, bodies and social morality of children in order to prepare them for occupations, recreation and citizenship.

“And most relevant to our discussion today, the right to education requires good facilities, curriculum and good teachers,” Weishert said. “Decades of empirical social science research confirm that teacher quality is the most influential educational resource affecting student achievement. So, if noncompetitive salaries and benefits, teacher shortages or the lack of professional development cause us to lose quality teachers, that, in turn, jeopardizes our children’s right to education.”

Perspectives from the Picket Line

A critical aspect of the panel was the inclusion of some of the West Virginia teachers who were at the front lines of the movement. Four such teachers were invited to participate in the panel and offered their viewpoints on unions, strikes, legislation,

LINDSEY KUDAROSKI

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and the support of parents, students and their communities.

Toni Poling, NBCT, a high school English teacher from Fairmont Senior High School in Marion County, W.Va., and the 2017 West Virginia Teacher of the Year, shared that unions serve an important role in helping teachers to have a larger organized voice, making it possible for all 55 counties to go on strike.

“Our unions helped us to have a seat at the table.” Poling said. “As members, we authorize them to make smart decisions for us. We walked out of our classrooms, literally shutting the school system down, in order to make a statement that we were mobilizing — for all teachers — for the State to make changes to our pay and PEIA.” For Jessie Butcher, NBCT, a seventh and eighth grade science teacher at Hedgesville Middle School in Berkeley County, W.Va., joining a union was a way to find protection from transfer assignments.

“As a young teacher, I was put in a process of having to draw straws to determine who among my peers would receive a [reduction in force] notification, which made teaching the rest of the year very difficult,” Butcher said. “I moved from Mercer County to Berkeley County because of the process, and I am now a member of [West Virginia Education Association].”

For Poling and Butcher, salary increases and insurance reform were ancillary reasons for their support of the strike. Other legislation presented during the legislative session such as school vouchers, seniority, the lowering of teacher qualifications and a payroll deduction bill to prevent unions from taking automatic deductions from teachers’ paychecks were larger concerns.

“Pay raises were secondary, at least for Marion County teachers,” Poling said. “We wanted to make sure some of the other proposed legislation was off the table.”

While Butcher agreed, she made it clear that raises were still very important for keeping talent in the state.

“There is a full-page ad in the local paper for Washington County, Md., trying to recruit teachers,” Butcher said. “Teachers there make about $15,000 more. And in Loudon County, Va., they make about $20,000 more. It makes it hard to retain good teachers when they can cross the state line and make much more.”

Keisha Kibler, NBCT, a middle school English teacher in Preston County, W.Va., agreed with Poling and Butcher’s sentiments.

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LINDSEY KUDAROSKI

“Sixty-five of the students I have taught in my K-12 classroom or at WVU are teaching in West Virginia,” Kibler said. “I advocate for my students to stay. When discussion of the strike began, I wondered if I’d done them an injustice. It was a moment of weakness — I didn’t. I would encourage anyone to stay in the state. It’s the people who make this state great. As teachers, we have the opportunity to be the change, but we need to be supported.”

The teacher panelists shared stories of student, parent and community support, from signs reading “we support our teachers because our teachers support us” to trips to the Capitol to donut and coffee deliveries. For the most part, support reverberated throughout the communities; however, there were still some challenges to overcome.

“We’re told it’s not friendly to labor,” said Lee Cheeks, band director at Spring Hills High School in Berkeley County, W.Va. “How dare we ask for money for what we do? We live in an

It is the coming together of these bodies of knowledge and perspectives that allows you to think about what this means to you.

Is this part of your exit strategy or is this your reason to stay? What will you do to create the context that you want to be teaching in?”

Audra Slocum, assistant professor of English education at CEHS

anti-labor era, an era of anti-intellectualism. In spite of all the distractions and weights we carry, we need to hold that line. We need to deal with this anti-labor sentiment.”

And hold the line they did. According to Kibler, 79 percent of Marion County teachers, 76 percent of Preston County teachers and 89 percent of Monongalia County teachers agreed to strike, and 12,000 teachers and union members attended the rally at the State Capitol.

One panel attendee asked if the teachers got what they wanted after days of braving inclement weather and hours spent “holding the line.”

“We knew PEIA could not be fixed,” Poling said. “But we asked for a dedicated action plan. We ended up with a 17-month freeze and a task force for which WVEA and the American Federation of Teachers representatives will be at the table. The seniority bill, school voucher bill and the payroll deduction bill are also off the table.”

And to add to these accomplishments, on March 6, 2018, the Governor and State House of Delegates reached a deal, signing in a five percent pay raise across the board for teachers, school personnel and other State employees.

“We did not do this to harm our students,” Kibler said as she looked at the future teachers in attendance. “We fought to keep you in our state. Our kids … they deserve you.”

Moving Forward: A Changed Perspective

For many CEHS students, the panel provided more than just a forum for discussing what was happening in their local schools. It was a unique opportunity to ponder their goals after graduation.

“It is the coming together of these bodies of knowledge and perspectives that allows you to think about what this means to you,” Slocum said. “Is this part of your exit strategy or is this your reason to stay? What will you do to create the context that you want to be teaching in?”

For Sarah Mays, a secondary education — English senior in the CEHS Five-Year Teacher Education Program and current student-teacher at Morgantown High School, the strike initially caused her to feel confused and concerned about her future.

After sitting in on the panel, she left feeling more confident in her decisions and plans.

“Being close to graduation, I was scared about what the strike meant, as I have always wanted to teach in West Virginia,” Mays said. “A few of my peers raised questions about what we should do as preservice teachers. Both Mrs. Poling and Mrs. Kibler discussed the importance of toughing it out during hard times, that if we all leave it won’t get better. I think I was looking for that affirmation to stay in West Virginia.”

The panel was also beneficial for those students pursuing support positions in the schools, such as Matt Purdy, a master’s student in the CEHS School Counseling Program.

“As a counseling student, I was confused about what my role would be in the strike.” Purdy said. “The panel showed me what my role could be and that it is okay to stand with the teachers and fight the good fight with them.”

Purdy felt the panel displayed an energy of comradery and unconditional support that was not always portrayed in the news. For him, it was “a humbling experience.”

“Teachers and other school personnel working together have the power to reshape the conversation about what it means to be a teacher in West Virginia,” Slocum said. “Students attending the teach-in heard the teachers’ expertise, their community engagement, their expressions of self-worth and their demands for respect. Our students listened to these teacher-leaders and saw the importance of being a teacherleader personally and collectively. I hope they leave knowing that they are well-prepared to begin their careers as leaders pushing forward this conversation of respecting educational professionals.”

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GIVING BACK

A Competitive Edge Written by Amy Lutz

Q

uality academic research is essential for bringing about positive change and solving complex social and scientific problems. Despite this need, research dollars today are scarce and more competitive, and unobligated funds to support research are often hard to find in academic budgets.

This challenge drove two-time WVU alumna and CEHS Hall of Fame recipient Dr. Kimberly Horn to establish the Kimberly A. Horn Edge Fund to support CEHS faculty in their research endeavors. The fund will provide backing to promising faculty members who are resubmitting research grant applications that received competitive scores, but were not funded.

“This is an opportunity for faculty to better develop their proposals, fill in the gaps, and make improvements and adjustments,” Horn said. “This is also a way for the College to say, ‘we believe in you, too.’”

CEHS Dean Gypsy Denzine couldn’t agree more.

“Dr. Horn’s fund is innovative and pioneering,” Denzine said.

“She’s helping pave the way for our junior faculty members and finding new ways to move West Virginia forward through research.

In support, the College will be matching her gift by providing faculty members with access to additional funds that will help them become more competitive in securing grants. It’s a win, win.”

Horn received her master’s degree in social work from WVU in 1993 before pursuing her doctorate in educational psychology, which she earned in 1997. Following her doctoral program,

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she joined the WVU Health Sciences Center faculty, advancing through the ranks to tenured professor. Horn led and founded several research programs at WVU and secured millions of dollars in research funding. In acknowledgment of her service to the state and her national research reputation, Dr. Horn was selected as the first female in the first class of Robert C. Byrd Professors at WVU, a high honor. She ended her time at WVU in 2012 as the associate director of population health research at the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center.

“When I think about what motivated me to do this, it is part my loyalty and gratitude to WVU, and part my understanding of how hard it is to jumpstart your research career, especially when funding is tight,” Horn said. “I have been successful as a scientist, and that success started at WVU.” Horn’s first grants from the West Virginia Bureau of Public Health and WVU inspired her career. These grants funded early teen smoking cessation research that blossomed into a research agenda and a program that eventually helped hundreds of thousands of teens across the United States to quit smoking.

The widely used program, Not On Tobacco, or N-O-T, is a multisession, group-based, gender-tailored intervention program that continues today to help teens quit tobacco.

“Albeit small, my first grants from WVU and the state really made a difference,” Horn said. “They set the trajectory of my career and I have never forgotten that. My time at WVU taught me about compassion, humility and service, which have been

When I think about what motivated me to do this, it is part my loyalty and gratitude to WVU, and part my understanding of how hard it is to jumpstart your research career, especially when funding is tight.”

Dr. Kimberly Horn

SUBMITTED

the hallmarks of my chosen paths, professionally. This culture helped prepare me not only as a faculty member, but also as a leader.”

Today, Horn continues to be a scientist and leader, currently serving as the associate vice president of clinical research collaboratives at Virginia Tech. Though she has found success, she remembers well what it is like to launch a research career in higher education.

“A little is a lot when you are trying to get your research career off the ground,” Horn said. “I think sometimes junior faculty just need that ‘edge’ to get over the line of whether or not they succeed or fail in a given research idea.”

Horn sees the ideal candidate for her fund as a scholar who is motivated and inspired to make research a pivotal part of his or her career. She hopes that the research in question will eventually have an impact and change lives through healthcare and education, especially in West Virginia.

“We want faculty to win grants,” Horn said. “Research is an economic engine. If the College’s faculty are winning grants and conducting important research, it is not only good for the University, but more importantly for the people of the state.”

The fund will provide multiple awards to faculty who have already submitted grants and received favorable reviews from their peers, but whose grants were not funded. Access to additional resources via this fund will help them to make the improvements needed to get the grant. Such improvements could include incorporating a new method, approach or analysis, developing a new way to collect data or bringing in a consultant to review the proposal.

For Horn, access to small grants like this “edge fund” allowed her to improve her research, resulting in more grant dollars and ultimately, highly impactful work. She hopes to see the same for others.

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LINDSEY KUDAROSKI

IN THE CLASSROOM

Part of the Solution CEHS Launches Minor in Addiction Studies to Combat the Nation's Opioid Crisis WRITTEN BY LINDSEY KUDAROSKI

D

ustin Daniels knows all too well the struggles of addiction. Daniels, who fought a substance use disorder for 10 years before making his way to recovery in May 2014, is one of the many faces of hope amidst the opioid crisis embattling the nation.

For Daniels, a Martinsburg, W.Va., native, one of the roadblocks on his path to recovery was the lack of resources in his area.

“I had some tough times through the 10 years when I was using,” Daniels said. “I was looking for help. I was looking for a solution, but I could never find anything. Where I’m from, there weren’t a lot of resources to help people who were in my shoes.”

His need for help drove Daniels to move from Martinsburg to Morgantown, W.Va., where he resided in a sober living house and engaged with a 12-step fellowship. As he progressed through his own recovery, Daniels began to find ways to pursue his long-held desire to help others.

The experience that sparked Daniels’ interest for working in the addictions field was an opportunity to assist with the development of a treatment center called Jacob’s Ladder in Aurora, W.Va.

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“That was my first real exposure to working in the field of recovery, and that’s where my passion for helping people reignited,” Daniels said.

From there, Daniels went on to work as a recovery integration specialist at Ascension Recovery Services in Morgantown, a position that he still holds today. At Ascension, Daniels helps individuals with substance use disorders connect with the resources they need for successful recovery.

“I introduce my clients to different modalities of recovery, whether that’s physical, mental, emotional, spiritual wellness or whatever will benefit them,” Daniels said. “I get them integrated into recovery and help them avoid some of the pitfalls that people early in recovery seem to stumble over.”

Now, after nearly four years in long-term recovery, Daniels has enlisted in the West Virginia National Guard and is working toward earning his Regents Bachelor of Arts degree at CEHS. When Daniels learned that the College would be offering a new minor in addiction studies, the decision to enroll was easy.

“I was hopeful when I came back to school that there would be a program directed toward addictions,” Daniels said. “With the new addiction studies minor coming to fruition and being offered to students now, it was a no-brainer for me.”

A Minor with Major Impact CEHS’ new minor in addiction studies, offered through the Department of Counseling, Rehabilitation Counseling and Counseling Psychology, will be open to undergraduate students in all academic disciplines. Pilot courses were offered during the 2017-2018 academic year, and the minor will officially launch in the fall of 2018.

With the aim of providing students with a broad-based view of addictions theories, treatment and assessment, the minor will prepare students for employment in substance use disorder treatment and related settings.

“There is a clear and pressing need in West Virginia and the nation for professionals who can address the unique needs of individuals and families who are coping with substance use disorders,” said Dean Gypsy Denzine. “We created the minor in addiction studies to provide students in a variety of fields with the necessary skills to make a difference in this area of great need.”

The addiction studies minor will consist of five courses for a total of 15 credit hours, and includes courses titled Introduction to Addiction Studies, Addiction Screening and Assessment, Addiction Counseling Techniques, Families and Addiction, and the Addiction Studies Capstone. The minor can be added to a student’s academic major or selected as one of the three minors for a major in Multidisciplinary Studies.

The coordinator of the minor in addiction studies is Clinical Assistant Professor Frankie Tack, a seasoned addiction counselor

LINDSEY KUDAROSKI

Dustin Daniels (left) meets with his classmates as part of their abstinence project.

LINDSEY KUDAROSKI

Rising from the Ashes The guiding vision for the minor in addiction studies is to train students who can fulfill the current workforce shortages in the addictions field. By preparing more professionals for these careers, the national recovery effort can reach more people who need help.

“There aren’t enough places for people to go to get help right now,” Daniels said. “That’s one of the biggest things that we’re fighting. Working toward getting educated to help other people who are struggling just like I was is my way of making a small ripple in the pond.”

Ultimately, Tack hopes that students who enroll in the minor will share her and Daniels’ passion for the addictions field and for impacting the lives of others.

“When you work in this field, you get to see miracles on a regular basis,” Tack said. “People rise out of the ashes of the devastation of addiction and heal their lives, heal with their families, become productive citizens and go on to help others.”

Tack teaches a section of Intro to Addiction Studies.

A student proudly participates in her abstinence group.

LINDSEY KUDAROSKI

with 20 years of experience in the field. Tack has designed the minor to train students for careers that help people who are working on recovering from addiction.

“I want our students to be prepared, if they so choose, for entry-level work in an addiction treatment setting,” Tack said. “That means ensuring they have the basic skills, knowledge and attitudes needed to work in the field and get started. We also want to equip those who will work in allied and related professions, such as social work, public health and criminal justice.”

The minor in addiction studies will consist of multiple learning experiences to educate students about various methods for addictions treatment.

For example, students in the introductory course complete an abstinence project and give up something they love for the length of the semester.

These students work in support groups to steer clear of the items they’ve given up, which can range from soda to cigarettes. In doing so, the students better understand the experiences of individuals in recovery, as well as gain an understanding of how support groups function.

Daniels, who enrolled in the minor’s first two courses this spring, has already capitalized on experiences like this to supplement his work as a recovery coach.

“The classes line up so well with my professional goals, and it’s so beneficial for me to take that knowledge back to the clients I’m now working with,” Daniels said. “I envision Frankie being a really positive mentor for me going forward, even outside of school.”

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LAND-GRANT LEADERSHIP

JENNY SHEPHARD

Pictured, L to R: Dr. Nathan Sorber, Dr. William Doyle, Dr. Steven Gavazzi and Dr. Roger L. Geiger

COLLEGE LAUNCHES NATION’S FIRST CENTER TO STUDY LAND-GRANT INSTITUTIONS WRITTEN BY LINDSEY KUDAROSKI

I

t’s been 155 years since land-grant higher education was born in the throes of the Civil War, and while the institution is as strong as ever, education itself has changed, prompting CEHS to create the Center for the Future of Land-Grant Education.

The Center, the nation’s first devoted to the study of land-grants, launched on Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017, with a panel of higher education experts.

“As the country was battling itself, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Act of 1862, creating land-grant higher education institutions, which I believe was perhaps the greatest single piece of legislation ever enacted and an important catalyst to the future growth of the republic,” said WVU President E. Gordon Gee, who introduced the panel.

The panel comprised Steven Gavazzi, dean and director of Ohio State-Mansfield; Roger L. Geiger, professor emeritus and

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head of the higher education program at Pennsylvania State University; and William Doyle, associate professor of public policy and higher education at Vanderbilt University.

The Center will serve as a hub for researchers interested in addressing the challenge of providing an accessible public higher education in the wake of decreased public funding and a palpable disconnect between higher education and the people.

“Through the Center, we will advance land-grant institutions in our state and nation and be a leading voice in shaping the future of higher education,” said Dean Gypsy Denzine. “The potential for the Center to influence higher education research and policy and to reconnect universities with the public is enormous. We look forward to what lies ahead.”

Nathan M. Sorber, PhD, a prominent land-grant movement scholar and assistant professor and coordinator of WVU’s Higher Education Administration Program, serves as head of the Center.

JENNY SHEPHARD JENNY SHEPHARD

Sorber, whose book titled “The Morrill Act in the Era of Yankeedom: A History of the Origins and Early Years of the Land-Grant Colleges” will soon be published, notes the significant role that WVU has played in the nation’s land-grant movement.

“It just makes sense that WVU should be the place that is leading the national dialogue on the future of landgrant institutions,” Sorber said. “More than most, WVU centers its identity around its land-grant mission.”

Sorber is joined by Erin McHenrySorber, PhD, and Rodney Hughes, PhD, both assistant professors in the Higher Education Administration Program.

McHenry-Sorber, who specializes in the relationship between rural communities and schools, is currently investigating Appalachian women’s access to higher education. Hughes is an educational economist who examines both student access to higher education and university governance.

“Each of us is asking slightly different questions around the same research topics, which gives us the ability to have a much more robust picture, in the end, of what’s happening in higher education,” McHenry-Sorber said.

This summer, the Center will publish its first annual report with data highlighting the state of land-grant systems by examining factors such as financial access, engagement, faculty and students. Sorber and his team will analyze and contextualize this data with the hope of positioning the report as an important resource for higher education leaders and attracting top scholars to the Center.

“The Center is a magnet for researchers interested in public higher education, access and the land-grant mission,” Sorber said. “I think we’re going to develop a niche in producing future faculty, policy workers and senior administrators with a unique understanding of public higher education issues.”

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BRIAN PERSINGER

A FUTURE LAND-GRANT MOVEMENT LEADER With aspirations to be a future higher education administrator, Jihad Dixon is reaping the benefits of the Land-Grant Center. Dixon is a first-year master’s student in the Higher Education Administration Program who serves as president of HESA, the WVU Higher Education Student Association.

When Dixon approached the end of his undergraduate career at WVU, he had a decision to make. The political science major was examining two options – attending law school in pursuit of civil rights work, or attending graduate school to obtain his master’s degree in higher education administration. For help at this critical moment, Dixon turned to the man who could speak about both professions – President Gee. “I set up a mentor meeting with President Gee, and he persuaded me to go into higher education,” Dixon said.

During that fateful meeting, Gee outlined how Dixon’s interests as an undergraduate, including serving as president of WVU NAACP, a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., a resident assistant, and a diversity ambassador for the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion could become factors in a higher education career.

“President Gee said that college campuses are for fostering ideas and challenging students to come together, build a network and produce things in our world,” Dixon said. “I’ve always had this niche for mentoring and giving back to my community, and within higher education, I could impact students who would go on to impact other students. It’s just this pool of growth.”

Once Gee sold Dixon on a higher education career, he helped Dixon along by setting up a meeting between Dixon and Corey Farris, dean of students. After Dixon met with Farris, he found out that he’d earned a graduate assistantship in Farris’ office.

Through his graduate assistantship, Dixon has been able to continue to impact the WVU community by coordinating the downtown farmers’ market in partnership with WELL WVU. He has also helped with Welcome Week, New Student Orientation and Mountaineer Send-Offs.

“I’m just excited to get into the field and to perfect the craft of student engagement,” Dixon said. “I’m also looking forward to the opportunity to study the entire spectrum of higher education, from its history to the contemporary issues on our campuses.”

Amidst his busy schedule as a graduate student, Dixon has

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I’ve always had this niche for mentoring and giving back to my community, and within higher education, I could impact students who would go on to impact other students.

It’s just this pool of growth.”

Jihad Dixon, student

continued his meetings with President Gee for advice as he looks toward his future in higher education. Though Dixon is still determining his area of focus in the field, he dreams of one day becoming a university president, like Gee. “That would be the ultimate goal,” Dixon said. “I joke around with President Gee that I’m going to take his job one day, and he always laughs and brings that up.”

Knowing President Gee has directly impacted the course of what promises to be a storied career for Jihad Dixon.

“I think higher education, as a whole, is a great place for you to discover yourself,” Dixon said. “The networks that you build here on campus are phenomenal. The research that you can do and the opportunities that are at your disposal are amazing, especially here at West Virginia University.”

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