Education Magazine 2015

Marquette University College of Education, P.O. Box 1881, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201-1881 USA

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M A R Q U ET T E U N I V E RS IT Y C O L L E G E O F E D U C AT I O N

BECAUSE IT’S NOT CHILD’S PLAY.

WH E R E MI S S I O N MATT E RS

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CONVERSATION Before entering the field as counselors and therapists, students benefit from journeys rooted in Marquette values

Some children can’t help but be difficult. Identifying the reason behind their behavior is critical. The Early Pathways Program is a new online evidencebased training program for mental health professionals who serve families of children age 5 and younger with serious behavior problems. This self-paced training provides valuable tools to help professionals assess behaviors and recommend solutions so the most challenging children in the most challenging situations get the help they need. marquette.edu/early-pathways

COUNSELORS

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EDUCATORS

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LEADERS

S TA R T I N G B E L L

education Marquette University College of Education Office of the Dean 561 N. 15th St. Walter Schroeder Health and Education Complex, Room 124 Milwaukee, WI 53233 414.288.7376 marquette.edu/education Dean of the College William A. Henk, Ed.D. Editorial Team: Lori Fredrich, Stephen Filmanowicz, Becky Dubin Jenkins Art Director: Karen Parr Contributing photographers and illustrator: Dan Johnson; Jesse Lee; iStock images; Dreamstime; Feature illustration by Shana Torok Join the College of Education community online and through social media. twitter.com/MUEducation facebook.com/MUEducation Blog: marquetteeducator.wordpress.com Sign up for our weekly email digest at marquette.edu/educatorblog.

Education Magazine is published annually for alumni, friends and supporters of the College of Education at Marquette University. We welcome feedback from our readers. Please feel free to contact us and share your ideas for people and topics you’d like to see covered in future issues.

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NEWS

CELEBRATE TEACHING

Wade’s World Foundation gift enables year-round education for struggling readers; long-time educator bequeaths record-setting gift to college.

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Above and beyond: Three Marquette alumnae are awarded for their commitment to service learning.

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PROGRAM SPOTLIGHT The conversation begins here: Before entering the field as counselors and therapists, students benefit from journeys rooted in Marquette values; 10 things you didn’t know about our counselor education and counseling psychology programs.

Coming full circle: How alumnus Julian Swartz makes an impact, on the court and off.

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LASTING IMPRESSIONS

EDUCATION POLICY

Best of the blog:

Keeping it real: Bowls of chili, passion for children and heated debate fuel an epic friendship between Marquette scholars Drs. Robert Lowe and Howard Fuller.

Fuel for some heated debates

“AT A MOMENT.”

The future is ours.

My optimism stems from what we’ve accomplished and what figures to come. After a decade as dean, I believe we have never been better at our core mission of teaching, research and service, nor have our prospects for making a societal impact been stronger.

We’ve certainly enjoyed great moments in our departments and the college as a whole. Our Behavior Clinic and Hartman Literacy and Learning Center continue to serve at-risk children and their families, the Greater Milwaukee Catholic Education Consortium makes a significant difference for the schools of our Archdiocese, Teach For America Milwaukee adds a special dimension to urban education here, and our counseling and math partnerships with the West Allis–West Milwaukee School District continue to shine.

Even so, today feels different to me.

ALUMNI MAKING A DIFFERENCE

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The College of Education is

Five years of blogging and the Marquette Educator is still going strong.

We received our first million-dollar estate gift from an unlikely source, a grateful and generous alumna — Bernadette Steep, who taught for many years in the Milwaukee Public Schools. The gift will provide scholarship support for deserving students who aspire to become master teachers.

We also led the successful campaign for a new Cristo Rey Jesuit High School that will open in the fall. It will provide a college-preparatory, faith-based education to economically disadvantaged students, including four years of corporate work experience.

In addition, we received a wonderful gift from NBA superstar Dwyane Wade through his Wade’s World Foundation.

The gift will ensure expert tutoring in the Hartman Center for 60 second- and third-grade at-risk readers in each of the next six years through the Live To Dream Summer Reading Program.

Along with President Michael R. Lovell, we’ve taken a leadership role with Milwaukee Succeeds. We are central to the work of the Education Deans of Greater Milwaukee and Institute for Catholic Leadership. And we’re working with the 46 southeastern Wisconsin school districts of CESA #1 in cooperation with the Greater Milwaukee Committee.

We now find ourselves steeped in social innovation — catalysts of change, crossing borders to drive new initiatives and connect community organizations in unprecedented ways — all to the benefit of education and mental health in the region.

Accordingly, our alumni, friends, foundations, community organizations and civic leaders are recognizing and supporting our efforts in ways that expand our capacity to make an even greater difference in the world.

As we move forward, please join the College of Education in writing our amazing story, unfolding before our eyes.

Sincerely, Bill Henk Dean of the College of Education

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Historic gift

NEWS

Bernadette Steep, Arts ’44, Grad ’67, was a dedicated educator, teaching for nearly 30 years at Milwaukee Public Schools’ Maple Tree elementary school on the city’s northwest side.

Thanks to a pivotal gift from Dwyane Wade’s foundation, the Hartman Center will help at-risk young readers address “summer slide” During his days at Marquette, Dwyane Wade repeatedly wowed fans with his ability to dominate games and help deliver victories, as he did with an epic 2003 performance against top-seeded Kentucky that propelled the Golden Eagles into the Final Four of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

Now, Wade, a perennial All-Star with the Miami HEAT, has extended his transformative impact to a different sphere altogether — the work of the college’s Ralph C. Hartman Literacy and Learning Center. His announcement at a December campus news conference of a $65,000-per-year, three-year gift from his Wade’s World Foundation makes possible the center’s first summer literacy effort, the Dwyane Wade Live to Dream Summer Reading Program.

Wade treated children from the Hartman Center to a Heat-Bucks game, surprising them with a personal visit and pep talk.

Dean Bill Henk describes Wade’s role in enabling the center to function year round as a “game-changer.” In the new summer session, 15 undergraduates will tutor 60 second- and third-graders. And Wade is challenging members of the Marquette community to match his donation to keep the program funded through 2020.

“We know how much at-risk readers tend to regress between the end of one school year and the beginning of the next,” Henk says. “By contrast, their more skilled and typically more affluent counterparts maintain their reading ability over the break or actually expand it. Research suggests that, by the

Wade’s critical support for addressing summer literacy needs couldn’t be more welcome, says Dean Bill Henk.

Wade’s sister, Tragil, left, directs Wade’s World Foundation.

end of sixth grade, about 60 percent or more of the difference in reading ability between the two groups can be attributed to this ‘summer slide.’ If you care about the welfare of children and the quality of their lives, this couldn’t be a better investment.”

In announcing the gift, Wade spoke movingly of his nephew Dahveon, whom he raises alongside his sons Zaire and Zion.

When he joined the family as a fourth-grader, Dahveon was reading at a kindergarten level, which served as a “red alert” to the family to get him special help.

“I understand the importance of reading at that age,” Wade says. “That’s where the fundamentals really start setting in. To be able to get them on track and keep them on track is very, very important.”

Wade also expressed gratitude to be helping young people through a partnership with the university that contributed mightily to his own development. “Every time I come back to Marquette, I just think about the first day that I walked on campus as a confused kid that was excited to be a part of a family, a community that accepted me,” he says. By Stephen Filmanowicz To join Wade in supporting the Hartman Center, visit marquette.edu/livetodream.

When she died in May at 92, this “frugal teacher,” as a headline in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel described her, added another accomplishment to her name — becoming the College of Education’s most generous benefactor with a $1 million estate gift supporting student scholarships.

Steep’s gift, which primarily benefits undergraduates but supports graduate students as well, establishes a fitting legacy for an alumna who worked long hours at a dime store to pay for her undergraduate degree and returned to Marquette several decades later to earn her master’s degree. Ultimately, she wanted to help bright students like those she saw in MPS whose families couldn’t afford college.

Steep’s overall bequest includes an identical gift supporting student scholarships at Marquette University Law School. These gifts include funds she received from the estate of her sister, Mary Ann, who worked in insurance for 30 years before earning a law degree at Marquette and working in private law practice for another 20 years.

Dean Bill Henk says Steep’s “skilled and passionate service” to MPS and her love of Marquette make the gift especially meaningful.

“She kept her students and our university near and dear to her heart,” he says, “and her legacy will live on as her philanthropy impacts the future generations of teachers we will thoughtfully prepare.”

Call for nominations:

SEEING THE DIFFERENCE IN OTHERS Do you know a fellow alumnus/a who, through personal or professional achievements, truly embodies the mission of Marquette? Please nominate him or her for an Alumni National Award. Nominations received this year will be considered for an award in 2016. Visit marquette.edu/ awards to view the awards criteria and access the online nomination form. Save the date — the College of Education Alumni National Awards event is Thursday, April 23, 2015. vb

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Elevating the teaching profession bv

With its 23-year record of excellence as a teaching, research and service site, the Hartman Center gives preservice teachers crucial experience tutoring inner-city Milwaukee school children who are struggling with reading. Under the direction of faculty and staff, these prospective educators use cutting-edge strategies to help 150 children

each school year address reading deficiencies while building a cadre of tools to use in their own future classrooms.

ONE MILLION

Game-changer

A public school teacher’s record-setting support for scholarships

CELEBRATION OF TEACHING Marquette, along with the Education Deans of Greater Milwaukee, will host the third annual Celebration of Teachers and Teaching in October 2015.

We’d love for you to attend!

This event, which honors the hard work and dedication of Milwaukee-area teachers, aims to engage the community in elevating the teaching profession.

Watch celebrateteachingmke.org for details. Or join in the conversation on Facebook and Twitter: facebook.com/ celebrateteachingMKE and twitter.com/cttmke.

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C E L E B R AT E T E A C H I N G

AboveBEYOND

Sage advice for anyone contemplating teaching as a profession?

By Lori Fredrich

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Celebrating three teachers who inspire students to serve others In mid-October, three Marquette alumnae were among five area teachers honored by the Education Deans of Greater Milwaukee for their work in service learning, which encourages students to “apply academic knowledge and critical thinking skills to address genuine community needs.” Ranging from environmental activism to artistic expression and humanitarian assistance, their projects clearly illustrate the impact teachers have upon both their students and the communities in which they teach.

After the event, the award recipients discussed what inspires them to engage with their students and others in such powerful ways. Each replied to the same question: What are some of the positive transformations you’ve seen within your school and your students since implementing a service-learning curriculum?

What is your favorite thing about the students you teach and guide?

Mary Gentile, Arts ’92 Mary Gentile of Catholic Memorial High School in Waukesha received an honorable mention for encouraging innovations in programs that meet the needs of our community’s marginalized through a school-wide program, called the Catholic Service Learning Project, in which students use design thinking in junior-level theology courses to respond to diverse community needs.

Even in the earliest stages of implementation, I have seen students develop leadership and use their unique talents and interests to engage with their communities toward improvement. Specific examples include: re-establishing an annual “switch day” in which students from CMH and Messmer High School host one another for a day of classes, student musicians performing free jazz concerts in Waukesha, a computer and technology club that offers free support help, a team of engineering students making some facilities changes to help case workers at Safe Babies, Healthy Families of Waukesha use their time more efficiently, and developing new outreach programs through our homelessness awareness club.

All of these projects, and more, were instigated and implemented by student leaders through the new instructional initiatives the school has developed. When these students see that their ideas are being taken seriously, and that our expectation is that they will actually implement them, they are sometimes surprised, but then quickly enlivened.

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Dr. Catherine Ferderbar, Arts ’77 Dr. Catherine Ferderbar, a middle school science teacher at St. Mary Parish School in Menomonee Falls, received the Advanced Career Award for developing a student-managed school-wide recycling program and composting system and teaching her students about invasive species through a partnership with the Riveredge Nature Center.

Although service learning is a major focus in every class, it’s more than that; it’s a school culture.

It permeates how we journey through our year together. I work in a parochial school. Our school mantra is “Live Jesus,” the motto of St. Francis de Sales. How do we do that? We look for opportunities to bring about his Father’s Kingdom in the here and now.

One of the students’ favorite songs is Go, Make a Difference. Lyrics to another favorite song enjoin all of us to “Bring forth the Kingdom of mercy, bring forth the Kingdom of peace, bring forth the Kingdom of justice, bring forth the City of God.” If those are the thoughts that stream through our heads during the day, we become more in tune with the needs of those around us and we are more aware of and present to the occasions to make this world a better place. It’s not like this is some lofty, unattainable goal. Service is a natural outgrowth, part of who we become.

If you had a motto for your work, what would it be?

Mara Brandli, Arts ’11 Mara Brandli, an English teacher at the Carmen High School of Science and Technology South Campus, was honored with the Early Career Award for her work instilling a love of service throughout the Carmen community.

Service learning experiences are created by combining curriculum with real-world circumstances. Former students from my 10th-grade British Literature class and senior girls from my Advisory have formed a truly wonderful relationship with the School Sisters of St. Francis at the St. Joseph’s Center, located in walking distance from Carmen.

While playing bingo with the Sisters, most of whom are retired teachers, my students need to speak and listen effectively to develop supportive relationships. This complements their regular work practicing speaking and listening skills that align with the state Common Core Standards.

Students who first attended Saturday bingo as sophomores and were timid and soft-spoken are now attending bingo for a third year as confident young adults who are comfortable projecting their voices so that the sisters are able to hear and process shared information or tips for winning bingo. (The sisters’ competitive nature and kind humor inspire us every time we go!) A few weeks ago, one of my students who is fairly shy volunteered to call the numbers during bingo. I was amazed. Her self-directed decision to volunteer herself to be the reader in front of a group of 20 is a decision that she would not have made her sophomore year. Her decision is one example of the type of positive transformations that I have seen in my students.

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PROGRAM SPOTLIGHT

EXPERIENCE

Students in the College of Education’s counselor education and counseling psychology programs are consistently high performers. They excel in their course work, exceed national averages on standardized tests, and receive glowing reviews from their internship and practica supervisors. Post-graduation, they are sought after on the job market and receive consistently high marks from their employers.

Maybe most impressive is that these student qualities cut across all programs from the master of arts in school counseling and master of science in clinical

Future counselors and therapists prepare for their careers through rigorous academic work and deep encounters with timeless Marquette principles:

mental health counseling to the doctoral program in counseling psychology.

LEADERSHIP, ADVOCACY, SUPPORT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE.

So, we found ourselves wondering:

By Lori Fredrich

We zeroed in on four program hallmarks that our alumni identify as distinguishing factors in their Marquette counseling experience — advocacy, leadership, social justice and support. Here are their stories.

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“Every one of the men I see has a unique story, and being a part of that story is very rewarding.”

We work to establish mentoring “relationships between faculty and students so advisers can nurture student development

throughout their program. They work closely, they get to know one another very well, and the adviser is able to guide, support and advocate for the student as he or she progresses through the program.

Dr. Sarah Knox, professor and director of training for the counseling psychology doctoral program

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“So many men come to us with this sense of shame, this sense that they’re less because they are not able to provide for themselves,” says Kristen Vareka, clinic administrator for the Guest House Counseling Clinic, where she works with homeless men who struggle with unemployment, mental illness and addiction.

She now smiles when she talks about this work, but getting to that point was a process.

“I came to Marquette’s counseling program thinking I could change the world, change people’s lives. But part of the process was realizing that you have to meet people where they are,” Vareka says. “You really have to redefine the idea of success from the client’s perspective.

And then you have to teach them to advocate for themselves.”

Vareka speaks fondly of a client who taught her that advocacy is about creating hope. “He was tough. He’d been involved with using and selling drugs for decades. He kind of looked at me as if to say, ‘You, with your Marquette degree — you think you know so much. But you don’t know anything.’ In a sense, he was right. I didn’t understand his life … I had to acknowledge that to build trust.”

She also had to relinquish some control. “He didn’t want me to make the rules. He wasn’t sure he wanted another way of life or that he was capable of it,” she says. “He needed me to help him visualize and verbalize goals and then teach him to advocate for himself. It took a year. But today he has a job, an apartment, a car. He’s rebuilding relationships, and he’s reached a year of sobriety.

KEYONA JARRETT WALKER Grad ’11 Staff psychologist Clement J. Zablocki VA Hospital

“Every one of the men I see has a unique story, and being a part of that story is very rewarding.” n

Dr. Keyona Walker wasn’t sure she would finish her doctoral degree in counseling psychology. “As a first-generation college student, pursuing a doctoral degree was a huge endeavor,” she says. So, when her schedule became overwhelming during her second year in the five-year program, she reached out to faculty members for advice.

KRISTEN VAREKA Grad ’08 Clinic administrator Guest House

seek “ Wetointentionally train leaders.

We start that from the first day of classes, and they see it in action during their internship experiences in the West Allis–West Milwaukee schools.

One of those faculty members was Dr. Timothy Melchert.

In the midst of her dilemma, Walker found Melchert’s office door open. Without an appointment, she proceeded to talk to him for 45 minutes about her problem. Dr. Lisa Edwards also lent a listening ear that Walker says made a big difference.

“I always felt supported by faculty and felt like they wanted to see me succeed … I found them to be open, honest and supportive of whatever decision that I thought was best for me.”

Ultimately, Walker decided to stick with the program.

She finished her degree and eventually landed her current position at the VA Hospital, where she provides services to veterans who are homeless or at risk for homelessness.

As for what drove her to work there, she says it was vocation. “Counselors who are trained at Marquette tend to have a passion for social justice and seek out opportunities to use their skills to help people who are underserved,” she says.

She also credits Marquette for giving her the opportunity.

“The name itself opens doors,” she says. “But it also provided me with a well-rounded foundation in the areas of counseling skills, theory-based conceptualization, psychological assessment and research.” n

Dr. Alan Burkard, chair, professor and coordinator of school counseling program

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EARLY PATHWAYS In 2014, the community mental health counseling program launched Early Pathways, an online training program based on the proven treatment strategies of the Behavior Clinic, a partnership between Marquette and the Penfield Children’s Center. Since its founding in 2003, it has been at the forefront of efforts to help families address and overcome serious behavioral problems in young children. marquette.edu/early-pathways

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There’s a lot of emphasis in the field about advocacy, but it’s not always clear how to best train students in it. So, in the past few years,

we’ve implemented a requirement in the multicultural counseling class in which students develop and implement advocacy projects.

Dr. Lisa Edwards, associate professor, director of counselor education and coordinator of clinical mental health counseling program

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Since 2007, the doctoral program in counseling psychology has maintained an attrition rate of 0%.

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10 THINGS

YOU DIDN’T KNOW

“Marquette taught me that even little changes make a big difference.”

Top reasons why the counselor education and counseling psychology programs are popular among professionals around the nation

KIM O’BRIEN

Grad ’12 Family counselor Behavior Clinic

When Kim O’Brien, a Carroll University graduate who had been working with children in before- and after-school programs for the Milwaukee Public Schools, made the decision to pursue graduate work in counseling, Marquette was just one of the institutions on her list.

“I was actually admitted to a doctoral program in Chicago,” she says. “But, then, lo and behold, here’s Dr. Fox doing research on how to serve inner-city families right here in Milwaukee.”

Marquette’s master’s program allowed O’Brien to do two years of hands-on work with the Behavior Clinic, a partnership between Marquette and Penfield Children’s Center. “I think the biggest draw for me is that I’m working with families and giving quality care to families who don’t always have access to quality services.

Being able to break down those barriers and have impact is a really powerful thing.”

“We’re seeing so many children who’ve experienced trauma, like sexual abuse,” O’Brien notes. “It’s really hard to listen to 3-year-olds tell you about some of the things they’ve experienced. But it’s gratifying to see a child progress from being obsessed with a horrible, horrible incident to the point where they’re just wanting to play.”

O’Brien, who works full time as a family counselor for the Behavior Clinic, says she learned the meaning of social justice while working through Marquette’s program. “It feels good to be able to provide resources and services to the people who need them most, who are often entirely overlooked by the system,” she says. “Marquette taught me that even little changes make a big difference.” n

90%

of parents whose children are treated at the Behavior Clinic report greater confidence in managing children’s behaviors.

Celina Pauly’s schedule can fill up fast. Each week, she spends 20 hours in classrooms teaching students social-emotional learning topics such as friendship, bullying, violence prevention and academic success. That’s in addition to organizing community meetings, supervising interns, connecting students and mentors, and meeting with students. However, the school counselor at Irving Elementary School also assumes the role of respected leader, largely by mirroring some of the professors she had in Marquette’s master’s program.

“The professors in the department respected our questions and constantly challenged us to think on a deeper level,” Pauly says, adding that the program was “the most challenging and most supportive educational environment” she had ever experienced. Not only did professors assist by preparing students for job interviews, but they also worked to mitigate weaknesses in students that emerged during their internships.

CELINA DABROWSKI PAULY Grad ’12 School counselor West Allis–West Milwaukee School District

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Pauly strives to apply the same standard of personal care with the students at her school.

Her leadership style of “listening and following through” has made her an asset to them, their families and fellow school staff. She uses this style in her position as the team coach overseeing mentors as part of a behavior-based counseling system. Pauly analyzes student data and office referrals to understand the needs of a student and correctly match the student with a mentor. During the year, she reanalyzes the data and meets with the student and mentor to be sure goals are being met.

CREDENTIALS? WE’VE GOT CREDENTIALS: Our clinical mental health master’s program is one of only three programs in the state of Wisconsin that is CACREPaccredited, and is the only one in the metro Milwaukee area.

MUCH IN DEMAND: Our school counseling program boasts a 100 percent placement rate after graduation, and most are employed before the fall after graduation from the program.

THAT CERTAIN JE NE SAIS QUOI: Our doctoral students routinely match at some of the top internship sites in the country, regularly securing post-doctoral positions at similar institutions.

IN GOOD COMPANY: Faculty members Dr. Alan Burkard (school counseling, multiculturalism, supervision), Dr. Lisa Edwards (Latina/o psychology, positive psychology), Dr. Robert Fox (infant mental health) and Dr. Sarah Knox (qualitative research, training, supervision, therapy process) have national and international reputations in their areas of research, making them attractive to prospective doctoral candidates who want to work with them.

In addition, two past presidents of the American School Counseling Association, Burkard and Mark Kuranz, teach in the Marquette program.

NO STUDENT LEFT BEHIND: In the past five years, 100 percent of admitted master’s degree students graduated from the program in the expected time period.

The education and guidance Pauly received in Marquette’s master’s program prepared her to step immediately into the leadership position. “I had a strong understanding of multicultural practices, mental health conditions, legal-ethical matters and leadership strategies,” she says. “Most of all, I knew how to use the data in a way that would improve student behavior and school climate.” n 11 College of Education 2015

FAILURE — NOT AN OPTION: Since the introduction of the PRAXIS II: Professional School Counselor examination to Wisconsin, our graduates have registered a 100 percent pass rate.

MORE REALLY IS MORE: Our 60-credit Community Mental Health Counseling program allows for a balance of core course work, as well as electives, including unique courses such as Trauma Counseling, Addictions, Advanced Techniques in CBT, Psychopharmacology and Family Counseling.

ONLY THE BEST FOR OUR STUDENTS: The West Allis–West Milwaukee School District, a partner for counseling internships and practica, is widely considered the strongest district for school counseling in Wisconsin.

HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO: Both master’s and doctoral students benefit from a reciprocity agreement that enables them to take courses at the University of Wisconsin– Milwaukee and Medical College of Wisconsin.

THE CREAM OF THE CROP: Counseling students routinely score above the national average for clinical mental health counseling programs on the CPCE, a national exam based on core counseling areas that many programs use as a comprehensive examination for those receiving master’s degrees.

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Lamar Chance, University of Memphis

COMING FULL CIRCLE

Photographer: Rick Wood c/o West Allis–West Milwaukee School District

ALUMNI MAKING A DIFFERENCE

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COUNSELOR

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Meanwhile, Swartz’s story of a top talent walking away from basketball, blended with his transcendence of mental health issues, had garnered national attention, netting pieces in Sports Illustrated and The New York Times and on SportsCenter.

Milwaukee School District, putting his Marquette lessons into practice. He incorporated social emotional learning techniques, helping students be mindful of and manage their emotions and relationships. And he did it by first earning their trust. “They’re not going to listen to me until they sincerely and genuinely know I care,” Swartz says.

“That’s what Marquette taught me.”

Those might have been the last public tellings of Swartz’s story, save for a chance meeting with former Marquette coach Tom Crean and his assistant, Jason Rabedeaux.

BY HOWIE MAGNER

HE WAS FIRST KNOWN FOR PLAYING BASKETBALL. THEN BETTER KNOWN FOR NOT PLAYING BASKETBALL. AND, TODAY, HE’S BEST KNOWN FOR TEACHING THE SPORT HE MAY HAVE STOPPED PLAYING BUT NEVER STOPPED LOVING. Now that he’s director of player development for the University of Memphis’ men’s basketball team, you might say Julian Swartz’s path has come full circle.

But he’ll say it never would have happened without the assistance of his Marquette education, which makes his story about much more than basketball.

signed with the University of Wisconsin Badgers as a much-heralded recruit and was a freshman on their 2000 NCAA Final Four team.

Behind the scenes, though, Swartz’s world was being drowned out by the echoes in his head. The obsessivecompulsive disorder he’d known since childhood flared to new levels, bringing with it a deep depression.

Despite strong backing from Badgers coaches, particularly then-head coach Dick Bennett and assistant Tony Bennett, Swartz felt it best to leave the program.

In addition to getting the counseling he needed, he helped counsel others with OCD. “To save my life at the time,” Swartz says, “I had to help other people.”

“It gave me purpose, gave me meaning and direction,” Swartz says of his three years earning a master’s degree in school counseling. “Marquette was the answer to ‘Who am I?’ with a question mark. When I graduated, it was ‘Who I am’ with an exclamation point.”

Securing his degree in 2008 not only launched his education career, but it helped reignite a basketball career that once seemed extinguished forever.

If you paid attention to Wisconsin high school or college basketball around the turn of the millennium, Swartz’s name will be familiar. The state’s 1999 high school player of the year at Waukesha South, he

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Swartz eventually ended up back at home in Waukesha, with his ever-supportive family, where he enrolled at Carroll University. There, he played his last collegiate hoops game, foregoing his final two years of eligibility and focusing on a psychology degree.

He transferred the same philosophy to coaching. In addition to his counseling work, Swartz coached some eighth-grade basketball and assisted his brother, Billy, when he was head coach at Waukesha South. Then, when the Memphis opportunity arrived in 2012, he jumped at it.

It was March 2005, and Swartz had just been accepted into Marquette’s graduate school counseling program. He was at the Kohl Center watching a high school game when he spied the duo from across the court. He ratcheted up his courage, approached them and said he’d like to be their graduate assistant. “I said I think I’ve got a lot to offer and would love to be a selfless servant,” recalls Swartz. And that’s how a onetime star Badgers recruit became part of Marquette’s basketball family. (So close would he become with the recently deceased Rabedeaux that Swartz gave a eulogy at his memorial service.)

Now, he puts his Marquette master’s degree in counseling to work in a basketball setting and plays a major role in the success of a Memphis team that has reached four consecutive NCAA tournaments. He’s a main cog in on-campus recruiting efforts, and, once players are in the program, he becomes a trusted confidant.

But goal No. 1 at Marquette was still his degree. He poured himself into the pursuit, and his backstory made him a unique student.

“He’s a great sounding board in terms of his life experiences,” Memphis coach Josh Pastner says. “He can really make an impact dealing with our guys when they’re going through some tough times. And he obviously knows the game.”

“He was not afraid to speak his mind, and it really opened him up to learning,” says Dr. Alan Burkard, chair of Marquette’s Department of Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology.

“He was willing to be vulnerable and learn what it took to be a really good counselor.”

Swartz says players know he’s “a resource unconditionally available at all times.” He takes a relentlessly positive, solution-focused approach to whatever concerns they have, saying he’s there for them not just in adversity but also in prosperity. And he knows well both sides of that coin.

But what really sticks with Burkard, who witnessed Swartz’s teaching presence firsthand, is seeing elementary school kids climbing all over the 6-foot-6 gentle giant. “They gravitate to him,” Burkard says. “They know he really cares about them and where they’ll go in their lives.”

Of course, Swartz was more than a human jungle gym.

From 2009–12, he was a counselor in the West Allis–West

He is, after all, a man who’s turned the tables on OCD, a disease he credits with helping mold him into a meticulously organized counselor and coach.

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And, someday, he hopes, a head coach.

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E D U C AT I O N P O L I C Y In their early days as friends, Drs. Robert Lowe (left) and Howard Fuller were single and would go running together and then out to dinner.

“Our favorite was to go to Real Chili,” Fuller recalls. “When people came to interview for jobs, we’d take them there. We’d say ‘Oh, if they can’t make it at Real Chili, they can’t make it here at Marquette.’”

KEEPING IT REAL ROBERT LOWE HOWARD FULLER

Despite differing sharply over what’s best for urban school children, two prominent Marquette education scholars have forged an epic friendship strengthened by shared passions, mutual respect and countless bowls of chili.

By Bruce Murphy

Robert Lowe remembers wondering why some guy named Howard Fuller had applied in 1977 to become director of Marquette’s Educational Opportunity Program. “He had been working for an insurance company,” Lowe recalls. “I was preposterously arrogant toward him.”

Lowe was an EOP teacher and on the interview committee.

His first job had been as a teacher at the all-black Miles College in Birmingham, Ala., and he’d also been involved in civil rights and prison reform issues. What he didn’t realize is that Fuller had been an activist, too, and founder and president of the all-black Malcolm X Liberation University in North Carolina under the adopted African name of Owusu Sadaukai. He had a debate with Stokely Carmichael about what tactics were best for black advancement published in African World magazine, and Lowe thought Owusu won: “He had a much more sophisticated analysis. I thought, wow, this guy is good.”

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years of friendship and one major disagreement for 11 years as an education professor at National Louis University before joining the faculty of the then-School of Education at Marquette in 1999. He specializes in the history of American education.

Fuller received his doctorate from Marquette in 1986, and it would take a book to describe all the positions he has held, including top administrative jobs in academia, state and county government and several years as Milwaukee Public Schools superintendent.

And that book has now been written — a 2014 memoir by Fuller, No Struggle, No Progress: A Warrior’s Life from Black Power to Education Reform.

In 1995, not long after stepping down from his MPS post, Fuller founded the Institute for Transformation of Learning at Marquette, which he continues to run. The institute does a wide range of work to support choice and charter schools for low-income students, including raising $14 million in grants; providing workshops for teachers; supporting the development of 30 schools; holding academic Olympics for students; and creating an Accreditation Board to monitor standards for choice schools.

Fuller’s political activism has included leading protests against disproportionate black busing that led to changes in Milwaukee’s approach to desegregation. Lowe’s has included editing a Birmingham prison support newsletter and co-founding and serving for 10 years as an editor of Rethinking Schools, a tabloid started in 1986 to promote progressive reforms.

Lowe and the Marquette interview committee took Fuller to lunch. Lowe saw at the bottom of Fuller’s resume that he had done work on African liberation. “I asked if he had anything to do with the African Liberation Support Committee,” Lowe says. “Yes, Fuller said, ‘I founded it.’”

The chagrined Lowe soon came to realize the depth of Fuller’s background and that he’d taken the insurance job as a temporary measure. He’d returned to his home state of Wisconsin physically and mentally exhausted from the intense work he had done in North Carolina. Lowe and the committee voted to hire Fuller, who then had a successful run as EOP director.

And the two soon became fast friends.

“Bob is without question one of the smartest people I’ve ever met,” Fuller says. “He is one of the great scholars of black education, and not many people know that.”

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Says Lowe of Fuller: “The civil rights work he has done has just been remarkable.”

Their friendship has spanned the nearly four decades when both men earned doctorates, contributed in unique ways to education reform movements and became faculty members in the college. It even survived an intense disagreement over school vouchers. Fuller is recognized nationally as a proponent, and Lowe is a longtime opponent. But in an age of strident partisan divisions, they have remained friends and supportive colleagues who’ve agreed to disagree.

Lowe has master’s degrees from Harvard and Stanford and a doctorate from Stanford. He was a teacher in Marquette’s EOP program from 1976–79 and loved the program so much that he came back to serve as its associate director from 1984–88 while finishing his dissertation for Stanford. Lowe then served

Lowe resigned from the publication’s board because he felt its attacks on Fuller for supporting vouchers had become too personal.

The two had long since parted ways on the voucher issue, but Fuller gave Lowe a part-time contract at his institute in 1997 to facilitate a study of the history of Milwaukee teachers. As Lowe recalls it, this connected him to faculty members of Marquette’s then-School of Education — which turned him down when he first applied for a professor job in 1995 — and helped lead to his hiring in 1999.

MINI-DEBATE ON VOUCHERS

LOWE: “Anyone who is realistic knows that a

significant number of voucher schools are terrible. You’re talking about teachers with inadequate training, schools with not enough resources. It’s very hard to choose the best school if not many good schools are available in the first place.”

FULLER: “I’ve never seen any policy that only has an upside, so what you’re doing at any point is deciding what policy has more upside.

I’m concerned that there are private schools in the Milwaukee choice program that aren’t good, but I’m equally concerned that there are traditional schools that aren’t.

The voucher is not a school. It’s a financial mechanism that allows people who lack a choice to choose their school.”

Lowe is more the scholar and Fuller more the political strategist, but they both share a deep knowledge of and concern about inequities in America’s education system and how that impacts black students.

“Bob has forced me to think harder about the intellectual justifications for what I believe in,” Fuller says, while Lowe marvels at “the unfaltering and disciplined way Howard marries a big heart and a big intellect.”

Which doesn’t mean they’ve stopped disagreeing about vouchers.

As Lowe puts it, “I really haven’t given up trying to convince Howard he’s wrong.”

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LASTING IMPRESSIONS

THE CLICKS KEEP ON COMING FIVE YEARS OF THE MARQUETTE EDUCATOR BLOG

When the Marquette Educator debuted in 2009, we had no idea how well it would do. Now, after five years and more than 1,100 posts, it’s exceeded expectations and become a College of Education institution. Here’s a look back at some of the posts that got us where we are today.

August 6, 2009

February 10, 2010

The blog began with a post by its then sole contributor, College of Education Dean Bill Henk, depicting his escape from his very first day of school —

After the Little Rock Nine visited Marquette, Henk reflected on the experience with his post “The Little Rock Nine Changed Schools Forever.”

“HOW MY SCHOOL DAZE BEGAN: A FIRST CONFESSION” go.mu.edu/henk-first-post

go.mu.edu/little-rock-nine

“Our guests had an iconic presence about

of emptiness and loss … that same awful dazed

December 18, 2009

DWYANE WADE

When Marquette basketball legend Dwyane Wade challenged President Obama to a game of one-on-one, all to aid a boy’s hopes of interviewing the president, Henk’s post about it was viewed more times in a day — 312 — than any previous post.

It held the record for four years.go.mu.edu/Henk-D-Wade

The Educator launches the popular

TUESDAY TRIVIA

series, which is still going strong.

The most viewed post in 2013 and 2014 was actually a post from 2011: “ADVICE FOR THE FIRST TEACHING JOB INTERVIEW,” by Nick McDaniels, Ed ’08. go.mu.edu/first-teaching-interview Writes McDaniels, “Answers like, ‘I have always known I wanted to be a teacher’ are good answers. However, it would benefit

children succeed and facilitating

November 2010 This month marked a traffic milestone for the blog: new monthly high of

13,000

VIEWS

timely deaths. And it permeated my school it’s stayed with me forever.”

July 2011

2014

children, that you love watching

and foggy sensation always accompanying unfor a long time afterward. In many respects,

go.mu.edu/better-last

go.mu.edu/lasting-impressions

living proof that ordinary people can change doing, they became extraordinary.”

Actually, I could feel it … I also felt a deep sense

“IT’S BETTER TO COME IN LAST PLACE THAN NOT TO PLACE AT ALL.”

you to mention that you really love

“Stop Bullying Now,” a reflection from Henk on his exposure to a fatal case of bullying, was viewed a few hundred times in 2009, then went viral a year later, becoming the site’s second most popular post of all time with more than 18,000 views.

and I could see her intense sadness and pain.

Practicing principal Ryan Krienke, Grad ’11, made a lasting impression with his sage advice to preservice teachers about making a good impression during student teaching.

evinced a sincere air of humility. There stood the world in unimaginable ways. And by so

“I sat beside the victim’s sister in homeroom,

January 28, 2013

them … They knew their place in history, yet

November 11, 2009

go.mu.edu/stop-bullying-now

May 13, 2011 In a popular 2011 post, Anna Luberda, Ed ’10, shared a lesson she learned from a seventh-grader in

The top five countries for views outside the United States are THE UNITED KINGDOM, CANADA, AUSTRALIA, INDIA AND THE PHILIPPINES.

FIVE YEARS IN 30 HEADLINES. WHAT TEACHERS SAY TO STUDENTS REALLY MATTERS LESSONS FROM MY MIDDLE SCHOOLERS TRACKING IT FORWARD WHAT MAKES “THAT CHILD” BEHAVE THAT WAY? FIRST IMPRESSIONS MATTER: DECODING THE LAYERS OF LIFE MAKING EVERY CHILD COUNT, ONE DAY AT A TIME 13 WORDS FOR THE CLASS OF 2013 WHO DO YOU LISTEN TO? VOICES FROM NEAR AND FAR 10 SIGNS YOU'RE A GOOD COUNSELOR THE MAKING OF HEROES FLAWED PASTS, PROMISING FUTURES THE DAWNING OF A NEW COUNSELING DAY ADVICE FOR SURVIVING YOUR FIRST SEMESTER 18 College of Education 2015

TEACHING AS A CALLING RETHINKING BLACK HISTORY MONTH RECEIVING FEEDBACK FOR THE FIRST TIME THOSE WHO CAN, TEACH TELL ME, TEACH

July 12, 2012 Counseling student Micah Russell, Grad ‘13, wrote a post that’s been a favorite for almost two years running, featuring a popular cartoon about the perils of standardized testing. go.mu.edu/climb-that-tree

A MESSAGE HEARD AROUND THE WORLD The Marquette Educator has been perused by people in countries on every continent in the world (except Antarctica, of course).

the learning process. An even better addition to this question is to explain why you want to be a teacher at this principal’s school.”

March 14, 2014

GIRL THING

A post by junior education student Aubrey Murtha about her experience at Divine Savior Holy Angels High School was viewed 1,271 times in one day after being shared on the DSHA Facebook page. The post has since received more than 3,500 additional views. go.mu.edu/girl-thing

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Number of bloggers, including Henk:

February 10, 2015

Alumna and 2010 Wisconsin teacher of the year Claudia Felske, Arts ’90, blew all other blog viewership records out of the water with her

“OPEN LETTER TO GOVERNOR WALKER.” Prompted by comments Walker made about teachers while on the stump in Iowa, the posting served as a rebuttal to the governor who was a fellow freshman classmate of hers at Marquette in 1986.

Covered by Salon, the Daily Kos and other outlets, the post went viral, with more than 91,000 VIEWS IN ONE DAY, an all-time high for the site. go.mu.edu/letter–to–walker

91,000VIEWS

FIVE YEARS IN 30 HEADLINES. WHAT TEACHERS SAY TO STUDENTS REALLY MATTERS LESSONS FROM MY MIDDLE SCHOOLERS TRACKING IT FORWARD WHAT MAKES “THAT CHILD” BEHAVE THAT WAY? FIRST IMPRESSIONS MATTER: DECODING THE LAYERS OF LIFE MAKING EVERY CHILD COUNT, ONE DAY AT A TIME 13 WORDS FOR THE CLASS OF 2013 WHO DO YOU LISTEN TO? VOICES FROM NEAR AND FAR 10 SIGNS YOU'RE A GOOD COUNSELOR THE MAKING OF HEROES FLAWED PASTS, PROMISING FUTURES THE DAWNING OF A NEW COUNSELING DAY ADVICE FOR SURVIVING YOUR FIRST SEMESTER

TEACHING AS A CALLING RETHINKING BLACK HISTORY MONTH RECEIVING FEEDBACK FOR THE FIRST TIME THOSE WHO CAN, TEACH TELL ME, TEACH ME, TRANSFORM ME TEACHER COMPENSATION: WHAT SHOULD IT LOOK LIKE? HOW DO YOU USE YOUR POWER? THOUGHTS FROM A FIRST-YEAR SCHOOL COUNSELOR LOVING YOUR PRACTICUM NOW WHAT, MPS? ROLE REVERSAL: HOW ONE OF MY STUDENTS BECAME THE COUNSELOR MY EXPERIENCES WITH DIVERSITY COMMON CORE … COMMON SENSE TECHNOLOGICAL TIME TRAVEL TACKLING THE STANDARDIZED TEST TRACKING IT FORWARD Marquette University 19