Fulfilling

ERIN MCRAE Staff Writer

The University of Northern Iowa has long been regarded as one of the midwest’s top spots for future educators, boasting a 98% placement rate after graduation. UNI is also in the top 1% in the nation in number of B.A. teaching graduates, known for providing hands-on opportunities for future educators.

Iowa has also become the hotspot of controversial legislation around education, recently passing Senate File (SF) 496 in both the house and senate, which increases the number of books banned and reduces standards on health education. Iowa public school districts are no longer allowed to provide any instruction regarding gender identity and sexual orientation for kindergarten through sixth grade. Public school districts must post a list of all books in the school’s library, which will be fully accessible by the public. SF 496 also requires public schools to notify parents if a child has had a change in gender identity or plans to

LAUREN MCGUILL Staff Writer

UNI’s Green Dot program is hosting a new project for the month of April, “Through the Lens of a Panther” where staff, faculty and students can submit a photo they’ve taken on campus and include two to three sentences answering the question: “what does community look like to you?” Hannah Menken, a second year graduate student in UNI’s School Counseling Program, is the Graduate Assistant for Green Dot and is responsible for creating the “Through the Lens of a Panther” project. Menkens position at Green Dot tasks her to oversee program planning, schedule training and events, and to assist with cam- transition. Just last month at a school board meeting, Des Moines public school district interim Superintendent Matt Smith said, “I am actually being told by many folks that we look to recruit from outside the state, that Iowa is no longer a destination.”

Iowa state legislature recently passed SF 496, which increases government regulation on education through means including book bans and restrictions over discussions involving gender identity and sexual orientation. UNI students entering the education field have to take these recent changes into consideration when looking for jobs and preparing for careers in the field.

The newly passed bill has pus outreach to ensure culture change on campus.

“April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. One thing been met with public contention, drawing national attention as Iowa joins a list of other states implementing more government control in public schools. At the same time, fewer students are majoring in education and the nationwide teacher shortage continues to grow. Some account this to the that I wanted to showcase during the month was a project called ‘Through the Lens of a Panther.’ We are taught in dwindling salaries teachers receive. While these obstacles hinder growth in the education sector, UNI’s College of Education accounts for over 2,200 or 25% of all students, making it the program with one of the highest enrollment. our field of counseling that we need to see through the ‘lens’ or the ‘perspective’ of our clients and I feel that it could be applied everywhere else. It’s always interesting to see or hear someone’s perspective on something that may seem mundane to us. This project can show us how to share our perspective with others within our community,” said Menken.

La Galería de Arte de UNI está presentando una exposición para el programa de Licenciatura en Bellas Artes (BFA, por sus siglas en inglés) de la primavera 2023 desde el lunes, 24 de abril, hasta el viernes, 5 de mayo. Habrá una recepción la noche de la inauguración que tendrá lugar el lunes, 24 de abril a las 7 p.m. en el vestíbulo sur del Kamerick Art Building (KAB). Este evento es gratuito y abierto al público.

Esta exposición presentará el trabajo de cinco estudiantes artistas: Jenna Lou Jansen, Jules Marie Hammerand, Madeline LeRoy, Summer Weed y Taylor Lee Rachel Sullivan. En ellas se exploran múltiples temas a través de diferentes formas de arte, incluyendo salud mental, autoestima, feminidad, automatismo y más.

Green Dot will be collecting submissions for the project until Sunday, April 30, and will be posting the photos on their social media. And if there are an abundance of responses, the submissions may be posted around campus to showcase what a strong community UNI has cultivated and to encourage the campus to learn more about Green Dot and its message.

EDUCATION FIELD continued from page 1

Abigail Morlan is a junior studying elementary education with a strategy II instructional strategist minor who was born and raised in Cedar Falls. For her, picking UNI was an easy choice. “In my opinion, UNI is one of the best schools in the country for education,” Morlan said. She plans to stay in the Cedar Valley and teach in the Waterloo school district after graduation.

Morlan said that pursuing her career choice has not been without its obstacles. Despite the change in the educational climate, Morlan still has hope for what the future will look like. “I think currently with such a shortage and high need for educators, it has created a toxic climate in many schools. There is more negativity and more teachers are leaving the field. This is incredibly discouraging to students who are going through the education program who are so excited to teach,” she said.

“It’s also disappointing knowing how much work goes into this field, yet many teachers cannot afford to live. The pay is nowhere near enough,

GALERÍA DE ARTE extendida de página 1

Aaron Wilson es un profesor de grabado en el departamento de arte quien ha estado aconsejando a los estudiantes que están presentando sus obras.

Según Wilson, el departamento de arte de UNI les da a los estudiantes una oportunidad para crecer como artistas más allá del salón de clases. “Los estudiantes del BFA trabajan de cerca con nuestra facultad para desarrollar una dirección creativa clara que culmina en esta exposición. Muchas de sus clases avanzadas de práctica permiten el estudio creativo independiente, guiado por la crítica continua.

El título también requiere un curso de prácticas profesionales que ayuda a preparar a los estudiantes para sus carreras después de la graduación. Un curso de teoría del arte, llamado Problemas Críticos en Arte Contemporáneo, también es un requisito. “Por eso, la gama de interacción con la facultad es amplia”, dijo Wilson.

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319.273.6420 but I have decided to continue for the kids and because I am so passionate about education. They are future leaders and change-makers, so I want to make a positive impact and give students the tools they need to be independent and thrive,” Morlan said. most rewarding part of the job,” Wadle said.

Becky Hawbaker Faculty Co-Chair for Educator Preparation

Morlan is not the only student majoring in education who thinks the education system has faults. Samuel Wadle is a math teaching major at UNI who has dreamed of pursuing a career in education since elementary school. “While I may teach math, the part of education that really draws me to the profession is the students and how educators are able to shape them. Creating a lasting impression on those kids is the

“La facultad del departamento de arte disfruta la oportunidad de trabajar con estudiantes detalladamente, más allá de lo que el título de Licenciatura en Humanidades permite. Lo qué yo más disfruto personalmente de enseñar a los estudiantes del BFA es la oportunidad de ver sus obras evolucionar durante el curso del programa. La exposición del BFA actúa como un catalizador para hacer crecer su trabajo, muchas veces más allá de sus propias expectativas”.

La estudiante Jenna Jansen es una pintora y artista de performance cuyas obras serán presentadas en la próxima exposición. Para ella, la oferta de cursos fuera de su especialización y las memorias de niñez le han ayudado a formar su habilidad artística.

“También soy estudiante de psicología, y pienso que mis cursos de psicología han influido profundamente en algunos de mis procesos de pensamiento, especialmente mi trabajo de performance. Conceptos como

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KARINA ORTIZ Spanish Editor ortizkac@uni.edu la concientización, y el estado de fluidez son herramientas que me gusta utilizar cuando creó arte”, dijo Jansen. “En este momento de mi vida, mirando atrás a las experiencias del pasado es donde me encontré en términos de inspiración para dibujar. Me tomó mucho tiempo pensando en mi crianza como una niña joven en el rural noreste de Iowa y cómo ha sido integrada en mi existencia entera”.

According to Wadle, the recent legislation is harming Iowa schools. “I feel as educators, it is our responsibility to provide a safe and positive environment in which the students are able to learn. Banning and/ or restricting people or things does one thing in my eyes; it takes away an opportunity to learn. These students will likely be presented with difficult or uncomfortable situations at some point in their lives and making school a space where these situations do not occur eliminates the chance we have as educators to prepare our students for what may lie ahead,” Wadle said.

Becky Hawbaker is a UNI alumni, graduating in 1991 with a history-teaching major, and later attending the University of Iowa where she earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in special education. Hawbaker is now an assistant professor in the Department of Teaching and serves as the faculty co-chair for educator preparation.

For Hawbaker, the recent action in the Iowa house and senate has changed the way she approaches conversations with UNI education students.

El trabajo de Jansen presentará reflexiones sobre el género y la imagen género. “Yo he pintado muchas de mis obras a partir de fotografías de mí misma puesto un traje de baño en diferentes pasos de mi vida. Las maneras en que yo personalmente he sido entrenada para representar mi género, como ponerme maquillaje y llevar puesto bikinis, son cosas en las que me enfoqué mientras estuve creando esta obra. También hay algunos trabajos de vídeos y esculturales incluidos en el programa que siguen el mismo tema”, dijo Jansen.

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“New legislation and the current political climate have definitely influenced how I talk to my students about their future teaching jobs. It is important for our new teachers to go in with their eyes wide open and understand that things we used to take for granted, like a general respect for teachers and respect for their content knowledge, are no longer so true,” she said.

“I tell them to really research the schools and districts they apply to teach in and to be cautious in their first few years until they have their standard license. I tell them about some of the negative experiences of some of my former students. I tell them to join their union and research their contract before they sign it,” Hawbaker said. “But I also tell them that our democracy has never needed caring, intelligent, creative, principled young teachers like them in our schools more, and that the power to transform lives through education is ultimately worth the frustrations, stress and noise.”

As Hawbaker pursued her own education, she encountered obstacles. But ultimately, her passion for teaching held constant throughout all struggles.

Taylor Sullivan es un colega estudiante BFA y dijo que sus obras estaran llenas de color. Sullivan dijo que los espectadores pueden esperar a ver, “Mucho rosa. Y un sentido abrumador de ambos feminidad infantil y adulta”.

La inspiración de Sullivan viene de sus propias experiencias de su vida. “La mayoría de mi trabajo actual que será exhibido en la presentación es derivado de mi experiencia creciendo como una niña nacida en Y2K. Hay un idioma inherente y una cultura circundante de esa década sobre la que yo quería comentar. Yo nunca fui una Barbie, yo fui una Bratz. Como una hija única, estoy interesada en inclinarme a la identidad estereotípica de la hija única que es consentida, hermosa y obtiene todo lo que ella quiera”, dijo Sullivan. “Todo lo que es rosa y brillante y reluciente y empalagoso es la veta a la que yo estoy aspirando”.

También Sullivan da crédito de su éxito al departamento de arte de UNI. “Mis profesores

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“I completed my Ph.D. while working full time here at UNI (2008-2018) and trying to be a good mother to three wonderful daughters. The closure of Price Lab and my battle with breast cancer in 2012 were probably my biggest obstacles, and I overcame them with the support of my family, friends and colleagues. I just stayed focused on the positives and where I had the power to make change,” Hawbaker said.

Despite encountering numerous obstacles, Hawbaker has focused on improving the future of education by connecting with young students here at UNI. She is eager to make a difference in the educational system, and is using UNI as the catalyst for that movement.

“I chose to become a teacher because it was a perfect match for my love of learning, my desire to make a positive difference, and because I really enjoy working with children and youth,” Hawbaker said. “Teaching is really more of a vocation or calling than just a job, and despite, or maybe even because of all the new controversies and political pressures, I’d still choose teaching all over again.” y las clases en UNI me han convertido en la artista que yo soy hoy en día. Mirando atrás, viniendo al departamento de arte yo no entendía la profundidad que el arte podía tener ni el espacio que podía ocupar. Yo no sabía qué era arte de performance cuando llegué aquí por primera vez. Siempre estoy agradecida a la facultad por permitir que mi mente creativa se expanda”, dijo Sullivan.

Para mas información, visita https://gallery.uni.edu/ o contacta a Laura Gleissner, directora de la galería de arte de UNI.

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Los estudiantes pueden apoyar y disfrutar las obras de sus colegas empezando el 24 de abril, a las 7 p.m en Kamerick Art Building.

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