FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
FALL 2019
FROM the DEAN Sport has often been characterized as the world’s one true global language. Regardless of what language we speak, we collectively share meaning through sport in life, as we experience the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat. But the context of sport is so much more than a global language. Julie Foudy, an American retired soccer midfielder who was a two-time FIFA Women’s World Cup champion and Olympic gold medalist, described the value of sport as follows:
“Sports not only build better athletes but also better people. Sports build good habits, confidence, and discipline. They make players into community leaders and teach them how to strive for a goal, handle mistakes, and cherish growth opportunities.”
It’s easy to dismiss sports as something that we watch on weekends or play occasionally with friends. However, sports play a far more important role and serve as an integral part of our culture and society – a part so integral that it demands its own dedicated section in our daily newspaper. Coaches can be important role models in the lives of our youth, and for some, they play as important of a role in a child’s formative years as parents. Many sports encourage teamwork, critical thinking and trust. Even individual sports demand a certain level of collaboration, as individuals work with trainers, coaches, support staff and more.
For fans and spectators, sporting events are a way to come together, regardless of your background. Being a fan expands social networks in new ways, allowing us another way to connect to each other through collective experiences and passions. After all, a football game might just be an evening of entertainment for some, but for others, it’s a way of life.
Sports are so much more than a form of entertainment; they provide an avenue of connection to the next generation of society. For that reason, the College of Education has expanded its sport-related programs over time. We already have the #1-ranked sport management program in the country, but in this issue of The Torch, you will learn about our new Interdisciplinary Center for Athletic Coaching (FSU COACH), Sport Sales Initiative, the important research conducted in our Sport Psychology Lab, and much more.
We hope you enjoy this issue of The Torch, and we encourage you to keep in touch with the Florida State College of Education the next time you’re on campus—whether that’s for a sporting event or to visit your alma mater.
All my best,
Damon P. S. Andrew, PhD, FNAK, FNAKHE Dean and Professor College of Education Florida State University
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CONTENTS 04
GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME
06
CECILE REYNAUD: FSU VOLLEYBALL’S ACE
08
FSU STUDENT SHINES IN THE SPORT MANAGEMENT PROGRAM
09
HOW A SPORT PSYCHOLOGY PROFESSOR IS CHANGING THE GAME FOR NURSES
10
SPORT: A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
12
THE ROLE OF SPORT PSYCHOLOGY IN ATHLETE DEVELOPMENT
16
TIME OUT: THE IMPACT OF ESPORTS ON MENTAL HEALTH
17
WOMEN IN SPORT: PATRICIA ENGLAND AND SUZANNE NELSON
18
SPORT SALES INITIATIVE: OPENING THE DOOR TO CAREERS
20
STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: VANESSA MCFARLANE
23
FACULTY AND STAFF ACHIEVEMENTS
34
ALUMNI UPDATES
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Get Your Head in the Game By Josh Duke Sports are ingrained within the very fabric of our culture. Every week around the United States, millions of people young and old engage in friendly, and sometimes not so friendly, competition. Participation ranges from pee wee leagues, where young children learn new physical and social skills, to professional competition, where winning and financial gain are the priority. “Sports cross the spectrum of society,” says FSU College of Education Professor Tim Baghurst. “Sports allow us to be part of something bigger than ourselves, to test our skills, to push our physical boundaries, to overcome adversity, to experience failure, to achieve our goals, and sometimes even to make a living.” With that in mind, the role of a coach in society becomes central in preserving, advancing and advocating not just a sport, but a part of our collective identity. Coaches pass on and improve the skills of the next generation, spark passion for their sport and provide invaluable mentorship. “Apart from parents, many of us spent more time with coaches than any other adult in our childhood,” says Baghurst. “As coaches, it is imperative that we understand and appreciate the large role we have in athletes’ lives and in society as a whole.” COACHING EXCELLENCE Because coaches play such a vital role in the life of an athlete and society at large, Florida State University’s College of Education has created a new center to train and prepare future coaches. Baghurst will lead the Interdisciplinary Center for Athletic Coaching, known as FSU COACH. FSU COACH currently offers an online graduate certificate in coaching, but Baghurst hopes that the center grows far beyond that.
“I want our programs and center to be a recruiting tool for FSU, and for the center to become the place where coaches can grow professionally and personally,” Baghurst says. Under his guidance, there is every chance the center will accomplish all that and more. Before joining Florida State, Baghurst served as a professor at Oklahoma State University, assistant professor at Henderson State University and a visiting assistant professor at the University of Arkansas. Throughout his career, he has taught classes focused on athletic coaching, physical education and related kinesiology disciplines. Baghurst has the distinction of developing the first coaching science undergraduate and graduate certification programs in the state of Oklahoma. While at OSU, he worked as director of the physical education program before becoming director of the sports and coaching science programs. With more than 100 peer-reviewed articles in publication, Baghurst is wellequipped to start the next chapter of his career at Florida State. Despite his interest in coaching and his participation in many sports, he never felt a close connection to any of his coaches. “My coaches growing up showed me how not to coach. I recall a lot of fear, intimidation, shouting, favoritism, and certainly some questionable coaching. “But I’m not alone in this. I’d postulate that about half or more of the students in my
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Tim Baghurst
classes have shared similar experiences to me. My inspiration doesn’t stem from a great coach I had, but stems from wanting my experiences to never be shared by anyone else. To do that, I need to help be a positive change in the profession.” In the College of Education’s coaching certificate program, students gain an advanced understanding of the various aspects of being a successful coach, including the mental, physical and tactical skills a coach needs to create the best environment to be successful. By the end of the 12-credit certificate program, students will be ready to lead athletes and teams with confidence, whether a recreational league or at a professional level. Since so many people associate Florida State with athletic accomplishment, Baghurst believes that the coaching certificate should follow FSU’s standard of excellence. “I want to see FSU COACH’s
current graduate certificate in coaching and the programs that follow to set the standard for excellence within the coaching profession.” COACHING COACHES FSU COACH has big goals to address some even bigger problems Baghurst has identified facing the profession of coaching. “There are millions of coaches in the United States and less than 10% receive any training whatsoever. I’d like our center to play a role in changing that.” With only limited formal training in coaching available, many coaches draw on their own personal experiences playing a sport or from what a predecessor taught them. However, Baghurst believes that this can create a problem. “What most new coaches do not appreciate is the enormous time and effort required to build up their knowledge, skills and network over often many years to achieve what many of their coaching heroes have achieved,” he says. Even coaches who find early success should consider professional development to continue and build upon their winning records, just one of many components that requires a coach’s focus. FSU COACH’s mission to teach more than just sport knowledge will provide coaches with a significant advantage over their peers. At the highest level of competition, coaches need to do more than just understand the nuances of their sport and the capabilities of their players. Christine Bolger, who serves as the associate director of coach development for the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee, wrote in Baghurst’s new textbook, Coaching for Sports Performance, that too often “coaches tend to focus solely on sport-specific professional knowledge.”
She has seen exceptional coaches that most would consider to be successful falter in other areas of being a coach. “Equally as critical is the human aspect of coaching – the interpersonal and intrapersonal skills,” she says. “Coaches should focus at least as much time on their self-awareness and how to effectively communicate, listen, observe, and instruct. It’s one of the main things we hear coaches say – ‘I wish I knew more about this when I first started coaching.’”
A good coach can change a game. A great coach can change a life.”
– John Wooden “I continue to be surprised at how many major sports organizations do not provide training to their coaches, and if they have them, to their coach educators,” Baghurst adds. “Although the expectation might be that professional or highly visible coaches are well-trained, many are not, and struggle to cope with the non-technical challenges they face on a daily basis.” It is Baghurst’s goal and hope that FSU COACH can be more than just a regional center for people interested in becoming coaches. Instead, he sees it as a potential resource for national and international sporting organizations wishing to advance the professional talents of their coaches. COACHING MATTERS While FSU COACH plans to tackle major issues facing the profession, College of Education Dean Damon Andrew believes that Florida State is prepared to meet any challenge. “Establishing a center for coaching excellence continues the College’s overall
mission of preparing educators to be transformational figures,” Andrew says. “Ask any adult, and many of us can still name a teacher or a coach that made all the difference in our lives growing up,” he continues. “We want Florida State to be the place to go for those interested in becoming a force for positive change, whether as a teacher, a coach, a counselor, or other education professional.” Andrew sees the creation of FSU COACH as an investment on multiple levels. As the president-elect of the North American Society for Sport Management, Andrew keenly understands that the sport industry represents big business and new jobs open up across all levels of sport competition constantly. “In the state of Florida alone, the sport industry generates $57 billion annually,” Andrew says. However, he also points to the fact that children under the age of 10 list “professional athlete” as their top profession for when they grow up. He believes that not only will FSU COACH prepare future generations interested in working in the sport industry, but that graduates from the program will have an incredible opportunity to spread the values of Florida State University to young people around the country. Baghurst agrees that graduates from FSU COACH will go on to do much more than just be leaders on a court or field. “Good coaches place their athletes above themselves; they seek to transform their athletes into something better rather than use their athletes as a resource or transaction for something they want in return,” he says. “As legendary basketball coach John Wooden once said, ‘A good coach can change a game. A great coach can change a life.’” n
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Cecile Reynaud Florida State Volleyball’s Ace By Josh Duke
F
lorida State University could fill a coaching hall of fame by itself. Every sport on campus seems to have a great name associated with it. Football has Bobby Bowden, FSU baseball has Mike Martin and FSU volleyball has Cecile Reynaud. During her 26 years as coach of Florida State’s volleyball team, Reynaud achieved amazing feats and elevated the program to new heights. When she retired in 2001, she was one of only eight active coaches to have passed the 600 wins milestone. Her time as volleyball coach saw the program compete in 10 NCAA Tournaments, win an ACC title, and claim six Metro Conference Championships.
FSU athletic programs. She also encouraged communi-
Beyond the impact that she had as coach, Reynaud also understood the importance of education. As coach of the volleyball team, she made it a priority for her students to concentrate on academics, and her teams saw some of the highest graduation rates across all of
has published a number of books, and has served as a
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ty service, and the team earned the Director’s Cup for Service in 2001, which is awarded to the team that has the most service hours. In addition to her teams’ achievements, Reynaud’s personal accomplishments are equally as impressive. She has received multiple Coach of the Year titles as well as the prestigious Harold T. Friermood “Frier” Award—the highest honor bestowed by USA Volleyball. On top of her coaching accolades, Reynaud also holds a doctorate degree from FSU in physical education, commentator for ESPN and Fox Sports. A leader both on and off the volleyball court, Reynaud shares her thoughts on her career, coaching and more.
WHAT MAKES A GOOD COACH? A good coach inspires the athletes. Obviously, a coach has to possess good technical and tactical knowledge of their sport, but it is also important that they remember they are coaching people, not a sport. Finally, a good coach will encourage participation and challenge players, but also keep in mind that both practices and games need to be fun. WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE MEMORIES FROM YOUR TIME AS A COACH AT FSU? The greatest part of being a coach at FSU was working with all the young women and being a part of their college lives. It was a pleasure watching my student-athletes graduate and move on with successful careers and start families. They became a family to me in their own way, to the point where one team asked me to get a tattoo if they won the ACC Championship. They won and they all watched me get the tattoo. WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR INDIVIDUALS WHO WANT TO BECOME COACHES? I have a few thoughts for future coaches. I’d recommend studying the sport itself, of course, but you should also study the best coaches in all sports. And just like any profession, you should strive to always keep learning. Another factor to consider is learning how to relate to people. Being a coach is as much about the sport as it is about managing people. Finally, you should study yourself and review your performance as a coach. WAS THERE A COACH IN YOUR LIFE THAT INSPIRED YOU? My Missouri State University volleyball coach, Linda Dollar, taught me not only about the sport of volleyball and coaching, but how to treat people with respect and kindness and give back to the sport in various ways.
Reynaud with the 2001 FSU volleyball team
THROUGHOUT YOUR CAREER, YOU HAVE ACCOMPLISHED SO MUCH. DO YOU HAVE A PARTICULAR ACHIEVEMENT THAT MEANS THE MOST TO YOU? I never dreamed of receiving the Frier award from USA Volleyball, which is the highest award given. I was actually emceeing the banquet when it was given to me. At the end of a two-hour banquet, I had announced that we were going to give out the final award they had all been waiting for and introduced the person to talk about the award and announce the winner. I sat down in a chair at the back of the stage, waiting to see the surprised person’s reaction when their name was announced. Then they pointed at me. It was surreal. I was dumbfounded and shocked. Immediately, I had to stand up, watch a video about my career and then try to make some coherent remarks. I was actually speechless for the first time in my life.
Earning my Ph.D. in four years while coaching was another proud moment for me and my family. WHAT DO YOU LOVE MOST ABOUT THE SPORT OF VOLLEYBALL? WHAT DREW YOU TO THE SPORT? Volleyball is the ultimate team sport. I love the coordination it takes from everyone. It’s also fast paced. Players can be aggressive, but the opponent is on the other side of a net, so it’s a different type of aggressiveness compared to other sports. AS THE NEW CHAIR OF USA VOLLEYBALL, HOW DO YOU HOPE TO SUPPORT THE SPORT OF VOLLEYBALL? I plan on working with our board of directors to develop a detailed, longterm strategic plan. I also plan on giving my time and effort to collaborate with all the people involved with the sport— participants, parents, coaches, officials, spectators, regional commissioners and
Another great honor was my induction into the American Volleyball Coaches Hall of Fame. I had 18 months to get ready for that recognition, so I enjoyed being able to sound more thoughtful.
National Volleyball Federations from the other 222 countries around the world. At the end of the day, I want to make USA Volleyball the model sport governing body for others to follow. n
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It’s a Family Thing Fourth-Generation FSU Student Shines in the Sport Management Program We sat down with Courtney Caswell, a master’s student in FSU’s top-ranked sport management program, to get her thoughts on all things FSU. WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO COME TO FSU? I feel extremely lucky to say I was born and raised in Tallahassee, which meant the garnet and gold was present very early on! When it came time for me to decide where I would attend college, my parents were incredibly supportive and never wanted me to limit my options. While I entertained various routes, we all knew Florida State would be my home. By attending Florida State, I knew I would be in a positive and uplifting environment that would challenge me to become the best version of myself. Most importantly, I knew twenty years from now I would be proud to call myself an alumna and represent an institution that so many hold dear in their hearts. The moment I received my acceptance, my dad said to me, “You are garnet and gold forever now!” and I will never take that for granted.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR FAMILY’S HISTORY AS FSU. The Caswell name has certainly spent time on Florida State’s campus! I am the fourth generation in my family to join the alumni family. My great-grandmother was the first to attend FSU (at what was then the Florida State College for Women) and earned a degree in library sciences. In total, 15 of my family members have attended Florida State! WHAT DREW YOU TO THE SPORT MANAGEMENT PROGRAM? Florida State is nationally ranked in all areas and I am grateful to be a part of the #1 sport management program in the nation! The College of Education and Department of Sport Management focus not only on classroom studies but provide a variety of opportunities to get involved on campus and within the community. Sport management is composed of a community of mentors who are there to guide you through your coursework and professional aspirations. The world of sport is huge and at times can be overwhelming, but connecting with department faculty and staff quickly eases any fears. This program gives me the opportunity to best prepare myself to join a team behind the team! TELL US THE MOST INTERESTING THING YOU’VE LEARNED OVER THE COURSE OF YOUR STUDIES. My favorite undergraduate course was Diversity in Sport! This class focused on the impact that ethnicity, race, gender and other diversity topics have on sport. As a female entering the sport industry, it was fascinating to learn how the industry has changed over the last decade, as well as the current trends and issues facing those who pursue careers in sport. WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR FAVORITE PART OF FSU SO FAR? Do I have to choose just one? The Florida State campus is absolutely stunning, has a ton of unique traditions and a variety of organizations to join. During undergrad, I had the opportunity to be an FSU Batgirl and Garnet and Gold Guide. The chance to travel to ACC Championships, College World Series, and provide campus tours to future student athletes was the opportunity of a lifetime! Each of these organizations gave me the opportunity to gain experience in sport and narrow down my career aspirations. More importantly, these groups provided me with the friends-turned-family you can only hope to meet in college. These friends became fixtures at my parent’s dinner table throughout the semesters and will always be welcome! WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO DO AFTER GRADUATION? After graduating with my master’s degree in sport management, I want to pursue a career in intercollegiate athletics. I am drawn to sport not only because of the opportunity to be in a competitive and fast-paced environment, but I want to help student athletes grow on and off the field of play. My dream job is to be the director of operations for a Division I collegiate baseball team! n
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Catalyst: How a Sport Psychology Professor is Changing the Game for Nurses
According to his grant application, “research shows that better trained nurses perform better in such situations and have lower Failure to Rescue rates.” So, naturally, Eccles partnered with the College of Nursing’s James Whyte to ensure that the College of Education is providing the best training possible. Utilizing the technology of FSU’s Sim-Lab and the principles of “deliberate practice,” Eccles and his team can test FSU’s nurse training to ensure the university is preparing our students in the best way possible.
By Kevin Derryberry
T
he College of Education has long encouraged faculty members and students to conduct innovative research. One of the latest initiatives to accomplish this goal is the Dean’s Circle and the program’s Catalyst Grants. The Dean’s Circle itself is comprised of donors who commit to supporting the College with an annual gift of at least $1,000. Half of the donations from the Dean’s Circle will go to the Dean’s Circle Endowment and help the program grow. The other half will help fund research initiatives, including the Catalyst Grants. What makes the Dean’s Circle special is that its members will help review faculty and student research proposals. The Dean’s Circle selected a number of projects in this first round of Catalyst Grant applications, including one proposed by David Eccles, associate professor of sport psychology. Eccles’ project will attempt to save lives by studying Failure to Rescue (FTR) training for nurses. Nurses have the greatest interaction with patients and are often the first to notice when complications arise. Their decisions upon realizing that a patient has taken a turn for the worse can mean the difference between life and death. The FTR rate measures how often medical professionals fail to intervene after a patient develops life threatening complications. While it might seem odd that a professor of sport psychology would study a topic involving nursing, the subject has plenty of overlap with Eccles’ expertise. Eccles studies “skilled and expert human performance and its development from a cognitive perspective,” but his work is not limited to performance on the field or court. While sport provides an ideal opportunity to study expert human performance, Eccles’ research ranges from competition preparation in athletes to law enforcement officer decision making during gunfights and the correlation between medical professionals’ standardized test scores and their clinical performance.
Unsurprisingly, Eccles uses the analogy of sports to explain how “deliberate practice” is different from other types of practice: “Attending the driving range to hit balls and playing a round of golf per week may not lead to a change in handicap; this is the situation for many recreational golfers. In contrast to this form of repeated exposure, the deliberate practice approach would involve identifying a specific area for improvement, such as long putts, and researching and being guided about how to improve in this area and planning practice activities accordingly. It would also involve setting specific goals for each practice session and concentrating fully during each session on the putting tasks and performance goals that comprise the session.” Eccles’ investigation into “deliberate practice” in FTR training received not only a Dean’s Circle Grant, but has also received a $14,000 Council on Research and Creativity grant from Florida State University’s Office of Research to continue his research through Spring of 2020. At that point, he hopes to expand the scope research through a grant from the National Institutes of Health. n
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Sport: A Global Perspective By Josh Duke
The Sport Management program at Florida State has a wide reach. Graduates from the program go on to work for professional leagues, development leagues, minor leagues and everything in between around the world. Yet students in the program have a chance to get an even wider exposure to the sport industry thanks to the Global Sport Management program.
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E
very year, the Global Sport Management program invites students to study and learn in destinations around the world. Because sport is such a universal language, experiencing and learning about the sport industry in various settings provides our students with a new and engaging perspective. “This program allows students to take what is learned in the classroom and see it at work in a number of sporting events, sporting venues and cultural excursions experienced in Spain, England, and Northern Ireland,” says Sport Management faculty member and attendee of the Global Sport Management trip, Kylee Studer O’Daniel. “For many students, these experiences prove to be one of the highlights of their education at FSU!”
This year’s trip took students to two of Florida State’s study centers: Valencia, Spain and London, England; as well as Belfast, Northern Ireland. Using these three locations as “home bases,” students and faculty members explored these epicenters of sport and surrounding locations over the course of six weeks. The itinerary was packed with excursions, including two Olympic Stadiums, Sergio Garcia’s Tennis and Soccer Academy, Barcelona F.C.’s Camp Nou, Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge and West Ham United’s London Stadium, to name a few. On top of these trips, students also attended classes, met with representatives from sports teams and learned from guest speakers and lecturers. And in between these moments, students had time to explore their host cities and become immersed in the culture. Jason Pappas, a teaching faculty member in sport management, also traveled with the students on the trip. “This year’s Global Sport Management trip was truly one to remember,” he says. “Students compared the subtle and distinguishable differences in culture and sport between the two countries.” With the understanding that sports and culture are deeply linked, the Global Sport Management itinerary included stops at important historical landmarks, like Sagrada Familia, the Museo Picasso, the Globe Theatre (to catch a performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream) and more. “We started one day off at 2 a.m. to queue for tickets to Wimbledon, and a few days later hopped a flight to Belfast to see a practice round of the British Open,” Pappas recalls. “This year was the first time in 68 years to be played in Northern Ireland! A trip like this took so much coordination. We are so appreciative to the unending support from the entire FSU International Programs team in Tallahassee, Valencia and London. It wouldn’t be possible without their dedication and assistance!”
Michaela Hahn, who completed her bachelor’s degree in sport management in 2016 and is currently working towards her master’s, was one of the students on the trip. She says that the trip offered her “a more comprehensive knowledge of the operations involved with sport organizations. I observed European sport from an entirely different perspective.”
club and stadium have such great history, but the organization honored their loyal fans,” she says. “There was a bronze statue in the stands of a fan, who was the 18th season ticket holder. When he passed away two years ago, the club honored him by creating the statue in his seat so that his son could still enjoy his presence at the games.”
Hahn also experienced sport from a unique perspective: as a former player. “Our class was immersed in the rich history and culture associated with sport, especially football (or soccer as we call it in the United States). Being a former professional soccer player and alumna of the FSU soccer team, the highlight of my trip was experiencing the genuine love from fans for the game of football.”
While every moment abroad is exciting, certain trips stood out to Graves and Hahn. Both students cited attending Wimbledon as a high point in the trip. “I got to see my hero Serena Williams play alongside British great Andy Murray,” Graves says. “Since I was a little girl, I watched Serena and Venus at Wimbledon. I never thought I’d get to lay out on the lawn and watch one of them play live.”
My experience studying abroad was life changing and provided eye-opening information to better understand sports from different cultural perspectives.”
– Michaela Hahn, Graduate Student
Robyn Graves, a master’s student in sport management, discovered that the passion for sport runs deep in Europe—and in somewhat surprising ways. “Culturally, sports in Europe is much more familial,” she says. “Tickets are passed from generation to generation. The passion and pride that fans have isn’t predicated on wins and losses. Outside of a few historic franchises here in the U.S such as the Lakers, Yankees, and Packers, it’s not often you experience that same dedication.” For example, Graves explains the story of a statue that the group learned about while visiting Mestalla, the home of the Valencia Football Club. “Not only did the
Hahn echoes the sentiment. “My favorite experience was by far the process of queuing to enter Wimbledon and seeing the Serena Williams and Andy Murray mixed doubles match. To have an opportunity be a spectator of such an historic sporting event was exhilarating and helped me fully appreciate it.” Graves can now say that she’s finally attended a golf tournament, and golf fans might be a little jealous that her first tournament happened to be one of the biggest and most prestigious in the world: The British Open, played at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland. “The course was amazing, and with holes located right on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, it provided amazing views.” The Global Sport Management program will take place again next year and promises another opportunity for learning and exploration. For students like Graves and Hahn who attended the program this year, they will have plenty of memories to enjoy for the rest of their lives. Hahn says, “My experience studying abroad was life changing and provided eye-opening information to better understand sports from different cultural perspectives.” n
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A Deeper Dive: The Role of Sport Psychology in Athlete Development By Josh Duke
It is a modern-day renaissance in the sport psychology world. More and more sport teams—from amateur-level competition all the way up to the multibillion-dollar professional leagues— have recognized the importance of sport psychology. This attention has translated into a trickle-down effect, where more and more money and research have gone into studying and practicing sport psychology.
H
owever, there is also a case to be made that the research into sport psychology spurred curiosity from sport teams in the first place. In the interest of avoiding a never-ending debate, one statement remains clear: sport psychology is booming, and nowhere is that truer than at Florida State’s College of Education. The sport psychology master’s and doctoral program have seen tremendous success for years and years. At the heart of this program’s success are passionate faculty members and the Sport and Exercise Psychology Lab. This combination has produced vital research, but it has also had an impact on the lives of athletes on FSU’s campus, in the greater Tallahassee area and beyond. Students, faculty members and athletes all benefit from the advanced technology found in the lab. Founded by Dr. Gershon Tenenbaum, who retired in 2019, the lab gained more and more equipment to help students and faculty members work on research and on real-world applications. As the
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collection of equipment grew, so did the reputation of the lab. Today it is nationally recognized for its important contributions to the field of sport psychology. The lab now boasts more than $300,000 worth of equipment, largely funded through teaching grants. Drs. Graig Chow, David Eccles, Robert Eklund and Nicole Gabana, faculty members in the sport psychology program, have used this equipment to produce an impressive amount of research. “What [the lab] has essentially evolved into is a lab that we can use for research purposes incorporating technology, but then Dr. Gabana and I also oversee our applied sport psychology practicum,” says Chow, assistant professor of sport psychology in the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems. “Our students who are interested in becoming mental performance consultants work with athletes and teams at FSU and in the Tallahassee community across all different competitive levels, and sometimes those technologies can be helpful for improving their performance or decision making on the field. So now the lab has two functions, where it’s both the research part and applied part.” ATHLETE INTO ACADEMIC Chow didn’t realize that he wanted to work in sport psychology until later in his college career. Throughout the first part of his life, he focused on his favorite sport: soccer. “I was always a motivated student, but much more committed to sport,” he says. In fact, back then, he didn’t even realize that he could have a career in sport psychology. Like so many athletes, at some point he had to make a decision: try to make it as a professional athlete or explore other career paths. Ultimately, he decided to focus on school and enrolled at UCLA intending to get a degree in psychology, a subject that always interested him. As he browsed through the course schedule, a sport psychology class caught his attention. “I had never even heard of sport psychology at the time,” he says. “The teams I had played on, sport psychology wasn’t there,
We found that following the program, athletes exhibited improved scores on measures of gratitude, psychological well-being, resilience, team cohesion and quality of the coach-athlete relationship.”
– Nicole Gabana,
Assistant Professor of Sport Psychology,
and even sport psychology as a field wasn’t as advanced as it is today.” Intrigued, he enrolled in the course and studied under Dr. Tara Scanlan, an important name in the field—although Chow didn’t realize that at the time. As an undergraduate, he was just excited for an opportunity to contribute to the field of sport psychology, and he dove in as passionately as he ever did playing soccer. Scanlan invited him to be a part of her research team, and Chow got his first glimpse into a field that would become his profession. “What I thought was so cool at that time was I had always thought of psychology as people coming in with clinical issues and you work with them on that, and here [Scanlan] was studying something like commitment and determination,” he says. His first project involved reading interviews Scanlan had conducted with the New Zealand All-Blacks rugby team, regarded as one of the best teams in the world. She studied their desire and determination to keep playing for the team. Chow devoured the interviews and almost instantly recognized that sport psychology was his calling. “I was immediately hooked. It tapped into my two major interests: sport and the mental side.” PERFORMANCE RESEARCH Chow himself is heavily involved in both research and application of scientific knowledge at the Sport and Exercise Psychology Lab. Using the equipment
and tools in the lab, he and his team of graduate students recreate and approximate situations athletes experience while playing. Putting them in these situations allows the team to analyze the athletes’ reactions and identify issues that may be affecting their performance, and then implement and evaluate appropriate interventions. Observing these athletes during situations offers a number of advantages. “Even if you ask an athlete, ‘Hey, what happened in Saturday’s race?’ an athlete’s memory is not as good than if you put them in a similar environment and then you ask them, ‘Hey, what happened there?’” Chow says. Most recently, he has worked with professional and amateur motorsport athletes. “When I have had a motorsport athlete who feels really nervous and worries about other people passing him,” Chow says. “They would be in the lead, for instance, but they would focus on their opponents behind them.” Chow has worked with athletes using a piece of equipment called the NeuroTracker. This device projects animated balls bouncing around on a screen, and the user has to select the balls that the machine picks. Typically, this involves tracking three balls while another dozen or so also appear. The machine tests the athlete’s attention and ability to focus on a few particular details while drowning out distractions. continued on next page
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So, what do a bunch of bouncing balls have to do with motor sports? For the athletes in question, Chow was interested in seeing how well the motorsport athletes could focus on the relevant cues while drowning out things that don’t matter. In terms of motor sports, being able to identify the things that matter might mean nailing that upcoming jump versus worrying about losing the lead. For this particular case, Chow also piped in crowd noise, stood on different sides of the athlete, and tried to create distractions that he might encounter during a race. THE BRAIN IS A MUSCLE “Something that we believe really strongly is that mindset or mental skills are something similar to physical skills in that it takes time to learn them, develop them and essentially make them automatic,” Chow says. “It’s just like a basketball player when they’re first learning to dribble a ball. At first, it takes time to learn the skill, but over time the skill becomes automatic.”
new, but the tools that experts like Chow and his students use are. As technology and research have improved, so too have the techniques mental performance practitioners use. With the tech found in the Sport and Exercise Psychology lab, performance consultants can do far more than just sharpen mental skills. However, the lab is more than just a place to train athletes. In fact, one of the biggest critiques of using technology in applied sport psychology according to Chow is that these kinds of tools may not lead to immediate improvements because of transferability. The Sport and Exercise Psychology Lab team understands these concerns, which is why they also view the equipment as a means to assess an athlete and not just train them. In the example of the motorsport athletes, Chow was just as interested in training him as he was in trying to identify why he was losing focus. Was he suffering from anxiety issues? Did he lack confidence? Discov-
The belief that mental acumen and ability can be taught and honed is not
ering these underlying issues can lead to major breakthroughs.
“There’s definitely been a shift away from just thinking about performance enhancement,” says David Eccles, associate professor of sport psychology at FSU. “Increasingly, there’s been a greater attention on athlete’s welfare. How we make athletes perform better isn’t always necessarily in the athlete’s best interests.” Robert Eklund agrees. Eklund, who is the Mode L. Stone Distinguished Professor of Sport Psychology and associate dean for faculty development and advancement in the College of Education, first became involved in the field of sport psychology as part of a major research project involving the U.S. wrestlers competing at the Seoul Olympics in 1988. The primary focus of the study, directed by Dr. Daniel Gould, was to develop a greater understanding of optimal performance in major international competition for performance enhancement purposes. Since then, however, his research interests have been primarily focused on increasing understanding of troubling matters sometimes arising in the pursuit of enhanced performance, such as athlete burnout. “What we’re seeing is that athletes can burn out due to the effects of chronic exposure to training and competition stress,” Eklund says. “We’re exploring why this happens and how to watch for warning signs of burnout.” In applied sport psychology practicum, if a student working under Chow and Gabana identifies more serious underlying problems, they will refer the athlete to a licensed psychologist or mental health practitioner. “We try to cover different areas of an athlete’s sport and personal life, primarily to determine who their resources are going to be,” Chow says. An athlete’s welfare is increasingly becoming a topic of concern, so they will often refer an athlete to a licensed clinical psychologist if they experience issues like depression or grief.
Sport psychology students using biofeedback equipment
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Sport psychology labs like the one at FSU are leading the way in helping find peace of mind outside of competition. For example, Stinne Soendergaard, a doctoral
Students demonstrating the NeuroTracker
student who works with Chow and Eccles, is looking at how exposing athletes to nature and greenery can help increase their attention. “If we’ve been trying to pay attention to devices a lot, which many of us invariably do in our jobs, we can only do that for a finite time before our attention resources deplete, or so the theory goes,” Eccles says. Nicole Gabana, assistant professor of sport psychology, has devoted a lot of her study to exploring the effectiveness of applied interventions with athletes and teams. In particular, she wants to see how these interventions affect athletes’ mental health, well-being, and performance. “For the current project I’m working on, we implemented a positive psychology program (The Athlete Gratitude Group) with a sports team and examined its impact on mental health and performance-related variables,” Gabana says. “We found that following the program, athletes exhibited improved scores on measures of grat-
itude, psychological well-being, resilience, team cohesion and quality of the coach-athlete relationship.”
“I think the biggest growth that we’ve seen in the sporting domain is with Major League Baseball,” Chow says. “Pretty much every team right now has a mental
THE FUTURE OF SPORT PSYCHOLOGY Gabana believes the future of sport psychology research is on athlete welfare, in addition to enhancing performance. “There is a growing interest in treating athletes as people and not just performers, and I see the field continuing to head in this direction as we advocate for the psychological needs and well-being of athletes,” she says. Eccles agrees and thinks the field has come a long way from just focusing solely on performance enhancement. “How do we take care of the athletes?” he asks. “How do we protect them from abuse?”
performance consulting team with four to five individuals, each one working at different levels of the organization.” “If you would’ve looked ten years ago, that didn’t exist,” he adds. “Maybe they would have one person working with the MLB team, and that’s about it, but now there’s these mental conditioning or mental consulting teams that are really blowing up. I would say that same structure could easily fit within other professional sports.” The general consensus, however, is that the sport psychology field is going to become more and more important. And
In terms of applied sport psychology, Chow believes that demand will continue to increase. Already, sport teams are beginning to hire more and more specialists.
whatever comes next for sport psychology, FSU’s Sport and Exercise Psychology Lab will be at the forefront of research and practice. n
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Time Out: The Impact of eSports on Mental Health By Kevin Derryberry “The link between esports and mental health is not straightforward,” says Du. “On the positive side, esports may create a more inclusive environment for typically marginalized and under-represented social segments, and have the potential for eliciting physical, psychological and social benefits. Conversely, recent anecdotal evidence has shown the potentially harmful effects of esports.” The role of so-called violent video games in U.S. mass shootings has been openly debated in the twenty years since the Columbine shooting of 1999. Following the Parkland shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, President Trump weighed in on the links between video games and shootings. After the 2018 mass shooting in Jacksonville at a Madden 19 tournament left three people dead and 13 injured, even non-violent video games could now be examined. The professional football simulator, Madden 19, does not fit the mold of a violent video game, yet this shooting marked one of the most violent acts ever to be visited on the world of professional sport.
E
lectronic sports, otherwise known as esports, have become a billion-dollar industry and captured the attention of hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide. Streaming services like Twitch enable a viewership greater than the ESPN and Netflix audiences combined. Current media coverage and academic research of esports debates whether esports should be labeled “sports” at all. Some of the largest audiences for games, such as Fortnight and Overwatch, consume hours of players gaining weapons and hunting down and “killing” their fellow players. These violent themes have called into question the possible effects on the mental health of the viewers. James Du, assistant professor in the Department of Sport Management at Florida State, is aiming to pivot the conversation away from the labeling debate in favor of examining the impact of esports on the mental health of the audience consuming it. Du’s proposal, entitled “Time-Out to Study Esports” has been selected as one of four Dean’s Circle Catalyst Grants awarded to College of Education faculty this year. 16 | THE TORCH - COLLEGE OF EDUCATION MAGAZINE
Du’s project investigates three primary questions: 1.) What kind of impact does esports have on mental health? 2.) Can psychological involvement of participants be used as a tool to evaluate mental health? 3.) Does the game genre influence mental health outcomes? The $10,000 Dean’s Circle Catalyst Grant Du received will provide access to a Nielsen Scarborough database and enable the recruitment of 600 representative esports participants for his study. The College Education’s Dean’s Circle supports cutting edge research like Du’s through the Dean’s Circle Catalyst Grant program. Dean’s Circle members include alumni, faculty and friends of the College of Education who support our research mission with annual commitments of $1,000 or more. Dean’s Circle members are then given the opportunity to select which faculty research projects receive Catalyst Grant funding. Du was one of four College of Education faculty members to receive a Catalyst Grant in 2019. See the full slate of grant recipients and learn more about the Dean’s Circle here. n
Women in Sport: Patricia England and Suzanne Nelson By Amanda Coffman
W
omen’s athletics are taking the world by storm, both on a national and collegiate level. In professional leagues, the country recently celebrated an historic fourth FIFA Women’s World Cup title, and FSU has had significant wins by both its softball and women’s soccer teams.
Endowed Scholarship for undergraduate students. The scholarship will help support female students who want to be involved in the athletic world in a different way. Where there are athletes, there is a need for sport psychologists, sport management professionals and coaches. In the College of Education, there are many opportunities for students who want to work in these fields. FSU’s sport management program is ranked as the best in the nation by College Choice. We’re also home to a world-class sport psychology program and an online graduate certificate in coaching that is relaunching this fall. As the sport industry continues to grow, so does the demand for these positions. While the sports industry has primarily been seen as male-dominated, more and more women are entering the field and following their professional dreams.
While the attention that female athletes are getting on the field is a welcome sight, it is just as important to support our athletes in the classroom. FSU College of Education alumnae Patricia “Trish” England (B.S. ’78, M.S. ’79) and Suzanne “Sue” Nelson (M.S. ’96) want to ensure this happens. By combining their love of athletics with their love of the COE, the two have made a commitment through their estate that will create the Sue Nelson and Trish England Endowed Fellowship. The fellowship specifically helps support a former athlete who will continue her education at FSU. Athletic scholarships usually only cover the bachelor’s degree and perhaps the first year of a master’s program. If students are looking to obtain their master’s or doctorate, they don’t typically receive the same support. Recognizing that athletes may want to finish advanced degrees, England and Nelson wanted to give these athletes the support they deserve. After all, most athletes show tremendous drive not only in their sport, but in the classroom as well. “It’s a stress. I’ve been blessed to be on a full-time scholarship for the past four years,” said Tessa Daniels, an English education student and member of the FSU softball team. “I actually discussed with my family potentially going back to Georgia to finish my master’s.” Daniels is a Georgia native and in her final year of the combined BS/MS pathway in English education at FSU. She played on the 2018 National Championship Softball team and was the winner of the Elite 90 Award. This award goes to the player with the highest cumulative GPA among all players in the World Series. “I love my cohort and the College of Education,” said Daniels. “The College of Education is one of my favorite things about Florida State. If the program wasn’t as amazing as it is, I would have to leave.” In addition to the fellowship, England and Nelson’s estate commitment will also create the Trish England and Sue Nelson
Patricia England and Suzanne Nelson
The Trish England and Sue Nelson Endowed Scholarship for undergraduate students opens the door for female students to explore any of these professional avenues. As more and more women enter the world of sports, it will send a message to future generations that they, too, can find meaningful careers doing what they love in the industry. The more women fill these important roles in sport management, sport psychology and coaching, the more equality the industry will enjoy. “Trish and Sue are passionate about supporting women in sports,” says Damon Andrew, dean of the FSU College of Education. “They want to bring about positive change in the sports industry, and their scholarship and fellowships are steps in the right direction. We appreciate their generosity and their contribution to making the sporting world a better place.” “I never realized how much donors were a part of my scholarship,” said Daniels. “I didn’t think about where the money came from. I’m really excited that something like this is on the horizon. I want to be able to provide a scholarship to students like me someday.” n
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Sport Sales Initiative: Opening the Door to Careers By Josh Duke
G
reat things come from humble beginnings. One of the richest people in the world, Warren Buffett, famously began his path to success as a paperboy, selling various things door-to-door, and eventually investing in the stock market before he reached his teenage years. He turned a few dollars into a few hundred—and then a few thousand and so on. While it is easy to focus on where he is now, Buffett’s first job, like so many people’s, wasn’t glamorous but was necessary. While most of us won’t end up anywhere close to the wealth or success of Buffett, his story does paint an important picture of the importance of starting a career early and starting it successfully. Sometimes just getting your foot in the door of an industry you’re interested in can make a huge impact down the line. This is one of the ideas that inspired the new Sport Sales Initiative. The Sport Sales Initiative is a cross-campus collaboration between the College of Education’s sport management program and the College of Business’s Sales Institute. The sport management program is the #1 ranked program in the country, and graduates from the program go on to hold practically every title imaginable in the sport industry. However, many of our graduates start their career in a sales position. “The world of professional sports is fun and exciting, but at its core, it is a large-scale business that requires a singular focus on business principles to achieve success,” says Brian Ford Jr., Florida State alumnus and chief operating officer of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. “Like most other businesses out there, we view our sales force as the lifeblood of our organization and that is why it is essential that students gain a thorough understanding of sales principles. Whether it involves selling corporate sponsorships, or season pass memberships, the skillsets are invaluable to our business.” “The FSU Sport Sales Institute (SSI) is a game changer for students who are interested in, or dare I say, have a passion for sport sales,” says Jason Pappas, teaching faculty in the Department of Sport Management. “The fusion of these two industries through the SSI presents a fantastic opportunity for students looking for a career in professional, collegiate and amateur sport sales.” 18 | THE TORCH - COLLEGE OF EDUCATION MAGAZINE
Some students will explore other parts of the sport industry, while others will work their way up the sales department. Regardless, our graduates will probably encounter sales at some point during their careers, so the Sport Sales Initiative is designed to give them more experience before they enter the workforce. It has always been the goal of the sport management program to provide students with the best education possible, and the Sport Sales Initiative will help students flourish in a professional environment. The Sport Sales Initiative also comes at a time when the College of Education is seeking opportunities to create meaningful collaborations at Florida State. As one of the largest colleges on campus, the College of Education has long been an important part of the University’s landscape. Dean Damon Andrew wants to expand the College’s presence even further, and one way to do it is to collaborate with the College of Business. “One of the core objectives in our strategic plan is to come up with new ways to grow the College of Education through establishing new connections and building community engagement,” Andrew says. “The Sport Sales Initiative embodies so much of what we’re hoping the future of the College looks like: collaborative, innovative and transformational.” GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS The sport management program offers an unrivaled look at the sports industry. The program prides itself on offering students
Sport management students get hands-on experience working in various settings
both a theoretical and a practical understanding of how sports
“I highly recommend that students in the sport management
teams operate on virtually every level of play. It has also con-
program gain exposure and experience to the sales environment
nected students with working professionals to provide network-
in order to prepare them for the highly competitive world of pro-
ing and mentorship. Students in the sport management pro-
fessional sports,” says Ford. “I always like to say that we can be
gram routinely post incredible internship hours every semester,
affected by wins and losses, but we can never be dependent on
gaining invaluable experience and training to prepare them for
them for the success of our business. Success on the business
their careers.
side of our organization is typically tied directly to the effective-
While the program teaches business skills and management, students also receive a rounded education in sport issues. This knowledge will serve them well throughout their careers, but the Sport Sales Initiative provides them with additional knowledge and experience in sales. “At the SSI, students will acquire the knowledge and gain the necessary marketable skills to prepare them for a successful career in sport sales,” says Pappas. “It offers a well-rounded curriculum designed to teach practical skills while studying and
ness of our sales force.” BEST OF BOTH WORLDS Cross-campus collaborations have the potential to create game-changing opportunities for FSU students. With the combined pedigrees of the sport management program and College of Business’s Sales Institute, Florida State students are the biggest winners. “We’re excited to see what kind of impact the Sport Sales Initia-
exploring key guiding principles of sales in the sport industry.”
tive is going to have on our students,” says Andrew. “Graduates
The College of Business at Florida State has long been regarded
careers, and I believe that the Sport Sales Initiative is going to
as one of the best in the Southeast. One feature of the College of
take their success to new heights.”
from our program already go on to achieve such impressive
Business that has helped it stand out from the rest is the Sales Institute. This innovative sales program consistently produces
The Sport Sales Initiative is currently planned as an experiment
some of the best sales performers and has become an attractive
that will last the next three years. During that time, however,
recruiting source for major corporations. It is this pedigree of ex-
students will learn plenty–as will instructors–particularly on how
cellence and success that will help fuel the Sport Sales Initiative.
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Student Spotlight: Vanessa McFarlane By Kevin Derryberry
After a career as a Division III athlete and Junior Olympic coach, sport management master’s student Vanessa McFarlane came to a realization while on a networking trip with fellow sport management students last spring. They were meeting with Joe Castiglione, the athletic director at the University of Oklahoma, when he encouraged each of them to find their passion. McFarlane left the experience with direction: “I thought I wanted to work on issues of sustainability in sport because there is so much opportunity to reduce waste, but at this point I don’t know that it has to be in sport; my priority is making a difference.”
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F
lorida State University made headlines this year for becoming the largest university in the country to require an experiential learning component for all undergraduate students. FSU recognizes the value that internships, study abroad programs and networking opportunities provide for students. Experiential learning is so valued within the sport management program that even at the master’s level, McFarlane and other students have been able to take advantage of multiple experiential learning opportunities, including the trip to the Women’s World Series that reinforced her goals for her career. Originally from Tucson, Arizona, McFarlane earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in exercise science from Massachusetts’s Smith College. At Smith, she was a three-time Academic All-American diver who spent the majority of her college experience training and traveling to compete. Post-graduation, she lived in Boston and found work coaching younger athletes and even led a Junior Olympic team to summer nationals in 2018, but she felt something was missing. The experiences of a Division III athlete and an Olympic Coach reinforced the values of hard work and competition, but led her to question if she could have a greater impact on the world. She enjoyed working with young athletes, but was surprised to learn that coaching was not her passion. So, in the fall of 2018, she accepted a Lifetime Activities Program assistantship at Florida State University, a full academic scholarship to fund a master’s in sport management in exchange for teaching physical education courses.
“In sport management, we learn about how sport shapes our culture and how socially responsible approaches to sport can help move culture forward.” The sport management classroom explores the cultural significance of sport, while experiential learning opportunities provide real-world instruction in the day-to-day interaction of sports organizations. In the spring of 2019, McFarlane seized an opportunity to network with sport management professionals that set her on her current path. For the past three years, sport management students have had the opportunity to work the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City, and McFarlane was happy to join a group of five students on a five-day tour through Oklahoma, meeting with sport professionals at Oklahoma State University, the University of Oklahoma, the Oklahoma City Thunder basketball team, the Oklahoma City Dodgers Triple-A baseball team, and staff with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). McFarlane describes the opportunity to attend this trip as a great chance to “meet with top business professionals and connect with people who share the same interests. Working at sporting events provides us the opportunity to network and connect with professionals that share the same interests. For many of us, we hope the networking trips lead to an internship or a full-time job.” At each stop, the students had the chance to tour athletic facilities and ask questions of sports organization leaders about how they made it to their current positions. For McFarlane, the experience demystified these organizations as she learned that “they were all just normal people” who had worked hard to achieve something that was important to them. “I had already been thinking about sustainability in sport and how can we make sporting events more responsible when Oklahoma’s Athletic Director said not to follow a job, but to follow what we want to do.” As a result, McFarlane returned to Tallahassee, certain that her career path should be one focused on sustainability. McFarlane has had the chance to work the Women’s World Series and participate in the London and Valencia study abroad programs this past summer, which sent her to Wimbledon and allowed her to network with some of the most elite sport affiliates in the world. Through these experiences, she has had opportunities to ask major sports teams across the world about their environmental sustainability practices. “I was lucky. Because I had the Lifetime Activities Program scholarship, I did not have to pay out-of-state tuition, so I could afford to do these things. A lot of other students would like to go on these trips but can’t afford them.” McFarlane returned from the trip with a plan to help support the sport management program. This fall, McFarlane will participate in another experiential learning opportunity as the alumni development intern for the College of Education. She will work with sport management alumni and students to find new ways for them to interact and generate more opportunities like the ones that she has had. continued on next page
Sport management students traveled to Oklahoma City to meet with professionals at a variety of organizations.
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THE PLAY-BY-PLAY: SPORT MANAGEMENT STUDENT TRIP TO OKLAHOMA DAY 3 Students started their day at the High Performance Training Center for U.S. Rowing. Students were given a tour of the boathouses and offices that sat next to the river. Students had the exciting opportunity to meet with one of U.S. Rowing’s high performance coaches. Coach Reilly Dampeer gave a quick lesson on rowing and her recruitment process to get athletes ready for the Olympic team. Students were able to see some of the athletes training in the river and inside the training center. The most exciting part of the day was a free excursion on the man-made whitewater raft, an attraction that brings in a lot of business to the training center. Students spent their afternoon back at the Women’s World Series, continuing their volunteering with fan experience. Later that evening, while a few students stayed to watch the World Series, some students went to watch the OKC Energy FC Minor League Soccegame and met with some of the team’s personnel.
MacFarlane and fellow students at the Women’s World Series DAY 1 Students met with front office personnel at the Oklahoma City Thunder. Students had the opportunity to tour the entire arena and have a Q&A session with Thunder professionals, such as guest relations and corporate sponsorship management. Students experienced the daily operations that occur in a mainstream venue. After meeting with the OKC Thunder, students departed to Stillwater, Oklahoma to meet with the athletic department at Oklahoma State University. While there, students were given a tour of OSU’s athletic facilities and met with trainers and assistant directors of operations. Students got a behind-the-scene look at the football and basketball locker rooms. DAY 2 Students spent the first half of their day meeting with the senior vice president of the triple-a minor league baseball team, the Oklahoma City Dodgers. Students toured the ballpark and received exclusive access to premier suites, where they had a Q&A session with team executives. Additionally, students enjoyed the first couple of innings of the collegiate regionals hosted at the ballpark. Students spent the second half of their day volunteering at the Women’s College World Series. They spent their afternoon guiding fans during the fan experience portion of the event. Additionally, students met with the assistant director of Championships and Alliances before their shifts began.
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DAY 4 This was the students last day of volunteering at the Women’s World Series. Students spent the entire day with fan experience, helping fans enjoy and maximize their time at the softball event. It was a hot and busy day, but these Noles knew exactly how to work long and hard to assure that every fan had the best memories to take with them! Later in the evening, students participated in a race after the third inning of the last game. Students had their “fifteen minutes of fame” moment on the field’s Jumbotron. It was quite the experience for these students to showcase their athletic abilities in front of a large audience. Overall, it was the most successful day. DAY 5 On their final day, students toured the University of Oklahoma’s athletic facilities, the athletic academic department, and one of the student athlete’s dormitory halls. Students met with athletic academic advisors, operations personnel, and most importantly, Oklahoma’s athletic director. Students were given a comprehensive tour of the athletic academic department, learning a lot about how student-athletes succeed in the classroom. Students also learned about scholarships and budgeting in the athletic academic department. At the end of their tour, students met with Joe Castiglione, who has been Oklahoma’s athletic director for 21 years. Students had a Q&A session with Castiglione and learned about the hard-working path of an athletic director. It was by far one of the best sport experiences they students have ever had!
Travel scholarships for sport management students start at just $500 and can provide FSU students the chance to network, learn, and in McFarlane’s case, find their path to a new career. Support sport management students today with a gift to the Sport Management General Fund! n
Welcome Our New Faculty and Staff FACULTY
Timothy Baghurst Interdisciplinary Center for Athletic Coaching (FSU-COACH)
Jennifer Hamilton School of Teacher Education
Meredith Higgins Office of Academic Services and Intern Support (OASIS)
Erik Hines Educational Psychology and Learning Systems
Laura Reid Marks Educational Psychology and Learning Systems
Robert Schoen School of Teacher Education
Susan Yarbrough School of Teacher Education
Eunhui Yoon Educational Psychology and Learning Systems
Henock Daniel Office of Information and Instructional Technologies
Mia Hines Office of Academic Services and Intern Support (OASIS)
STAFF
Katrina Bond Sport Management
Rachel Jeter Dean’s Office
Russell Brasel Office of Information and Instructional Technologies
Lacey Moret Dean’s Office
Kristina Roumelis Office of Research
Rachel Thursby Dean’s Office
Taneshia Toussaint Educational Psychology and Learning Systems
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Faculty Achievements tional Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. The article is titled “Physiological Demands of Extreme Obstacle Course Racing: A Case Study,” and looks at a race participant’s cognitive demands over the course of the event.
Betsy Becker, the Mode L. Stone Distinguished Professor of Educational Statistics, contributed a chapter to the latest edition of the Handbook of Research Synthesis and Meta-Analysis. The book is considered one of the most prevalent texts used in teaching meta-analysis. Becker also co-authored a paper at the request of the World Health Organization. The paper is titled “Complex health interventions in complex systems: concepts and methods for evidence-informed health decisions” and appeared in BMJ Global Health.
Damon Andrew
Dean Damon Andrew was named a National Association of Kinesiology in Higher Education (NAKHE) Fellow. NAKHE is a leading professional organization for administrators, faculty, and students in the field of kinesiology. He also received the Distinguished Service Award from the American Association of University Administrators (AAUA). The award is presented to a current or former member of the AAUA who is recognized as having made significant contributions to the advancement of the association and has earned distinction as a highly successful professional in higher education leadership.
Cameron Beatty
Cameron Beatty, assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, received a research grant from the Association of College and University Housing Officers – International (ACUHO-I). The ACUHO-I is the largest student affairs organization for housing and residence life professionals. He also contributed to and co-edited a new volume, titled Critical Considerations of Race, Ethnicity, and Culture in Fraternity & Sorority Life, that is part of the New Directions for Student Services series. He co-authored three chapters in the volume.
Martin Swanbrow Becker, assistant professor of in the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems, was the keynote speaker for “Society, Seniors & Suicide,” a special event in Tallahassee. Tamara Bertrand Jones, associate professor of higher education, received the Outstanding Contribution to Student Affairs Through Teaching Award from NASPA Region III. She also won the 2018 NASPA Florida Research Award. NASPA is one of the leading organizations for student affairs administrators in higher education. She and higher education doctoral student, Sophia Rahming, were both featured in an article that appeared in Diverse Issues in Higher Education. The article, titled “Sisters of the Academy: A
Tim Baghurst
Tim Baghurst, professor of education, published an article in the journal Interna-
Martin Swanbrow Becker
Betsy Becker
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also published an article in Early Education and Development’s January 2019 issue, titled “Prekindergarten interactive book reading quality and children’s language and literacy development: Classroom organization as a moderator,” as well as an article that appeared in the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s Special Interest Group, titled “Fostering preschoolers’ emergent literacy skills: Recommendations for enhanced literacy experiences and collaborative instruction.” Tamara Bertrand Jones
Angie Davis
‘Hidden Gem’ For Black Women in Higher Education,” spotlights the organization that Bertrand Jones helped start nearly 20 years ago.
Bradley Cox
Brad Cox, associate professor of higher education, was a guest speaker at Fairleigh Sonia Cabell
Dickinson University and presented at the Supporting College Students with Autism
Sonia Cabell, assistant professor in the School of Teacher Education and faculty member at the Florida Center of Reading Research, presented at the TEDxFSU event that took place in spring 2019. She also presented a paper at the annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, which took place in Toronto, Canada. The paper dealt with the growth of children’s language and decoding skills and how these skills might help predict later writing achievement.
professional networking event. He was also
(ISLT), co-edited a book titled Social Presence and Identity in Online Learning. Originally, the book was a special issue that appeared in the journal Distance Education. She also edited a special issue of Technology, Instruction, Cognition & Learning (TICL). The issue looks at digital pedagogies as well as theories of learning and instruction. Dennen also contributed an article to the issue with current ISLT doctoral candidates Michelle Cates and Lauren Bagdy, titled “Building Pre-service Teacher Knowledge Communities through Social Bookmarking: A Design Case.” Dennen also contributed to an article that appeared on Insider Higher Ed. The article, titled “Discussion Boards: Valuable? Overused? Discuss.” explores how effective discussion boards are for students enrolled in online courses.
quoted in an article in Inside Higher Ed, titled “Success for Students with Autism,” where he gave his thoughts on the cost of autism programs and the demand of such programs around the nation. Angie Davis, teaching faculty in elementary education, received the FSU Undergraduate Teaching Award for 2019. Davis had previously won this award in 2008 and 2013. The Undergraduate Teaching Award is a part of the University Teach-
She also had an article accepted in AERA Open. The article, titled “Impact of a Parent Text Messaging Program on Pre-Kindergarteners’ Literacy Development,” explores ways to increase a child’s learning and increase parental engagement. She
ing Award program at FSU. The program seeks to honor faculty members who go above and beyond in the area of teaching.
Vanessa Dennen
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David Eccles
Nicole Gabana
David Eccles, associate professor of sport psychology, was invited to serve as the associate editor of the Psychology and Social Sciences section of Research Quarterly in Exercise and Sport.
Gabana published an article that appears in MDPI. The article is titled “A Qualitative Investigation of Music Use among Amateur and Semi-Professional Golfers” and explores the effect of music during the game of golf.
Kathy Guthrie
leader is indisputable. She was also named an affiliated researcher with the Center for Arts, Business, and Culture at the Stockholm School of Economics. The Center focuses on “aesthetic and cultural analyses of economic activities, for example how experiences, emotions, stories, and symbols are used to create economic value, or on economic analysis of aesthetic activities, for example how creative and cultural entrepreneurs build economic value from their artistic practices.”
Veronica Fleury Michael Giardina
Veronica Fleury, assistant professor of special education, was honored at the International Meeting for Autism. During her postdoctoral fellowship, Fleury contributed to a number of publications, and one of them was named the most cited article in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disabilities.
Michael Giardina, professor of sport management, published a new book. The book, titled Qualitative Inquiry at a Crossroads: Political, Performative, and Methodological Reflections, asked leading contributors to the topic of civic discourse to offer perspectives on the field.
Nicole Gabana, assistant professor of sport psychology, received the 2018 Journal of Sport Psychology in Action (JSPA) Reviewer of the Year Award. She also received the 2018 Early Career Professional Award for Science and Practice in Public Health Endeavors from the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP).
Kathy Guthrie, associate professor of higher education, was named the 2019 recipient of the American College Personnel Association (ACPA) Contribution to Knowledge Award. The award is given to an individual whose body of work “significantly impacts and advances the field” and whose reputation as a thought
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Phil Hiver
Phil Hiver, assistant professor of foreign and second language education, published a book with Ali Al-Hoorie from the English Language Center at Jubail Industrial College in Saudi Arabia. The book is titled Research Methods for Complexity Theory in Applied Linguistics and is published through Multilingual Matters. Hiver also published an article in the journal Studies in Second Language Acquisition.
The article explores second language learners’ capacity to overcome difficulties during the course of ordinary second language learning. He also co-authored a study titled “Genre-based L2 writing instruction and writing-specific psychological factors: The dynamics of change,” which appeared in the Journal of Second Language Writing.
Science Foundation career grant entitled Cultivating Teachers’ Epistemic Empathy to Promote Responsive Teaching.
is to teach high school students about appropriate ways to stand up for and support victims of bullying and sexual harassment. She was also a guest speaker at the 2018-2019 Colloquium Series at the University at Buffalo North Campus. Jenkins’ talk was titled “Understanding Bystander Behavior in Bullying and Peer Victimization: A Case for Encouraging Multiple Forms of Bystander Actions.” She also published an article in the Journal of School Psychology titled “Social emotional learning (SEL) practices in schools: Effects on perceptions of bullying victimization,” which examines the experiences of nearly 3000 public school students with social emotional learning.
Elizabeth Jakubowski
Patrice Iatarola
Patrice Iatarola, associate professor of education policy and evaluation, became a board member for the Association for Education Finance and Policy. Iatarola will serve as president. The organization leads the conversation on current important education finance issues, including teacher salary, taxation and cost of education.
Elizabeth Jakubowski, associate professor of mathematics education, was honored by Tallahassee Community College as one of its Visionary Women at its annual celebration during Women’s History Month. This year’s theme was “Visionary Women: Champions of Peace and Nonviolence.”
Jim Klein
James Klein, Walter Dick Distinguished Professor of Instructional Systems, and Wei Kelly (ISLT alumna) received the 2018 Outstanding Research Award from the Division of Organizational Training and Performance, Association for Educational Communications and Technology. This award is in recognition of their work, Competencies for Instructional Designers: A View from Employers, published in Performance Improvement Quarterly.
Lyndsay Jenkins
Lama Jaber
Lama Jaber, assistant professor of science education, received a National
Lyndsay Jenkins, assistant professor of school psychology, was named a co-investigator on a new project funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). The project develops and tests bystander intervention training in an effort to help reduce incidents of bullying and sexual harassment in high schools. The goal
Deb Osborn, associate professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems, received a Presidential Recognition Award from the National Career Development Association (NCDA). The award recognizes “exceptional contributions which advance the growth, reputation, and impact of NCDA.” She also provided a two-day workshop on
THE TORCH - COLLEGE OF EDUCATION MAGAZINE | 27
tion, published an article in the journal Reading & Writing. The article is titled
students who have been unsuccessful in developmental mathematics.
“Feedback-Seeking Behavior in Secondary Language Writing: Motivational Mechanisms” and looks at a new study using data collected from 128 foreign language writers. Current Florida State foreign and second language education doctoral students Anna Bondarenko, Chen Jiang, and Shiyao Zhou as well as alumna Brenda Wawire (foreign and second language education Ph.D. ’17) contributed to the creation of the article. Deb Osborn
Cognitive Information Processing theory for the Career Guidance and Counseling specialization summer studies. The studies were designed for career development professionals and took place at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland. Osborn also published two articles in collaboration with a recent alumnus and a current doctoral student. The first publication, co-authored with Pei-Chun Hou (counseling psychology/school psychology Ph.D. ’18), is titled “Predicting the Vocational Identity of International and Domestic College Students.” The second publication is co-authored with Adam Miller (counseling psychology/school psychology Ph.D.) and is titled “The impact of a college career course on students’ career decision state.” Both articles appear in Career Development Quarterly.
He also published two papers on the topics of language learners’ motivation and feedback-seeking behavior: “Rethinking L2 Motivation Research: The 2 x 2 Model of L2 Self-Guides” which appears in Studies in Second Language Acquisition, and “Feedback Seeking Behavior in Language Learning: Basic Components and Motivational Antecedents” which appears in the Modern Language Journal.
Toby Park-Gaghan
Toby Park-Gaghan, associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, won the Transformation Through Teaching (T3) award. The award honors full-time faculty who have an intellectual, inspirational and integrative impact in student’s lives. He also presented at the National Academy of Sciences. The talk was titled Mostafa Papi
“Increasing Student Success in Developmental Mathematics” and explored how
Mostafa Papi, assistant professor of foreign and second language educa-
Lara Perez Felkner
to support students in post-secondary level mathematics courses, particularly
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Lara Perez-Felkner, associate professor of higher education, received the Graduate Faculty Mentor award. The prestigious award, given by Florida State University’s Graduate School, honors faculty members who have shown a commitment to excellence in graduate education and have made a significant difference to the quality of life of graduate students. She also won a Council on Research and Creativity Planning Grant, which helps support faculty members interested in existing research projects or creative activity. She serves on a project funded by a grant from ECMC to evaluate the Southern Scholarship Foundation housing program. As one of the co-investigators, she currently explores the effect the program has on student outcomes as well as quantify the program’s impact. She also published a number of articles, including “Affirmative action challenges keep on keeping on: responding to shifting federal and state policy” in Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education and “Sociological Perspectives on Socialization” in Oxford Bibliographies in Sociology. She was featured in an article on Diverse Issues in Higher Education. The article, titled “New Volume Adds Nuance to Research on Undergraduate Women in STEM,” and explores the topics of a volume Perez-Felkner co-edited and contributed to. The volume is found in New Directions for Institutional
Research and is titled “Advancing Higher Education Research on Undergraduate Women in STEM.” She also presented a paper, titled “The Puzzling Relationship between Development and Gender Equity: The Case of Postsecondary Education in STEM and STEM-Related Fields,” at the American Sociological Association 2019 conference, which took place in New York. Finally, she served as the lead editor in a forthcoming volume that collects original higher education research. Perez-Felkner worked on editing the volume with former FSU faculty member Joy Gaston Gayles. Additionally, Perez-Felkner wrote a chapter in the book and contributed to another. Several current and former FSU students also contributed to the volume, titled Advancing higher education research on undergraduate women in STEM.
was also mentioned in the British Psychological Society newsletter. In a conversation with Paul Curran, the psychologist mentioned that Pfeiffer’s “tripartate model” that looks at IQ, success, and ability is a good model to use.
Robert Reiser
Jenny Root
Robert Reiser, Robert M. Morgan Professor of Instructional Systems and associate dean for research, received a Distinguished Service award from the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) 2018 Conference. AECT is one of the most important organizations related to the field of instructional systems and has a presence around the world in the instructional design community.
Steven Pfeiffer
Steven Pfeiffer, professor emeritus in the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems, was a keynote speaker at the International Gifted Congress. The event took place in Milan, Italy. He was elected also as president of the American Academy of School Psychology (AASP). AASP is a key organization in the development and maintenance of the practice of school psychology. He was invited to serve as guest editor for a special issue of the journal Psychology in the Schools. The special issue focuses on the theme of serving gifted students. Pfeiffer
Florida State’s women volleyball coach, was elected in the most recent meeting of the national governing body’s board meeting. As chair, Reynaud will help guide the USAV and promote people of all ages to participate in and support volleyball.
Cecile Reynaud
Cecile Reynaud, retired faculty member in the Department of Sport Management, became the new USA Volleyball (USAV) Board Chair. Reynaud, who previously served as
Jenny Root, assistant professor of special education, received the Tom E. C. Smith Early Career Award from the Division on Autism and Developmental Disabilities. Root received the award at the 20th International Conference on Intellectual Disability, which took place in January. She also was awarded an Organization for Autism Research (OAR) applied research grant to develop and test a technology-based mathematical and social problem-solving intervention for secondary students with autism spectrum disorder. She published an article, “Effects of explicit instruction on acquisition and generalization of mathematical concepts for a student with autism spectrum disorder” in the journal Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders. She also published an article in the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities journal Inclusion, titled “Recommendations for Inclusive Educational Practices in Mathematics for Students with Extensive Support Needs,” and an article in Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities, titled “Teaching Students with Autism and Intellectual Disability to Solve Algebraic Word Problems.” She also co-authored a practitioner article in the Division on
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Autism and Developmental Disabilities (DADD) Express. She also conducted two days of professional development at the event “Everyone has something to ADD,” attended by special education teachers in Maryland. She also gave an invited talk at the 2018 Adult Community Education of Florida conference titled “Building Strategic Learners: Tools for Supporting Adults with Disabilities.”
Valerie Shute, Mack and Effie Campbell Tyner Endowed Professor of Education in the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems, was a keynote speaker at the American Psychological Association conference on Technology, Mind and Society. Shute was also nominated and inducted as a Fellow of the International Society for Design and Development in Education (ISDDE). ISDDE’s mission is to improve the design and development process, create and foster a design community, and make an impact on educational practice.
“The Role of Set for Variability in Irregular Word Reading: Word and Child Predictors in Typically Developing Readers and Students At-Risk for Reading Disabilities” as well as “The Role of Statistical Learning in Word Reading and Spelling Development: More Questions Than Answers.” She also published an article in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology titled “Examining the role of imageability and regularity in word reading accuracy and learning efficiency among first and second graders at risk for reading disabilities.”
She also contributed to an article that appears in Education Week. The article, titled “How Digital Games Take the Stress Out of Formative Tests,” dives into a topic that is at the core of Shute’s research into stealth assessment.
Robert Schwartz
Robert Schwartz, professor of higher education, won a Pillars of the Profession from NASPA. The award recognizes indi-
Miray Tekkumru-Kisa
viduals who serve as leaders, teachers, and scholars in student affairs and higher education. To win the award, honorees must demonstrate distinction in the higher education field, served in leadership roles in NASPA either regionally or nationally, be recognized by colleagues or related parties, and contribute significant-
Laura Steacy
ly to the field of higher education.
Valerie Shute
Laura Steacy, assistant professor of special education and research faculty at the Florida Center for Reading Research, received the Early Career Outstanding Paper Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading. The award recognizes a scholar who received their doctorate within the last seven years and published an outstanding paper in the journal Scientific Studies of Reading. The article in question is titled “Development and Prediction of Context-Dependent Vowel Pronunciation in Elementary Readers.” She also published an article in the Scientific Studies of Reading titled
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Miray Tekkumru-Kisa, assistant professor of science education, published an article in the journal Research in Science Education. The article is titled “Change in Thinking Demands for Students Across the Phases of a Science Task: An Exploratory Study.” The study looks at the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and the demand it places on students. She also published in Technology, Pedagogy and Education. The article is titled “Integrating a space for teacher interaction into an educative curriculum: design principles and teachers’ use of the iPlan tool.” Gershon Tenenbaum, retired Benjamin S. Bloom Professor of Educational Psychology, was featured in an article that appeared in Monitor on Psychology. The article, titled “The Athletic Brain,” explores how an athlete’s brain works during competition and training, in particular eye movement. The article also dives into The
Gershon Tenenbaum
Sport & Exercise Psychology Lab at FSU, which uses state of the art equipment to evaluate athletes.
Shaofeng Li
Nicole Patton Terry
University: Multiple perspectives, multiple approaches.” The article explores the three broadly grouped research undertaken by faculty and students at Florida State, including instruction, individual differences and research methodology.
Stephanie Simmons Zuilkowski
Stephanie Simmons Zuilkowski, associate professor of international and multicultural education, published an article in the journal Teaching and Teacher Education. The article is titled “‘Once they fall pregnant, they don’t come back’: Teacher perspectives on Zambia’s school re-entry policy for adolescent mother.” She also published in the International Journal of Educational Development. The paper is entitled “Zambia’s school re-entry policy for adolescent mothers: Examining impacts beyond re-enrollment.” Shaofeng Li, Phil Hiver and Mostafa Papi published an article in the journal Language Teaching titled “Research initiatives in the foreign and second language education program of Florida State
Stacey Rutledge
Vanessa Dennen, professor of instructional systems and learning technologies, and Stacey Rutledge, associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, published an article in SMSociety with doctoral candidate Lauren Bagdy, titled “Social Media Use in High School Settings: Rules, Outcomes, & Educational Opportunities.” The paper specifically looks at the ways students use social media with their peer groups at school over a two-year period. Nicole Patton Terry, Olive & Manuel Bordas Professor of Education in the
School of Teacher Education, and Stephanie Simmons Zuilkowski, associate professor of international and multicultural education. presented at the Nigeria Center for Reading Research and Development annual conference. Patton Terry gave the keynote address, titled “Addressing Reading Through Research and Partnership.” Simmons Zuilkowski presented the lead paper, titled “Literacy: The Foundation for Learning and Development.” Also at the conference was Adrienne Barnes, research faculty at the Learning Systems Institute and alumna of the College of Education (elementary education B.S. ’04, reading education M.S. ’11, reading education & language arts Ph.D. ’15). Barnes gave a round table discussion about “The Teaching of Early Grade Reading in Nigeria.” Jenny Root and Laura Steacy, assistant professors of special education, received 2019 Early Career Development and Mentoring grants from The Institute of Education Sciences (IES). Veronica Fleury, assistant professor of special education, also received an IES Early Career grant in 2018. The IES only awards two to four of these grants every year, and the fact that the College has three current IES Early Career Development grant recipients highlights the impressive scholarship of our programs and faculty. Graig Chow and Nicole Gabana, assistant professors of sport psychology, gave a presentation at the NCAA Convention entitled “Tackling Stigma: A Pilot Program
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to Promote Mental Health and Help-Seeking in Student Athletes.”
Graig Chow
Alysia Roehrig
Alysia Roehrig, associate professor of educational psychology, and Nicole Patton-Terry, Olive & Manuel Bordas Professor of Education in the School of Teacher Education, published an article in the Tallahassee Democrat in which they explore the efficacy of homework over holiday breaks. The article is titled “Does homework over the holidays help or harm?” Casey Dozier, teaching faculty in the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems, and Deb Osborn, associate professor, successfully published a journal article entitled “Cognitive information processing theory: Applications in research and practice.” This article demonstrates both the practical applicability of the theory as well as the evidence-based research that supports the decision-making model implemented at the FSU Career Center.
Kathy Clark
Kathy Clark, associate professor of mathematics education, and Fengfeng Ke, associate professor of instructional systems and learning technologies, published an article in the Journal of Science and Mathematics Education entitled “Game-Based Multimodal Representations and Mathematical Problem Solving.”
Fengfeng Ke
Casey Dozier
A number of faculty members from the College of Education were nominated for Florida State Undergraduate and Graduate Teaching Awards.
Sport Management Hanhan Xue Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Tamara Bertrand Jones Kathy Guthrie Lara Perez-Felkner Robert Schwartz
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Educational Psychology & Learning Systems James Klein Yanyun Yang Qian Zhang
Teacher Education Kathy Clark Angela Davis Lindsay Dennis Sarah Ivy Ithel Jones MaLynn Kelso Jane Lo Lama Ziad Jaber Laura Steacy
Staff Achievements Tony Daniels, senior administrative specialist in the Department of Sport Management, was honored for five years of service to the College. Kevin Derryberry, assistant dean for development, was honored for five years of service to the College. George Green, co-director for undergraduate studies in OASIS, was honored for five years of service to the College. Tony Daniels
Jennie Kroeger, assistant director of Communications & Recruitment, received a Golden A.C.E. Top “20 Under 40� Young Professional Award from the Tallahassee Network of Young Professionals.
Chrissy Lojan
Chrissy Lojan, senior administrative specialist in the School of Teacher Education, was honored for five years of service to the College. Stephen Mozier, academic program specialist in OASIS, was honored for 20 years of service to the College.
Kevin Derryberry
Bryan Richards, senior administrative specialist in the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems, received the Outstanding Staff Member award.
Stephen Mozier
Bernadine Thompson, academic program specialist in OASIS, was honored for five years of service to the College.
George Green
Jennie Kroeger
Bryan Richards
Bernadine Thompson
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Alumni News ’60s Mike Martin (physical education B.S. ’66) was featured on the cover of Baseball America. The magazine also included a feature article that highlighted Martin’s career and explored his final season with the Seminoles.
The FSU Alumni Association named Melinda “Lindy” Benton (B.S. ’76, M.S. ’78) as one of the six new directors to its National Board of Directors. Benton is the president and CEO of Vyne Corporation, which handles secure healthcare communications. Benton has also been
Mike Martin
Irv Broughton
Donald Thomas Rohel
Gerond Vernot
named one of the “Most Powerful Women Irv Broughton (higher education M.S. ’67) published a new book, his 18th book to date. The book, titled Where the Wings Grow: Conversations with Pioneering Women Pilots, includes interviews with 29 women who all made aviation history one way or another. These women served as Women Airforce Service Pilots, in the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron and more.
in Healthcare IT” by Health Data Manage-
’70s
won the inaugural Arts Advocate Award,
Donald Thomas Rohel (education M.S. ’74) received an honorary lifetime membership from the Association of College Unions International (ACUI). Rohel served as the director of Shepherd University’s Student Center.
State University. Wilson was a principal
Stanley Goldstein (physical education B.S. ’75), longtime coach, teacher and mentor, retired from Lawton Chiles High School. Goldstein worked in education for 44 years. He began his career in Fort Lauderdale after graduating from FSU, then worked for 15 years at Leon High School before taking a job at Chiles High School when it opened in 1999. At Chiles, Goldstein worked as a math teacher and coach. Gerard Vernot (counseling/human systems Ph.D. ’75) published a book, titled Helping Students Eliminate Inappropriate School Behavior: A Group Activities’ Guide for Teachers and Counselors. The book received a review by the National Board of Certified counselors and was also published in their journal, The Professional Counselor.
ment for three years in a row, and also received the FSU College of Education’s Distinguished Alumni Award in Business and Industry in 2016. Iris Wilson (elementary education B.S. ’77, reading education/language arts M.S. ’85, elementary education Ed.S. ’95, educational policy and evaluation Ph.D. ’16) presented by Opening Nights at Florida in Leon County Schools District until she retired in 2018. She received recognition due to her exemplary support of arts education, creating partnerships with art organizations and improving the overall learning experience.
’80s Arthur Hartzog, Sr. (educational leadership Ph.D. ’81) published a book, titled Tree-Dimensional Leadership. The book draws on his studies at Florida State and
Stanley Goldstein
outlines his unique approach to leadership. Mary Jo Pollman (early childhood education Ph.D. ’81) published a book titled The Young Artist as Scientist: What Can Leonardo Teach Us? The book explores the connection between art and science in young children and is inspired by the work of famed Renaissance thinker, inven-
Arthur Hartzog, Sr.
tor, artist and scholar, Leonardo da Vinci. Pollman is professor emerita at Metropolitan State University of Denver.
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Iris Wilson
Kenneth Kiewra (educational psychology Ph.D. ’82) wrote a trade book on talent development. The book, titled Nurturing Children’s Talents, provides steps on how parents can help their children develop talent in a variety of activities. The book looks at the experiences of Olympic athletes, award-winning artists and more.
Bonnie McCarthy
Kenneth Kiewra
Lamar White (educational leadership Ph.D. ‘86) won the District 1 seat on the Okaloosa County School Board in the August 2018 elections. White was the principal of two elementary schools and two middle schools. He was also a football, tennis and cross-country coach and teacher at Choctawhatchee High School, a teacher at Fort Walton Beach High School, assistant principal at Ruckel Middle School and an adjunct professor at the University of West Florida.
’90s
Frank Rodriguez
Jessica Wallace McBride
Lance Edward Tatum
Carla Williams
Kerry McCaig (higher education Ph.D. ’90), who currently serves as the Air Force Academy deputy director of student services, was featured in an article about student success at the Academy. The Academic Success Center provides a way for cadets at the Academy to acquire strategies for academic success, reading strategies and even quantitative reasoning skills. Bonnie McCarthy (elementary education B.S. ’91) received a James Madison Fellowship from the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation of Alexandria, VA. McCarthy, who teaches at Bak Middle School of the Arts in West Palm Beach, Florida, received the fellowship in recognition of her work as a distinguished teacher and can be used towards acquiring a master’s degree. McCarthy was one of only 53 individuals who received this fellowship nationwide. The Atlantic Foundation of Princeton, New Jersey endowed McCarthy’s specific fellowship. Jessica Wallace McBride (elementary education B.S. ’93) presented at TEDxSavannah as part of its 10-year anniversary event. During her talk, Wallace McBride talked about stereotypes, particularly
southern stereotypes, and how the South continues to evolve. Frank Rodriguez (social science education B.S. ’93) was chosen by the Beaufort Board of Education as the new superintendent of the Beaufort School District in South Carolina. He has more than 26 years of experience as a school administrator. He previously served as the regional superintendent of a school district in Palm Beach County, Florida. Lance Edward Tatum (physical education Ph.D. ’93) was promoted to senior vice chancellor for academic affairs at Troy University, located in Troy, Alabama. Tatum has served as interim senior vice chancellor but assumed the role formally after the previous senior vice chancellor retired on January 1 of this year. Charlie Ward (rehabilitation services B.S. ’94) received the Vires Award from FSU. He received the honor for “his sustained embodiment of the principles of integrity, hard work and concern for others.” He was also named one of the top 50 all-time best football players in the state of Florida. The list was created by the Tampa Bay Times and ranks Ward at #2. Brian Ray (higher education Ed.S. ’95, Ph.D. ’98) graduated from the National Defense University’s Joint and Combined Warfighting School (JCWS). The JCWS curriculum is designed to educate national security professionals to plan and execute joint, interagency, intergovernmental and multinational operations. At the graduation ceremony, Brian received the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Writing for his co-authored paper titled “Harnessing Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Systems Across the Seven Joint Functions.”
’00s Tammy Bonaparte (elementary education B.S. ’00) was featured in a news article on WBAL 11. The article highlights the accomplishments of Bonaparte’s school, Brooklyn Park Elementary School, in a recent state-wide test. English language
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arts test scores increased 14.6 points on the PARCC test and math scores increased 8.7 points. Carla Williams (physical education Ph.D. ’00) became the first African American woman to hold the position of athletic director and win an NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship. Williams has been the University of Virginia’s athletic director since 2017. Previously, she served at the University of Georgia for 13 years as a deputy director of athletics and was the first female African American to hold such a position in a Power Five Conference institution. Ken Savage (physical education B.S. ‘01), winner of the 2018 Principal of the Year from the State of Florida, accepted a new position as the principal in residence in the Florida Department of Education’s Division of Public Schools. The principal in residence works as a liaison between the Department of Education and the school districts to encourage productive and positive communication. Darren Brooks (instructional systems and learning technologies M.S. ’02, Ph.D. ’09) received a Distinguished Teaching Award from the FSU College of Business. Brooks works as a faculty member at the College of Business, sharing his more than 20 years of experience in both the private and public sectors with the next generation of students. Brooks also won the 2019 University Graduate Teaching award. University Graduate Teaching awards are chosen by a committee of faculty members and FSU students. Stephen John Stepp, Jr. (elementary education B.S. ’04) finished his master’s degree in school administration, which he received from Western Carolina University. He has worked as a teacher for the last 15 years and currently teaches fourth grade math and science. He is also the director of professional development at Gaston Day School in Gastonia, North Carolina. Nick Wierciak (sport management M.S.
’04) is currently the vice president of ticketing, premium and suite sales for the St. Louis Blues. After the Blues won the Stanley Cup championship this year, Wierciak got to hold the fabled trophy during the following celebration. Sonja Ardoin (higher education M.S. ’06) was named a 2019-2021 ACPA Emerging Scholar. The award recognizes individuals who are early in his or her student affairs career. Ardoin also won the 2019 Socioeconomic and Class Issues in Higher Education KC Outstanding Service to NASPA Award. She also published a new book, titled Straddling Class in the Academy. The book collects stories from “students, administrators, and faculty from working-class backgrounds” and offers their insights into both higher education policy and practice.
Darren Brooks
Nick Wierciak
John Grady (sports administration Ph.D. ’06) received the Betty van der Smissen Leadership Award at the Sport and Recreation Law Association Conference this past year. Jennifer McKee (higher education M.S. ’06) was recently promoted to the position of associate director of outdoor programs and facilities at FSU Campus Recreation. Formerly, McKee was the assistant director for reservation operations and risk management. She joined FSU Campus Recreation as a coordinator of aquatics in 2002.
Sonja Ardoin
Jennifer McKee
John Holden (sports administration M.S. ’07, sport management Ph.D. ’16) won the Journal of Legal Aspects of Sport Best Paper Award at the Sport and Recreation Law Association Conference this past year. James Hunt (higher education M.S. ’08, higher education Ph.D. ’16), current director of Institutional Research for FSU, was quoted in a featured article on Inside Higher Ed discussing a research article Hunt had published in Review of Higher Education. The article was co-authored with David Tandberg, vice president of policy research and strategic initiatives at SHEEO, and Toby Park, associate professor of economics of education and
John Grady and John Holden with Dean Andrew
James Hunt
education policy. Ashley Stafford (elementary education B.S. ’09) won a Golden Apple award for her exceptional work teaching math to her students. As one of the seven award winners, Stafford received a monetary prize as well as a grant from Suncoast Credit Union. She was also featured in a video showcasing her achievements and demonstrating her teaching ability. Ashley Stafford
Dylan Hamilton
Angela Alvarado Coleman
Jason Hendrix
’10s Samantha Bollhalter (social science education B.S. ’10) was named the Teacher of the Year for Shoal River Middle School. The middle school is located in Okaloosa County, Florida. Bollhalter has been with the school for three years. Angela Alvarado Coleman (higher education Ed.D. ’11) won the Outstanding HBCU/Minority-Serving Institution Professional in Region III award from NASPA. NASPA is one of the leading organizations for student affairs administrators in higher education. The organization recognized Coleman and other winners during a special awards luncheon in Washington, D.C. Rugby Pennsylvania named Dylan Hamilton (sport management B.S. ’11, M.S. ’14) executive director. Hamilton was a standout member of the Florida State rugby team during his time here.
Joi Walker
Paul Aloise, Jr.
Jose Da Silva
Derrick Mitchell
Jason Hendrix (sport management M.S. ’11) was named a Notable Nole by the FSU Alumni Association. A part of the Young Alumni Awards, the list aims to highlight the outstanding accomplishments of FSU’s alumni aged 35 or younger who have made contributions to a profession, the community or FSU. Joi Walker (science education Ph.D. ’11) received the 2019 Dean’s Early Career Award from East Carolina University. Walker currently serves as an assistant professor of chemistry. The award recognizes “exceptional performance by tenure-track assistant professors.” In particular, the award council looks for faculty members who produce research and creative discovery.
Marielhi Rosado Honingford (visual disabilities B.S. ’12, M.S. ’14), a teacher at Princeton Elementary School in Orlando, Florida, was named Teacher of the Year. Honingford is a visual disabilities teacher at the school. Jose Da Silva (higher education M.S. ’12) was selected as vice president of Kankakee Community College, which is located in Kankakee, Illinois. The community college was established in 1966 and serves the surrounding areas of Kankakee, Iroquois, Ford, Grundy, Livingston and Will counties. Brian Montalvo (career counseling M.S./ Ed.S. ’13) was recently named senior director of Florida Atlantic University’s Career Center. In addition, he was voted onto a leadership role with the National Career Development Association and served on the board of directors as a trustee for higher education career counselors and specialist. Paul Aloise, Jr. (sport management B.S. ’14) won a Golden A.C.E. Top “20 Under 40” Young Professional Award from the Tallahassee Network of Young Professionals. A Golden A.C.E. recipient is an emerging young leader in their respective industry and also represents the award’s namesake – to highlight those in the community who believe in Authentic Community Engagement, or A.C.E. Aloise is currently the assistant state attorney for Florida’s Second Judicial Circuit. Charles Thomas Rados II (instructional systems and learning technologies M.S. ’14) was recognized by his U.S. Air Force for completing 10,000 hours of formal classroom instruction. Previously, Rados received the Classroom Instructor Certification, Level 3 when he passed the 3,000hour mark. While the Air Force does not formerly recognize any additional hours beyond that, Rados still received recognition for his impressive accomplishment. Xinya Liang (measurement & statistics Ph.D ‘14) was named to the FSU Alumni Association’s “Thirty Under 30” list, which
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recognizes leaders across multiple industries and fields. Liang is currently the assistant professor of Educational Statistics & Research Methods at University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Shawn Kent (special education Ph.D. ’15) received the 2019 Council for Exceptional Children Division for Research Early Career Publication Award. The prestigious award is given annually to an individual who has recently (within five years) received their doctoral degree and has published outstanding research. The specific publication acknowledged in the award is his paper found in the Review of Educational Research titled “The relationship between component skills and writing quality and production across developmental levels: A meta-analysis of the last 25 years.” Derrick Mitchell (sport management B.S. ’15, M.S. ’19) joined Washington State Athletics as a member of their student services staff. Mitchell was a defensive tackle for FSU football during his time here; ESPN rated him the number 18 defensive tackle. Adam Hanley’s (counseling & school psychology Ph.D. ’16) research was featured in a volume of Physiology & Behavior. Hanley, who works at the University of Utah College of Social Work as a research assistant professor, examined the nature of conditioned behaviors. As part of his research, he and his team are looking at whether or not conditioned behaviors sustain unhealthy habits, such as smoking after a meal. Jace Pardon (sport management M.S. ’16) won gold at the 2019 Pan American Games in beach volleyball. The event took place in Lima, Peru. During pool place, Pardon and her partner Karissa Cook went undefeated. Pardon played for Florida State Volleyball during her time here and holds the university record for most wins at 155. Spencer Scruggs (higher education M.S. ’16) was named the incoming chair of the
Coalition for (Dis)Ability with ACPA-College Student Educators International. Scruggs has been a member of the ACPA for more than 4 years and has served in a number of roles, including ambassador, coordinator for scholarships and vice chair for professional development. Scruggs is currently a disability specialist at Florida State University. Christian Williams (higher education M.S. ’16) was named the winner of the Outstanding New Professional Award from the NASPA Gender and Sexuality Knowledge Community. Williams works at the University of Delaware as the coordinator of extended orientation & transition programs, new student orientation. To receive this award, winners must have been in the profession for less than three years and actively working in the gender and sexuality knowledge community. Camilo Sáenz-Moncaleano (sport psychology Ph.D. ’16), Itay Basevitch (sport psychology M.S. ’09, Ph.D. ’13) and Gershon Tenenbaum, professor of Educational Psychology, received an award from the Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology (JSEP). The group received the 2019 Excellence in Research Award for their article, “Gaze Behaviors During Serve Returns in Tennis: A Comparison Between Intermediate- and High-Skill Players.” The article appeared in Volume 40, Issue 2 of JSEP. Austin Britt (FSU-Teach environmental science B.S. ‘17) was named Rookie Teacher of the Year for 2018 at Howard Middle School. He also sponsored the Academic Team this year.
Adam Hanley
Jace Pardon
Spencer Scruggs
Christian Williams
Camilo Sáenz-Moncaleano
Sarah Gates (sport management M.S. ’17) was named a Notable Nole by the FSU Alumni Association. A part of the Young Alumni Awards, the list aims to highlight the outstanding accomplishments of FSU’s alumni aged 35 or younger who have made contributions to a profession, the community or FSU. KelVon Greer (sport management M.S. ’17) was named to the International Association of Venue Manager (IAVM) Foun-
Itay Basevitch
dation’s 30 Under 30 Class of 2018. Over the last four years, the IAVM has created a list honoring the best and brightest individuals working in the industry. Applicants are chosen by a group of judges, members from the IAVM Board of Trustees, and CVPs. Greer received free registration to the VenueConnect conference and a travel stipend. Brittany Sinitch (English education B.S. ‘17) was named to the to the FSU Alumni Association’s “Thirty Under 30” list, which recognizes leaders across multiple industries and fields. Sinitch is a teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
Daniel DeShazo
Jason Guilbeau
Monique Ositelu
The Lee County School Board named Daniel DeShazo (social science education B.S. ’18) the 2019 New Teacher of the Year. DeShazo currently serves as the junior leadership program teacher at Caloosa Middle School. On top of being a recent graduate of FSU, DeShazo is also a veteran and served in the Marines for five years before deciding to become a teacher. Jason Guilbeau (higher education Ph.D. ’18) was named the executive director of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE). ASHE has over 2,000 members and promotes higher education as a field of study. It also publishes a highly respected journal, The Review of Higher Education. As executive director, Guilbeau will operate out of the ASHE office in the College of Education of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Kim Reid
He also served as an editor and contributed a chapter in a new book, The State Higher Education Executive Officer and the Public Good. Dean and Chief Executive Officer of FSU-Panama City Randall Hanna also served as an editor and chapter contributor.
Weinan Zhao
Marshall Anthony, Jr.
Jeongmin Lee (measurement & statistics M.S. ’18, international & multicultural education Ph.D. ’18) partnered with College of Education professors Stephanie Zuilkowski and Yanyun Yang to publish a
new article in the British Journal of Educational Psychology, titled “A multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis of teacher perceptions of social and emotional learning in rural Malawi.” Monique Ositelu (higher education Ph.D. ’18) was selected by the American Association of Blacks in Higher Education to be a 2019 Dissertation of the Year award recipient. Ositelu’s dissertation was about NCAA D1 academic reform and was described by the selection committee as “field shifting.” She also published an op-ed featured in Diverse Issues in Higher Education focused on what she believes to be discriminatory practices from the NCAA, particularly in its usage of academic progress rate (APR) scores. Ben Pereira (sport management M.S. ‘18) helped launch the Minor League Baseball Pride program, the largest LGBTQ+ Pride celebration in professional sports. He also published a blog post for the North American Society for Sport management (NASSM). The post, titled “Preparing Consciously and Socially Aware Students: The Benefits of a Diversity in Sport Club,” explores the lack of diversity in the sport industry and how increasing the diversity of key players can help solve some of the critical issues facing the industry, such as sexism, racism, and homophobia. Kim Reid (international and multicultural education Ph.D. ’18) won the Best Dissertation award from the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) Study Abroad and International Students Special Interest Group at the CIES annual conference in San Francisco. The annual dissertation award recognizes outstanding Ph.D. or Ed.D. dissertation work and focuses in particular on originality, the rigor of research and subject matter. Weinan Zhao (instructional systems and learning technologies Ph.D. ’18) published an article in volume 141 of Computers & Education. The article is titled “Can playing a video game foster computational thinking skills?” and was written with Valerie Shute, Mack and Effie Campbell
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Tyner Endowed Professor of Education in the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems.
bers to exchange ideas about teaching and learning, as well as helping teachers achieve success at all levels.
Marshall Anthony, Jr. (higher education Ph.D. ’19) accepted a researcher analyst for higher education position at the Education Trust in Washington, D.C. The Education Trust is a nonprofit organization that aims to close opportunity gaps affecting students of color and students from low-income households.
Three College of Education alumnae were named to the Tallahassee Women You Need to Know list, an annual list that names 25 women who make a difference in the Tallahassee community:
Shelby Larson (sport management M.S. ’19) became the director of operations of the University of Kansas soccer program. As part of her responsibilities, she will coordinate videos, team travel and meals, as well as plan soccer camps and clinics. Larson previously served as a graduate assistant for Florida State’s women’s soccer team. Beth Nahlik (higher education M.S. ’19) received a promotion and became the assistant dean of student success & director of Title III at Illinois College. Nahlik has worked at the college since January 2015, formerly as a director at the Center for Academic Excellence. Sophia Rahming (higher education Ph.D. ’19) accepted a position at Florida State University as an associate director in the Center for the Advancement of Teaching. The Center encourages faculty mem-
Cindy Bigbie (instructional systems & learning technologies M.S. ’91, Ph.D. ’94)
Shelby Larson
Beth Nahlik
Sophia Rahming
Taylor Gaynes
Jeff Hausinger
Karen Bartle Walker
Michelle Gale (elementary education B.S. ’86, educational leadership M.S. ’95) Rosanne Wood (social science education B.S. ’77) Three College of Education alumni were recognized by the Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship’s Seminole 100 list, which highlights the accomplishments of entrepreneurially minded individuals and their businesses by ranking the fastest-growing businesses owned by FSU alumni: Taylor Gaynes (sport management B.S. ’15) Jeff Hausinger (social science education B.S. ’98) Karen Walker (visual disabilities B.S. ‘87, emotional/learning disorders M.S. ’88) n
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HELP TRANSFORM TOMORROW THROUGH YOUR GIFT TODAY Help support the students and programs you have read about through your tax-deductible gift to the College of Education! You can make a donation to our General Fund or contact the Foundation Development Office to learn about how you can create a scholarship or include the College of Education in your estate plans.
Support the General Fund Gifts to the College of Education’s General Fund (F01988) give Dean Andrew the greatest flexibility in meeting the needs of our students, faculty and programs. •
Support the General Fund though a one-time gift or a recurring pledge payment.
•
Many employers provide matching gift programs that can double or triple your contribution.
To find out if your company participates in a matching gift program, visit matchinggifts.com/fsu or ask your human resources department.
Endowed Gifts Endowed gifts last in perpetuity to ensure the University’s future. The principal of your donation is invested and the earnings are used to fulfill the purpose of your choosing. •
The minimum amount to establish an endowed scholarship is $25,000 with pledge payment cycles available over five years.
•
Endowments can be named in honor of the donor, a friend or family member, or a well-remembered faculty member.
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Endowments can be created for scholarships, fellowships, professorships, programs, professional development for working teachers, or any other appropriate educational purpose.
Gift Planning If you wish to include FSU in your estate or plan for your own retirement through means that provide tax incentives and help FSU’s College of Education, you can: • • •
Designate the College of Education in your will Name the College as a beneficiary of your retirement or life insurance plan Create a trust or charitable gift annuity
Gift annuities and trusts provide fixed payments back to you for your life while you enjoy tax benefits and securing the success of future generations of College of Education students.
Gift Planning Credit Card Please visit give.fsu.edu/education to donate online. To give by phone, call (850) 644-0565 or (850) 645-8943. Check Please mail your check, made payable to the FSU Foundation and indicate the purpose of your gift, to: College of Education General Fund - 1988 Florida State University Foundation P.O. Box 3062739 Tallahassee, FL 32306-2739
For more information about supporting the College of Education, please contact:
Kevin Derryberry Assistant Dean for Development College of Education (850) 644-0565 kderryberry@foundation.fsu.edu
DEAN Damon P. S. Andrew EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Jennie Kroeger WRITERS Amanda Coffman Kevin Derryberry Josh Duke PHOTOGRAPHERS Ken Higgins Jennie Kroeger
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