Spectrum 2013

2013 NEWSLE T TER: A YE AR IN REVIEW

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND HUM AN DEVELOPMENT â&#x20AC;˘ THE UNIVERSIT Y OF TEX AS AT SAN ANTONIO

6 Discovering Peru 14 A lesson in Chinese culture 16 Student spotlights 28 Serving those who serve

College opens new center to help military families

Students go to South America to travel, teach, and learn

Graduate students study abroad in China

Four undergraduate students open up about their COEHD experience

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Letter from the Dean 23

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LETTER FROM THE DEAN

elcome to the 2013: A Year in Review issue of the Spectrum magazine for the College of Education and Human Development. We are gearing up for the Spring 2014 semester, and faculty, staff and students are deeply engaged in the educational process, enthusiastically working with a wide range of community partners, and making important contributions with respect to teaching and learning, health and wellness. As we continue to pursue our goal of becoming a Tier One university, we reÂŹmain committed to innovative research that responds to the needs of the communities we serve, while also generating new knowledge that plays a critical role in informing the policies and practices of educators, counselors, and health professionals. Also essential to achieving our mission is our commitment to providing students with the knowledge and skills they need to work respectfully, creatively, and collaboratively with diverse populations, often within rapidly changing and unpredictable contexts. We are deeply conscious of the responsibilities we bear as educators and are unwavering in our commitment to serve others through excellence in teaching, research, and service. While no single publication can capture the full range and quality of activities in which our students and faculty are currently participating, this issue provides a sampling of some of the work that we do. The articles demonstrate our commitment to local, national, and international research, teaching, and service. As reflected in

the Spectrum, our faculty members continue to distinguish themselves and our college by being elected to influential leadership positions in their national professional organizations. The networks associated with these organizations provide valuable opportunities for our students to interact with experts in their respective fields of study. Also highlighted in this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Spectrum is our new Center for the Well-Being of Military Families. We are constantly growing and refining our programs, and we appreciate your continuing support of our efforts, particularly at a time when public education, regardless of the national context, is facing enormous challenges. Best Wishes for the New Year! Respectfully, Betty Merchant

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

New faculty

04Growth 08

News Briefs

Highlights from 2013

Community Impact

Year one with TEAM Students learn through community service

2013 N E WSLE T TER: A YE AR I N RE VIE W

International Perspective Discovering Peru A lesson in Chinese culture and education An educational excursion to the Amazon

Dean: Dr. Betty Merchant Associate Dean of Graduate Studies: Dr. Page Smith Associate Dean of Research: Dr. Amaury Nora

20Faculty Publications 23

Awards and Grants

Alumni Spotlight

Associate Dean for Teacher Education: Dr. Blanche DesjeanPerrotta Associate Dean for Undergraduate Student Success: Dr. Janis Harmon Associate Dean for The Consortium for Social Transformation: Dr. Michael Jennings Spectrum Managing Editor: Deborah Silliman Wolfe Spectrum Editors: Jo Ann Jones, Sherrie Voss Matthews Contributing Writers: Christi Fish, Jo Ann Jones, Sherrie Voss Matthews, and Deborah Silliman Wolfe Spectrum Graphic Design: Deborah Silliman Wolfe

Student Spotlight

On the cover:

This yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cover photo is a detail shot of the feathers on a six-foot-tall, 11-foot-long, thousand-pound iron Rowdy the Roadrunner statue. The statue was selected by UTSA students and officials to represent the spirit of UTSA for generations into the future.

(Photo by Deborah Silliman Wolfe)

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31Donors

The Spectrum is a publication of the College of Education and Human Development at The University of Texas at San Antonio. College of Education and Human Development One UTSA Circle Main Building 3.304 San Antonio, Texas 78249 210-458-4370 utsa.edu/education To receive complimentary copies of this publication, email us at: education@utsa.edu

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Educational Leadership and Policy Studies = ELPS Interdisciplinary Learning & Teaching = ILT Abbreviations: Bicultural-Bilingual Studies = BBL

Purdue University in Mathematics Education. Research interests: assessment design in STEM education and educational reform in international settings.

Associate Professor, ILT Ed.D. from

National-Louis University in Curriculum and Social Inquiry with a concentration in curriculum theory and social foundations. Research interests: critical examination of race, ethnicity, and gender in teaching and teacher education; lived experiences of women of color as pre-service teachers, in-service teachers, and teacher educators.

Assistant Professor, ILT Ph.D. from The

University of Tennessee and The University of Padua, Italy (international dual degree program) in Education. Research interests: new literacies and youth cultures.

Kara Styck

come to COEHD from across the nation and the globe. Welcome, new faculty!

Associate Professor, ILT Ph.D. from

Vittorio Marone

new faculty members to The University of Texas at San Antonio. These new scholars

from the College of William & Mary. Research interests: cognitive developmental theory and concepts of mental health and mental illness across cultures.

Curtis Brewer

The College of Education and Human Development would like to introduce our twenty

Guadalupe Carmona-Dominguez

Assistant Professor, Counseling Ph.D.

Theodorea Berry

NEW FACULTY

Kristen Lindahl Assistant Professor, BBL Ph.D. from the University of Utah in Linguistics with a specialization in Second Language Teacher Education. Research interests: teacher language awareness, content-based instruction, and leadership in english language education.

Derek Robertson

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Becky Huang

Assistant Professor, BBL Ph.D. from the University of California Los Angeles in Educational Psychology with a concentration in Second Language Acquisition. Research interests: second language acquisition, bilingualism and biliteracy, and assessment of second/ foreign language proficiency.

Assistant Professor, ELPS Ph.D. from University of Texas at Austin in Educational Administration with a concentration in Policy and Planning. Research interests: the political action of educators and critical histories of policy development.

Assistant Professor, Educational Psychology Ph.D. from Arizona State

University in School Psychology. Research interests: Evidence-based assessment of learning, behavioral, and developmental disabilities, and decision-making for diagnostic and intervention purposes.

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Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio in Biochemistry. Research interests: heart disease, dietary supplements, and elderly nutrition.

NEW FACULTY

Assistant Professor, Kinesiology, Health, and Nutrition Ph.D. from University of

Assistant Professor, ILT Ph.D. from

University of Wisconsin-Madison in Curriculum and Instruction and Education Policy Studies. Research interests: markets in education, immigrant education, and social justice education.

Assistant Professor, ELPS Ph.D. from Texas State University in School Improvement. Research interests: issues of Latinos in education, the superintendency and leadership preparation for social justice.

William Land

University in School Psychology. Research interests: quality indicators of school psychology intervention research and school-based mental health services.

Sarah Ullevig

Victor Villarreal Assistant Professor, Educational Psychology Ph.D. from Texas A&M

Assistant Professor, ELPS Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in Educational Policy and Planning. Research interests: educational experiences for underserved student groups and sociocultural contexts of education.

from University of Central Florida in Counselor Education and Supervision. Research interests: trauma and counselor supervision.

Juan Manuel Niño

Mason University in Special Education with a concentration in Instructional Technology. Research interests: adolescent literacy, instructional interventions for students with mild disabilities, special education technology applications, and inclusive education.

Nathern Okilwa

Richard Boon Associate Professor, ILT Ph.D. from George

Associate Professor, ILT Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in the area of Curriculum and Instruction with a specialization in multilingual studies. Research interests: children’s play and play environments.

Assistant Professor, Counseling Ph.D.

Bekisizwe Ndimande

Arizona State University in Educational Psychology with an emphasis in School Psychology. Research interests: the accuracy of high-stakes educational decisions and quantitative methods for evaluating and developing empirically-based classification systems.

from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Counseling and Counselor Education. Research interests: the integration of religion and spirituality in counseling and African-American mental health help-seeking behaviors.

John Sutterby

Crystal Kalinec-Craig Assistant Professor, ILT Ph.D. from

Assistant Professor, Counseling Ph.D.

Hope Bell

University of Texas at Austin in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Cultural Studies in Education and a doctoral portfolio in Mexican American Studies. Research interests: the use of testimonio as methodological, pedagogical and political work Latin@ educational issues; Chicana feminist thought; and teacher preparation.

Janeé Avent

Linda Prieto Assistant Professor, BBL Ph.D. from The

Assistant Professor, Health & Kinesiology Ph.D. from Florida State

University in Sport Psychology. Research interests: attention, choking under pressure, and the mental representation of complex movements.

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Growth

U.S. News & World Report Ranks UTSA among Texas’ Top Five Graduate Programs in Education By Christi Fish/ University Communications

U.S. News & World Report ranked U.S. graduate programs in education by analyzing the data of 278 universities which offer education-related doctoral degrees. Weight was given to (1) quality assessment surveys conducted in fall 2012 among education school deans, deans of graduate studies, and school superintendents; (2) doctoral student selectivity; (3) the quality of each university’s doctoral faculty; and (4) each education school’s research expenditures (30 percent). 6

he University of Texas at San Antonio College of Education and Human Development was ranked in the spring of 2013 as one of Texas’ top five graduate programs in Education by U.S. News & World Report. The rankings measure U.S. graduate programs according to their student selectivity, faculty resources, research activity, and the quality and ranking of their programs according to higher education administrators across the country. “We are extremely happy to be recognized by U.S. News & World Report,” said Dr. Page Smith, associate dean of the College of Education and Human Development (COEHD). “The faculty is doing a great job of preparing our graduates for real-world work experiences and are excited that others are taking notice as well.” COEHD includes six academic departments: Bicultural-Bilingual Studies, Counseling, Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Educational Psychology, Health and Kinesiology, and Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching. It offers

eight master’s degree programs, four doctoral programs and four graduate certification programs. “The College of Education and Human Development prepares students who are passionate about working with individuals, families, and communities to increase their potential and to provide new opportunities for growth,” said Betty Merchant, dean of the college. “Our scholars and alumni are highly recognized leaders in education, health and wellness, human development, and policy studies.” UTSA is an emerging Tier One research university that specializes in five research areas including human and social development. In support of that mission, COEHD prepares students to address the educational, psychological, social, and health needs of those they will serve, particularly through a global perspective. COEHD education scholars focus on research that addresses issues in globalization, cultural pluralism, transformative leadership and health. To that end, they contribute to policy discussions at the local, state, and national levels to encourage the transformation of the nation’s educational system. The college is home to six scholarly journals including the Journal of

Children’s Literature, Review of Higher Education, the Journal of Educational Foundations, Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social, the Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement, and the Journal of Creativity in Mental Health. Additionally, COEHD operates a series of centers which function as learning laboratories for graduate students in education while also providing service to the community. For example, the Center on Educational Leadership Policy and Professional Development provides opportunities for COEHD students and scholars to work with local school districts in identifying and implementing effective educational reform strategies. The Community Family Life Center provides free counseling to the San Antonio community. Likewise, the T.E.A.M. Center provides low-cost applied behavioral therapy services to children and teens with autism spectrum disorders. The college’s 28-foot Mobile Health Lab provides free health screenings to the public while facilitating research on Type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, and vascular diseases. In Fall 2013, there were 1,497 graduate students enrolled in the COEHD, 207 of whom were doctoral students.

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Growth

Newly transferred Coordinated Program in Dietetics admits first class by Christi Fish/University Communications and Jo Ann Jones/College of Education and Human Development

associate professor and director of the program. “The new Coordinated Program in Dietetics will help UTSA create a pipeline of new professionals who will encourage people to he University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) adopt healthy lifestyles.” Coordinated Program in Dietetics admitted the first Registered dietitians are an integral part of the U.S. class of students in fall 2013. The Texas Higher Education health-care system. They are trained to translate the Coordinating Board approved the establishment of the science of food and nutrition to prevent chronic diseases program in May of 2012 that will allow students to earn a and improve the overall health and well-being of people bachelor of Science in Nutrition and a subsequent master of all ages. of Dietetic Studies degree. Students in the program will be Commonly, registered dietitians focus on the nutrition eligible to sit for the Commission on Dietetics Registration interventions in the treatment of diabetes, obesity, cardionational exam to become registered dietitians (RDs). vascular disease, hypertension, gastrointestinal disorders, The program, which is housed in the Department of and renal diseases. They also provide medical nutrition Kinesiology, Health, and therapy for infants and Nutrition in the UTSA children with different College of Education and disorders, as well as Human Development, trauma patients who may currently has 10 students not be able to consume enrolled. The program food orally but need alwas granted Candidacy ternate ways of nutrition for Accreditation in for proper healing. 2009, and hosted a Currently, the program site visit November only offers junior-level 3 - 5, 2013, from the courses, but the univerAccreditation Council for sity will continue to add Nutrition and Dietetics courses each year as the (ACEND) for its full current class progresses Photo by Jo Ann Jones through the undergraduaccreditation. Students completing the program Front row left to right: Dr. Carmen Roman-Shriver, Brittany Wise, ate curriculum and into will be considered grad- Pamela Rodriguez, Gena Lee Basia, Ana Sessaty, Tracy De Leon, the master’s program of uates from an accredited and Dr. Sarah Ullevig. Back row left to right: Randahl Capurstudy. ro-Reeve, Angela Franks, Natalie Van Veldhuizen, Eric Sexton, program. Master’s-level students Elizabeth Verdayes, and Dr. Sonia Cotto-Moreno. “As the interest in will be in the classroom food and nutrition has once each week and grown and people better understand the link between at rotations 32 hours per week Tuesday through Friday proper nutrition and the prevention and treatment of during the fall and spring semesters. Supervised hours will chronic diseases, the need for health professionals in the be available at a variety of locations in San Antonio and dietetics field has increased,” said Carmen Roman-Shriver, other South Texas areas.

“The new Coordinated Program in Dietetics will help UTSA create a pipeline of new professionals who will encourage people to adopt healthy lifestyles.” - Carmen Roman-Shriver, associate professor and director of the Coordinated Program in Dietetics

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Growth

INTRODUCING

Center Military Families The

Photo by Deborah Silliman Wolfe

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for the Well-Being of

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Growth

New center to support military children and families By Deborah Silliman Wolfe/College of Education and Human Development

the center grows and develops, more UTSA students working toward a degree in teaching will he College of Education and Human have the opportunity to learn how to work with Development added a new center in 2013: the special issues military children face in the The Center for the Well-Being of Military classroom. “Our partnership with the Military Child Families. The center will focus on educational transitions, including those from military schools Education Coalition specifically targets the edto public schools, from one state or national edu- ucational needs of students, which makes it cational system to another, and from high school very relevant for the College of Education and to college. The center will focus not only on edu- Human Development to take on this center,” cational transitions, but also the social, emotion- said Merchant. “We will be working with the educators already in the schools doing professional al, and physical transitions of military children. “We are not only dedicated to serving veterans development, as well as educating our current and active-duty service members (including the pre-service teachers about the needs of military National Guard) here at UTSA, but their fami- children and families.” San Antonio currently has three active installalies as well, which is why we are partnering with the Military Child Education Coalition to open tions in the city and the surrounding area. our newest center, The “I think this collaboraCenter for the Well-Being “Our partnership with the Military Child tion is a match made in of Military Families,” said Education Coalition specifically targets heaven,” said Dr. David Dr. Betty Merchant, dean Splitek, project manager of the College of Education the educational needs of students, which for Higher Education and Human Development Initiatives for the makes it very relevant for the College of MCEC. “The more we (COEHD). COEHD will be working Education and Human Development to can get people with difwith the Military Child ferent viewpoints, differtake on this center.We will be working ent organizational strucEducation Coalition (MCEC) to help local San with the educators already in the schools tures to work together Antonio schools and teachfor a common purpose; it ers recognize and respond doing professional development, as well just makes sense to come to the unique challengtogether.” as educating our current pre-service es children of military The center plans on enmembers and their families. gaging the leadership of teachers about the needs of military In doing so, they will be Joint Base San Antonio as children and families. working with school liaison well as the family-support - Betty Merchant, dean of the College of officers (SLOs) from Joint structures within Fort Base San Antonio (JBSA) to Sam Houston, Lackland Education and Human Development educate pre-service teachers and Randolph Field. and to provide professional development for prac- Splitek says that it just makes sense to work with ticing teachers. The Departments of Counseling, UTSA and the community to help military chilEducational Leadership and Policy Studies, and dren and families. Kinesiology, Health, and Nutrition will also be “I am looking forward to the opportunity to involved to help with the emotional and physical work with the center,” said Splitek “I think that transitions experienced by many military children it’s going to benefit the military kids, and it is and families. going to benefit the entire San Antonio comSome of the curriculum endorsed by MCEC munity. Twenty years from now, we are going to is already being incorporated into the prepara- look back and say, ‘Man, I am glad we started tion of pre-service teachers in the Department that center! Look at the positive differences it has of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching. As made for our community.’”

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News Briefs

Donovan Fogt named director of UTSA Office of Undergraduate Research

Alan Shoho named associate vice provost for academic and faculty support The UTSA Office of the Provost announced that Academic Affairs has appointed the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies’ Dr. Alan Shoho as associate vice provost for academic and faculty support. In his new role as associate vice provost, Shoho will help facilitate the implementation and review of all faculty support programs. Among his current projects are a university-wide mentoring/coaching program, a faculty recognition program, and programming for the anticipated Faculty Center in the John Peace Library. Also, he will support initiatives related to the Downtown Campus.

In the spring of 2013, The University of Texas at San Antonio announced the selection of Donovan Fogt, associate professor in the Department of Kinesiology, Health, and Nutrition to serve as director of the Office of Undergraduate Research. The newly created office promotes the visibility and breadth of research opportunities for undergraduate students in all academic disciplines. As director of the Office of Undergraduate Research, Fogt will: • Provide leadership in the development, implementation, and evaluation of undergraduate research opportunities at UTSA. • Promote and facilitate the inclusion of UTSA undergraduates in faculty research. • Develop a program to apprentice undergraduates to faculty researchers. • Expand the breadth of UTSA research opportunities for undergraduates, and • Enhance student internship and cooperative learning opportunities. “Dr. Fogt has an outstanding reputation for excellence in teaching and research,” said Bernard Arulanandam, assistant vice president for research support. “I have every expectation that he will expand and enhance our existing undergraduate research program to help UTSA achieve its Tier One aspirations.”

Local middle school dedicated to COEHD lecturer On November 4, 2013, Northside Independent School District dedicated Folks Middle School to Dr. John M. Folks, senior lecturer in The University of Texas at San Antonio’s College of Education and Human Development. Folks served as superintendent of Northside Independent School District (NISD) for ten years before joining the College of Education and Human Development as a senior lecturer in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. Prior to his tenure as NISD’s superintendent, Folks served as dean of the School of Education at Southwestern Oklahoma State University and as superintendent for Oklahoma State, Midwest City–Del City Public Schools, and Spring Independent School District. Folks Middle School opened in 2013 and is one of 20 middle schools in NISD, the largest school district in the San Antonio metropolitan area.

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Throughout 2013, COEHD kinesiology professor Meizi He, M.D., Ph.D. and her team have been working with two local churches to implement an obesity prevention program targeting Latinos. In the spring of 2013, Dr. He and her team trained approximately 50 local church leaders to expand the program to eight additional churches on San Antonio’s South Side. Dr. He’s program, Building a Healthy Temple, is a faith-based program that promotes healthy eating, active living and healthy body weight. It is funded in part by the Baptist Health Foundation. Church leaders, lay leaders, and church volunteers participate in the program, and the participants collaborate to share best practices between congregations. Some of the training that took place were break-out sessions to train participants on the components of the program: health sermons, Bible study, Sunday School, nutrition education and cooking demonstrations, and physical activity. “We have piloted Building a Healthy Temple in San Antonio for two years, and it has been embraced by church leaders and church-goers,” said Dr. He. “Our pilot studies have shown that many of the participants have adopted more active lifestyles. It’s really exciting to have the support of the Baptist Health Foundation, so we can expand the program to reach more people here in San Antonio.”

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Center for Accelerated Schools celebrates one year at UTSA The Center for Accelerated Schools celebrated its one-year anniversary at The University of Texas at San Antonio in fall 2013. The Center for Accelerated Schools (CAS) came to the College of Education and Human Development (COEHD) in the fall of 2012 after being housed at The University of Texas at Austin for 16 years. The center engages the community, administrators, staff, teachers, parents, and students in creating the best schools for all students. In 2013, the center worked to help take Texas schools and teachers to the next level. “Our long history of success is directly connected to our diverse staff of highly dedicated and talented educators who value a system of continuous improvement that permeates every aspect of our work.” said Joan Vasbinder, director of CAS. “Our work is exciting, challenging and inspiring, as we support educators in identifying ways to increase student outcomes.” During this past year the center was a co-sponsor with The Center for Educational Leadership, Policy and Professional Development to put on a series of Superintendents’ Luncheons which focused on topics such as leadership, school finance, curriculum and instruction, and high stakes testing. CAS has participated in the COEHD’s Superintendents’ Symposiums, as well as sponsoring and collaborating with colleagues from the Counseling and Educational Psychology Departments to host “Principals, Counselors, and School Psychologists: Collaborating for Student Success,” a joint event for students in the programs’ internship classes. CAS also collaborated with Dr. Maria Arreguin-Anderson’s ECE 6363 class; Differentiated Instruction in a Diverse Classroom. Based on their course outline, CAS staff presented professional development experiences in “Understanding Teaching and Learning Styles through True Colors” and “Powerful Learning in the Differentiated Classroom”. Students were engaged in authentic hands-on, minds-on activities that were taken immediately back to the classrooms or course work for implementation.

News Briefs

Meizi He and research team help train local church leaders to combat obesity

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Photo to left: The documentary film Stolen Education made its San Antonio debut on Sept.19, 2013, at the UTSA Downtown Campus’ Buena Vista Theater. The film, which was shown to more than 300 people, tells the story of a group of Mexican American elementary school students who testified in one of the first federal desegregation cases in Texas.

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News Briefs

UTSA scholars to study health effects of electronic cigarettes By Christi Fish/Associate Director of Media Relations

n the spring of 2013, College of Education and Human Development’s William Cooke and Donovan Fogt received $30,000 in seed funding from UTSA to find out just how safe electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are. The UTSA kinesiologists will team up with Assistant Professor Caroline Rickards at the University of North Texas Health Science Center to gather baseline data about the effects of e-cigarettes on the body’s basic physiological health. For six years, e-cigarettes have been aggressively marketed as an alternative for smokers who want to decrease the risk of the serious health problems associated with conventional cigarette smoking. Instead of inhaling a cigarette’s nicotine and carbon monoxide, e-cigarette users inhale vaporized pure nicotine. But, very little research has been done about the effects of inhaling vaporized nicotine. Through 2014, the researchers will study the effects that inhaling vaporized nicotine has on a person’s heart rate, blood pressure, resting metabolic rate, physical work capacity, and brain blood flow. UTSA students pursuing kinesiology and health-related careers will conduct research alongside the scholars, giving them the opportunity to learn quantitative research methods in preparation for their careers in academia and health-related professions. The scholars will work under the hypothesis that vaporized nicotine stimulates the human nervous system in ways that could seriously impact daily living. They believe that the inhalation of vaporized nicotine has the potential to increase a person’s resting metabolism, making exercise problematic. They also believe it prevents the cardiovascular system from properly regulating arterial pressure and decreases the brain’s ability to regulate blood flow. “E-cigarettes are perceived as safer than actual smoking, and some people even perceive them to be an attractive weight-loss tool,” said Fogt. “This study aims to quantify the metabolic consequences of inhaling vaporized nicotine.” Cooke added, “This study is an important first step to understanding the physiological complications and public health concerns surrounding the use of e-cigarettes. It will also give us a better understanding of the health effects of pure nicotine without the harmful poisons found in tobacco products on the autonomic nervous system.” If this study confirms the scholars’ hypotheses, additional research will be needed to further understand the immediate effects of vaporized nicotine, the impact of dosage and age on an e-cigarette user’s health and the long-term effects of e-cigarettes. The UTSA Department of Kinesiology, Health, and Nutrition serves more than 1,000 students in four undergraduate degree programs, a minor and a master’s program. Its faculty specializes in community health, school health, nutrition, exercise physiology, exercise and sport psychology, pedagogy, adaptive/developmental physical education, biomechanics, motor learning and control, and evaluation and assessment. Research conducted in the department focuses on the prevention and treatment of risks for diseases and promotion of healthy growth and living across lifespan.

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By KC Gonzalez/Public Affairs Specialist

he National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) history can now be found at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), where it was partially rooted. Albar A. Peña, former UTSA faculty member and the first director of the UTSA Department of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies, helped start the association and became its

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first president in 1975. Now, nearly four decades later, the association’s records are being preserved at the university. NABE has donated 61 boxes of correspondence, administrative files, legislative lobbying documents, audio-visual materials, photographs and conference records to the UTSA Libraries. The association is an advocate for bilingual and English language learners and cultivates a multilingual, multicultural society by supporting and promoting policy, programs, pedagogy, research and professional development. The collection constitutes 43 years of history that represent the work many individuals have carried out to advance bilingual education in the U.S., said Rossana Ramirez Boyd, immediate past president and current member of NABE. “We are pleased to know the UTSA Libraries will make the information available to the public,” she said. “This is particularly important to the new generation of scholars and policy makers who have been searching for NABE’s history to write their theses, dissertations, and articles on bilingual education.” Belinda Bustos Flores, professor and chair of the UTSA Department of BiculturalBilingual Studies, helped facilitate the acquisition. “There are historical roots and reasons for UTSA having the NABE archives,” said Flores. “Albar Peña had a long history of activism and vision for bilingual education. His professional records alone consist of 16.2 feet of archival materials spanning more than 40 years, during which he served Texas and the nation in high-level positions of advocacy for bilingualism and biculturalism. We are thrilled to have this legacy available at UTSA.” NABE was looking for a location with a reputation of strong collections and services that included organizing and making the collection available for research, while providing onsite and remote reference services. “With Bicultural-Bilingual Studies as one of the founding academic units at UTSA, bilingual education has a long history at the university,” said Nikki Thomas, manuscripts curator at UTSA Libraries. “Special Collections is pleased to add the records of NABE to our holdings where they will complement both manuscript and university archives collections.”

News Briefs

BBL helps facilitate acquisition of National Association for Bilingual Education records to UTSA Libraries

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Community Impact

n January 2013, the College of Education and Human Development announced a new center focused on addressing the needs of children with autism - the Teacher Education Autism Model. Dr. Lee Mason, an assistant professor of Special Education in the Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching, runs the center and a new Board Certified Behavior Analyst, Alonzo Andrews, has been hired to assist with supervision in the center. Now, a year after the center first opened, Mason gives the Spectrum an update.

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Year one with TEAM Q: So, tell us, how has the first year been at the center? A: The first year at the TEAM Center has been more

successful than we could have imagined! Our goal in developing the center was to create a facility for children with autism around which we could focus our research, teaching, and service. We impact our local community by providing functional communication training and other behavior analytic intervention to individuals with autism spectrum disorders. The masters students (who work in the center as behavioral technicians) will make an even greater difference when, upon graduation, they take teaching positions across the state. And the research we’re conducting at the center will have a national and international effect with respect to evidence-based practices for treating autism.

Q: Tell me about some of the center’s biggest successes it has had in its first year. A: Our initial success was in recruiting two of our special education graduate students to volunteer their time in the center to accrue supervised field experience hours needed to sit for the Board Certified Behavior Analysis exam. I’ll be forever indebted to these two brave students who were willing to take a chance by working here in our first semester in existence. But these students also helped to shape the TEAM Center into what it has become. They’re leaders among the other behavioral technicians, and have conducted research at the center and presented their findings at state conferences. Q: What challenges have you run into? A: The primary challenge is finding enough time in

the day to do everything we need to do! We’re currently working on developing a referent-based curriculum for our techs to use with the children in the center, along with a corresponding supervision protocol. We have a growing queue of manuscripts for which data has been collected and that are just waiting to be written up. And we’re always working on designing the next research study.

Q: How many children with autism have you served? A: So far we’ve been able to directly serve 15 area children

with autism and their families. The children’s ages have ranged from two to 17 years old. In the long semesters (fall and spring) we plan to continue to provide early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) to children up through age five. During the summer semester, we expand our outreach to school-age children who might not otherwise receive educational services during the summer months.

Q: How many UTSA students were able to participate in the center, and what were their roles? A: So far, nine different UTSA students have volunteered their time in the TEAM Center as behavioral technicians working directly with children with autism, and an additional nine students have worked as consultants to the families we serve. We’ve also involved several undergraduate students in research projects at the center, some of who have now applied for our graduate program. We’re thrilled to be able to get students interested in research so early on! Q: Is there a certain field of study that students have to be

studying to work in with TEAM? A: Currently, all of our behavior techs have been graduate students seeking a Master of Arts in Education with an emphasis in Special Education. The family consultants are completing their Master of Arts in School Psychology. But we’ve also had students from the counseling and psychology department express interest in our program.

Q: What do you hope to see happen in the next year at the center? A: We plan to continue to expand our services over year two and beyond. We’re going after some major grant funding which will allow us to continue to conduct research, physically develop the laboratory and observation spaces, and produce expert classroom teachers and behavior analysts.

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By Jo Ann Jones/College of Education and Human Development

or many students, Mondays signify the end of the weekend and the start of a new school week. For Danielle Hernandez, Mondays meant having the opportunity to give back to the community and apply her class work in the real world by working one-on-one with local elementary school students. Hernandez was one of 30 students who participated in a service learning project through the Academy for Teacher Excellence (ATE), one of the centers in the College of Education and Human Development (COEHD) at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). Service learning, or the application of lessons learned in the classroom to real-world situations, is completed through semester or yearlong service projects. Hernandez’s project was mentoring Robotics Club members at Regency Place Elementary School’s, a dual-language, Title I elementary school in the Northeast Independent School District. Once a week, Hernandez and the other UTSA student mentors involved in one of ATE’s service learning projects would travel to one of the seven participating elementary or middle schools in Southside ISD, South San ISD, Edgewood ISD, Northside ISD, or Northeast ISD, which serve a high number of Latinos and other

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under-served and under-represented student populations. There, they would work with students to develop 21st century skills through robotics in these informal learning clubs. “Our job as leaders or mentors was to try to encourage them to reach higher and not give up,” said Hernandez, a COEHD interdisciplinary studies major with a concentration in math and science for fourth through eighth grade. “You could just see them light up and they were all excited about what they were going to do that day.” The UTSA undergraduate student mentors were placed in groups of four to five and sent to the partner schools to assist the clubs’ sponsors and help the students achieve weekly goals, from building the robots to programming the robots to move a certain way. “Sometimes we were trying to program it [the robot] to go straight, go left and turn around and all of the kids were really excited,” said Hernandez. “They wanted to be a part of something bigger. They knew they were going to compete and I knew that I was going to help them go through all of those processes and guide them to an end goal.” According to ATE Principal Investigator Belinda Bustos Flores, service learning does more than give back to the community. The robotics clubs increase participants’ access to informal learning opportunities and enrich experiences that promote

Community Impact

UTSA students learn through community service

creativity and inquiry. “[These schools] don’t necessarily have the funds for the resources that we can provide them under the grant,” said Shannon Sczech, ATE educational specialist. “Service learning has also been eye-opening for some of these UTSA student mentors to see how much some of these younger kids don’t have.” Service learning is offered university-wide through the Inclusion and Community Engagement Center, but ATE’s Service Learning is unique. The service learning opportunities offered through ATE are open to all majors, allowing students from a multitude of disciplines to work together on a particular project, emphasizing cross-disciplinary collaboration. For Hernandez, that collaboration allowed her to work with engineering majors. “We are willing to collaborate with anyone, students and professors,” said Sczech. “We are always open to collaborative efforts at the university.” One of the goals for this upcoming semester is to increase both student and faculty participation, a goal Sczech hopes they will meet. Currently, ATE’s service learning opportunities are not tied to certain college courses, but eventually, Sczech would like to collaborate with professors from across the university so that the students can get course credit for their work. “Right now, we hope that we can keep it going,” said Sczech. “We want undergraduates and, even more so, faculty members coming to us to see what we are about and what we offer to help them with whatever they need.” Aside from the robotics clubs, which was the most popular service learning project during the 20122013 school year, ATE also offers service learning opportunities in face-to-face tutoring, virtual tutoring, facilitating professional development events, student internships, assisting the ATE office with day-to-day tasks, other informal learning clubs and the opportunity to act as an alumni mentor. Students who participate in service learning must be willing to Continued on page 31

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International Perspectives

Discovering “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

his past summer, a group of College of Education and Human Development students had the chance to explore, dream, and discover just as Twain suggested when they took part in a faculty-led study abroad trip to Peru. Drs. Peter Sayer and Lilliana Saldaña, assistant professors in the Department of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies, led 13 undergraduate and graduate students on the five-week trip that was funded through a Fullbright-Hays Group Project Abroad Program. “Now that we have the experience of writing a successful Fulbright grant and doing a successful trip, hopefully we’ll get to do something like this again,” said Sayer. “That is the great thing about the Fullbright: it gives you opportunity to do things that you would never get the chance to do normally.” The 2013 Peru trip gave the students a chance to explore historical sites in the country, learn about the Peruvian culture, take language classes in either Spanish or Quechua, an indigenous South American language, and teach English in a variety of school settings. “We learned to be creative and flexible, we had this thing that we thought we were going to do when we entered the schools in Peru,” said Sayer. “We prepared lessons plans here in the states, and then to actually get in the classroom and get in sync with Peruvian teachers; it was interesting. The theme of our trip was interculturality, so you had to be able to see where the other person was coming from and see what the students were able to do if you gave them space.” The University of Texas at San Antonio group was hosted by a local Peruvian University, Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola, and the students had the opportunity to live with local, Peruvian families in home stays. The travelers spent their first two weeks working in the K-12 setting, teaching English to school children in conjunction with local Peruvian teachers. “I love kids, and I really got the chance to interact with the kids and teenagers in the schools where we were teaching,” said Magdalena Yznaga, a Master’s student in bilingual education who hopes to teach at the university level when she graduates. “I enjoyed the teaching experi-

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ences, even though I don’t see myself as an elementary or middle school teacher, I really loved it.” After the two weeks of teaching English in schools in Cuzco, Peru, the group had the chance to travel to bilingual and bi-cultural schools outside of the city, as well as visit a variety of historical sites, including Machu Picchu. “Hiking at ancient sites blew me away,” said Sonya Rose Hernandez, a Mexican American Studies major with a concentration Literary and Cultural Studies. “I have never listened to the wind so closely, stared at the clouds so intently and definitely felt so close to mother nature or ‘pachamama’ as they say in Peru. I kept imagining what it was like for those ancient societies living in those areas and could almost feel their spirits lingering. It was truly breathtaking.” Kristina Marshall, an Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching undergrad, said that she would recommend that other students study abroad because the experience was worth the extra effort. “My world is forever changed,” Marshall said. “Seeing the teachers and students in Peru and their struggles gives me a new perspective on how wonderful my life truly is; this new found gratitude will follow me through my studies and my career.” Marshall said that during her time in Peru she learned more about herself and the world than in all her years of formal education. “I discovered a strength in myself that I previously was unaware of and for the first time I honestly believed I could do anything I set my mind to,” she said. “I can honestly say now that I had the time of my life in Peru and would gladly do it all again.” To learn more about study abroad opportunities at UTSA, visit utsa.edu/studyabroad

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Story by Deborah Silliman Wolfe/ College of Education and Human Development

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International Perspectives

PERU

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International Perspectives

Chine A lesson in G

raduate students and faculty from the College of Education and Human Development at The University of Texas at San Antonio spent three weeks in China this past May as part of a college-wide study abroad opportunity. The College of Education and Human Development (COEHD) sponsored the study abroad trip, which was held in conjunction with a special Maymester health and kinesiology course, for the purpose of understanding and experiencing the educational and cultural systems in China. Drs. Wan Yao and Page Smith led the group of thirteen graduate students, which included five master’s students and

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eight doctoral students. “I think China was a fantastic experience for the students,” said Dr. Page Smith, associate dean of Graduate Studies and professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. “Our students had a good experience that was balanced between seeing China and the Chinese culture and connecting deeply with the student population in China.” The study abroad trip, which took place from May 13 to June 1, also served as a way for the COEHD students to apply what they have learned in the classroom in real-world situations.

“This trip was something that the students could not get from just learning in the classroom or just looking at the Internet,” said Dr. Wan Yao, department chair and associate professor for the Department of Kinesiology, Health and Nutrition. “It was quite a learning experience.” During their time in China, the COEHD students had the opportunity to stay on campus and work one-on-one with peer students at Tianjin Normal University. This was the first time COEHD students and faculty were able to stay on campus at a Chinese university since COEHD first offered the study

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International Perspectives

nese culture &education By JoAnn Jones/College of Education and Human Development Photos by Daniel Gonzales

abroad opportunity in 2009. The group stayed on campus for four days, and according to Yao, this allowed the COEHD students to fully immerse themselves in Chinese education and culture. “Our students and the Chinese hosting students worked one-on-one with each other,” said Yao. “That was probably the best part of our trip: Our students being able to understand the Chinese students, and how they study, how they live.” The Chinese students from Tianjin Normal University served as “language buddies,” and provided the COEHD students with insights into life as a college student in China.

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“I think for me, my favorite moment of the trip was meeting with our language buddies,” said Allegra Montemayor, Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching doctoral student. “Pairing up not only allowed us to get to know a Chinese student and get to know a little bit about their program, but I think it was also a personal perspective. They talked to us about China and their culture, what they do day in and day out.” For Paul Rodriguez, a fourth-year doctoral student in the Higher Education Administration program, staying on campus at Tianjin Normal University also meant gaining first-hand insight into

China’s higher education system. “It seems that China is in a state right now of their system growing tremendously, just like ours,” Rodriguez said. “More and more universities are becoming very trade specific for students to be able to pursue very specific certification-type programs in addition to higher-level training and degree programs. They are also trying to broaden their access to more populations, to people in rural communities as well.” Like Rodriguez, all of the COEHD students conducted research pertaining to their particular area of study in order to receive credit for the Maymester course. Continued on page 19

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International Perspectives

An educational excursion to the Amazon by JoAnn Jones/College of Education and Human Development

D “Personally and professionally, it was like finally getting to see something that you’ve heard about and read about all your life but I never really thought that I was going to get to experience it.”

r. Christine Moseley, a professor in the Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching at the College of Education and Human Development, joined more than 30 other educators from around the United States for the 2013 Educator Academy in Peru this past summer. The workshop, which ran from July 2 to July 16, was designed to teach educators, from elementary to university level, about the tropical environment of the Amazon Rainforest and the high mountainous environment of the Andes through hands-on activities and discussions. According to Moseley, the participants can then turn around and use that information, which will cover topics ranging from water sustainability practices to data collection to plant and animal adaptations, to educate their students. “The [workshop leaders] were from all over the U.S.,

and they were very clear that they tried to make what we experienced applicable to the classroom no matter where [we] came from,” said Moseley. During the workshop, which was co-sponsored by Arizona State University and EcoTeach, Moseley facilitated the collection of data measurements from the rainforest floor and from the canopy to analyze using the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) program curriculum protocol. These inquiry investigations and data collection methods, she said, were just some of the things she brought back with her to UTSA, a national GLOBE partner school, and specifically, the graduate-level science methods course she is teaching in the fall semester. “I brought back to the classroom the investigation [done] out in the field; how you can collect data with kids no matter where you live,” said Moseley, who is also a national GLOBE facilitator. “I think a lot of the dis-

- Dr. Christine Mosely

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Photos by Don Mercer

cussions on the trip were like that, what do we do in our own environment that impacts the rainforest, climate, pollution…and vice versa; if things happen over in the rainforest, how does that impact us?” As part of her trip, Moseley worked with local children at the Centro de Conocimiento Compartido public library, established by the Conservación de la Naturaleza Amazónica del Perú, A.C., or CONAPAC, a Peruvian nonprofit organization. To continue the library’s literacy efforts, Moseley collected fiction and non-fiction books for children and adults in Spanish that she took with with her to Peru. “Personally and professionally, it was like finally getting to see something that you’ve heard about and read about all your life but never really thought that I was going to get to experience it,” Moseley said. “When you do these types of things, it only makes you a better educator; then I have a better understanding and a bigger idea of the world and I can only bring that back to the classroom.”

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Much of this research, Smith said, was applied during their time at Tianjin Normal University and their time at Beijing Sport University and Peking University, two other universities visited during the group’s time abroad. “Visiting Beijing Sport University and watching the Olympic team work out right in front of us was pretty neat,” said Daniel Gonzalez, Bicultural-Bilingual Studies graduate student. “We got to go into labs and classrooms and facilities. We got as close as we could to seeing it through their [the Chinese students and faculty’s] eyes.” Aside from their research, COEHD students and faculty also visited several Chinese archaeological sites including the Terracotta Army, the Forbidden City and the Xi-An City Wall. “I think our students got a great understanding of the depth of Chinese culture,” Smith said. “We got a really good look at history. The students got to look at thousands of years of history rather than hundreds of years, like we have here in the United States.” According to a number of trip participants, one of the most memorable places the group visited was the Great Wall of China. “We went to the Great Wall our second day in China and that was fantastic,” said Rodriguez. “The physical climb of it was so impressive. It was really, really challenging because the point they took us, the peak of that area, was actually the highest point of the entire wall. So, I was really surprised at, physically, how hard it was to get to that point. It was really impressive. I thought the great wall was fantastic.” This year marked the third year that COEHD has sponsored the study abroad trip since it was first offered in 2009 and is an opportunity that both Smith and Yao hope they can continue to offer in the future. “It was a great experience,” said Smith. “I think my favorite part of the trip was probably seeing the communion that occurs and the transformation that occurs when we go with our students. When they get off of the plane, they were a little bit pensive, a little bit apprehensive, and by the end of the trip, they had not only digested China, but had risen to the occasion.”

International Perspectives

China trip

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Publications

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Barnett, B. G., Shoho, A. R., & Bowers, A. J. (2013) (Eds.). School and District Leadership in an Era of Accountability. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. Ndimande, B. S. (2013a). From Bantu education to the fight for social justice education, Equity & Excellence in Education,46 (1), 20-35. Ndimande, B. S. (2013b). The role of Indigenous languages and focus groups in qualitative inquiry: Experiences from the global South. In N. K. Denzin & M. D. Giardina (Eds.). Global Dimensions of Qualitative Inquiry (pp.85-102). Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast. Gabbard, C., & Cordova, A. (2013). Association between imagined and actual functional reach (FR): A comparison of young and older adults. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics,56 (3), 487-491. Ammar, D., Acevedo, G.A., & Cordova, A. (2013). Affordances in the Home Environment for Motor Development: A cross cultural study between American and Lebanese Children. Child Development Research, 2013, 1-5. Cordova, A*., & Gabbard, C. (expected in 2013). Do older adults perceive postural constraints for reach estimation? Experimental Aging Research. Yao, W.X., Liu, B., & Cordova, A., & Wang, Y. (2013). The effects of physical practice and imagery practice on bilateral transfer in learning a sequential tapping task. Journal of Imagery Research in Sport and Physical Activity. Park, S.W., Brenneman, M., Cooke, W.H., Cordova, A., & Fogt, D. (expected in 2013). Determination of anaerobic threshold by heart rate variability using discontinuous cycle ergometry. International Journal of Exercise Science. Land, W., Volchenkov, D., Bläsing, B., & Schack, T. (2013). From action representation to action execution: Exploring the links between cognitive and biomechanical levels of motor control. Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience, 7.

Land, W., Tenenbaum, G., Ward, P., & Marquardt, C. (2013). Examination of visual information as a mediator of external focus benefits. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 35, 250-259. Land, W., Rosenbaum, D. A., Seegelke, C., & Schack, T. (2013). Whole-body posture planning in anticipation of a manual prehension task: Prospective and retrospective effects. Acta Psychologica, 144, 298-307. Frank, C., Land, W., & Schack, T. (2013). Development of mental representations during learning of a complex action. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 14, 353-361. Oswalt, S.B. & Wyatt, T.J. (2013, online). Sexual health behaviors and sexual orientation in a U.S. national sample of college students. Archives of Sexual Behavior. Wyatt, T.J. & Oswalt, S.B. (2013). Comparing mental health issues among undergraduate and graduate students. American Journal of Health Education, 44 (2), 96–107 Oswalt, S.B. & Vargas-Tonsing, T.M (2013). How safe is the playing field? Collegiate coaches’ attitudes towards gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals. Sport in Society: Cultures, Commerce, Media, Politics, 16 (1) 120-132. Oswalt, S.B. & Wyatt, T.J (2013). Sexuality Education in the University Setting: Necessity or Luxury? In G. T. Papanikos (Ed.) Issues on Education and Research: Volume 3 (177-190). Athens, Greece: Athens Institute for Education and Research. Greenberg, J., Bruess, C, & Oswalt, S. (2013). Exploring the Dimensions of Human Sexuality, 5th Edition, Jones and Bartlett. Huang, B. H. (2013). The effects of age on second language grammar and speech production. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research. Huang, B. H., (2013). The effects of accent familiarity and language teaching experience on raters’ judgments of non-native speech. System: An International Journal of Educational Technology and Applied Linguistics, 41 (3), 770–785.

Evanini, K. & Huang, B. H. (2013). Production of English vowels by speakers of Mandarin Chinese with prolonged exposure to English. Proceedings of the 2012 Meeting on Acoustics (POMA), Kansas City, Missouri. Huang, B. H. (2013). Review of Zimmerman, L. W. (2010), ESL, EFL, & Bilingual Education: Exploring Historical, Sociocultural, Linguistic, and Instructional Foundations. The Modern Language Journal, 97 (1), 297-298. DuBois, D. L., & Karcher, M. J. (2013)(Eds.). Handbook of youth mentoring second edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Karcher, M. J. (2012). The Crossage Mentoring Program (CAMP) for Children with Adolescent Mentors: Mentor handbook. San Antonio, TX: Developmental Press. Karcher, M. J. (2012). The Crossage Mentoring Program (CAMP) for Children with Adolescent Mentors. Mentor trainer guide. San Antonio, TX: Developmental Press. Karcher, M. J. & Judson, B. (2012). The Cross-age Mentoring Program (CAMP) for Children with Adolescent Mentors: Curriculum for promoting connectedness through peer mentoring. San Antonio, TX: Developmental Press. Karcher, M. J. (2012). The Crossage Mentoring Program (CAMP) for Children with Adolescent Mentors: Program Manual. San Antonio, TX: Developmental Press. Davis, J.E. And Diem, R.A. (eds.) (2013). Sustainability, Growth, and Globalization: A Social Science Perspective. Information Age Press. Diem, R.A. (2013). Sustainability, Growth and Globalization: Perspectives, Speculation, and Reality in Sustainability, Growth, and Globalization; A Social Science Perspective, Information Age Press. Machado-Casas, M., Sánchez, P., & Ek, L.D. (2013). The digital literacy practices of Latina/o immigrant parents in an after-school technology partnership. Multicultural Education.

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Bibliographies in Latino Studies. Ed. Ilan Stavans. New York: Oxford University Press. Crisp, G., Horn, C., Dizinno, G., & Barlow, L. (2013). The long-term impact of admission policies: A comparative study of two emergent research institutions in Texas. S Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory and Practice, 15(3), 433-454. Crisp, G. (2013). The influence of co-enrollment on the success of traditional age community college students. Teachers College Record, 115(10). Crisp, G., & Taggart, A. (2013). Community college student success programs: A synthesis, critique, and research agenda. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 36(1), 114-130. Alanis, I. (2013) Where’s my partner? Developing effective bilingual pairs for dual language classrooms. Young Children 68 (1), 42-47. Riojas-Cortez, M., Alanís, I. & Flores, B. B. (2013). Early childhood teachers reconstruct beliefs and practices through reflexive action. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education 34(1), 36-45. Oliva, M., Rodriguez, M. A., Alanís, I. & Quijada, P. (May 2013). At home in the academy: Latina faculty counterstories and resistances. Journal of Special Foundations. Wright, W. E. (2013). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, theory, policy, and practice (2nd edition). Philadelphia: Caslon Publishing. Wright, W. E. (2013). Khmer (Cambodian). In Terrence G. Wiley, Joy K. Young, Donna Christian, Sarah Catherine K. Moore, & Na Liu (Ed.), Handbook of Heritage and Community Languages in the United States: Research, Educational Practice, and Policy. New York: Routledge. Boun, S., Wright, W. E. (2013). K-12 Schooling Experiences of Southeast Asian American Students. In R. Endo & X. L. Rong (Ed.), Educating Asian Americans: Achievement, Schooling, and Identities,

75-101. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. Lee, J. S. & Wright, W. E. (2013). The Rediscovery of Heritage and Community Language Education in the United States. Review of Research in Education. Brown, L. & Moseley, C. (2013, in press). Videoconferencing as an effective instruction strategy in secondary science classrooms. Electronic Journal of Science Education. Moseley, C., Bilica, K., & Wanless, A. (2013, in press). Relationship between science teaching efficacy and satisfaction of second career science teachers. School Science and Mathematics Journal. Moseley, C., Gdovin, R., & Jones, K. (2013). The use of digital storytelling in exploring mental models of science teachers. Electronic Journal of Science Education, 17(1), 1-20. Sohn, L. & Moseley, C. (Eds.) (2013). Aquatic WILD: Using Nature Journaling. Texas Parks and Wildlife: Austin, TX. Crim, Herron, Corry, Moseley, McReynolds, Pritchard (Eds.) (2013). Texas Natural Resource/ Environmental Literacy Plan. Texas Association for Environmental Education. Lindahl, K., Baecher, L, & Tomas, Z. (2013). Teacher Language Awareness in Content-Based Activity Design. International Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Education (1) 2, 32-47. Villarreal, V., Gonzalez, J. E., McCormick, A. S., Simek, A., & Yoon, V. (2013). Articles published in six school psychology journal from 2005-2009: Where’s the intervention research? Psychology in the Schools (50) 500-519. Umpstead, R., Brady, K., Lugg, E., Klinker, J., & Thompson, D.P. (2013). Educator Ethics: A Comparison of Teacher Professional Responsibility Laws in Four States. Journal of Law & Education, 42, 183-225. Thompson, D.P. (2013). The “Brave New World” of Radio Frequency Identification in Schools. Texas School

Publications

Ek, L.D. & Sánchez, P. (2013). Before the tenure track: Grad school testimonios and their importance in our profesora-ship today. Journal of Social Foundations. Ek, L.D., Sánchez, P., Quijada Cerecer, P.D. (2013). Linguistic violence, insecurity, and work: Language ideologies of Latina/o bilingual teacher candidates in Texas. International Multilingual Research Journal. Ek, L.D., Quijada Cerecer, P.D. & Ruiz, E. (2013). Disrupting deficitviews: Latina/o and Native American youth constructing cultural, linguistic, and learner identities. In C.M. Wilson & S.D. Horsford (Eds.). Advancing equity and achievement in America’s diverse schools: Inclusive theories, policies, and practices, 108-122. New York: Routledge. Sánchez, S. V., Rodriguez, B. J., Soto-Huerta, M. E., Castro, F. M., Guerra, N. S., Flores, B. B. (2013). A Case for Multidimensional Bilingual Assessment. Language Assessment Quarterly, 10 (3), 160-177. Rodriguez, B. J. & Anderson, C. A. (2013). The use of a total group contingency intervention in tier 2 small group kindergarten pre-literacy instruction. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions. Kauffman, A., Rodriguez, B. J., Barnes, A., & Anderson, C. A. (2013). Effects of a tier 2 intervention on classroom disruptive behavior. Journal of Curriculum and Instruction, 7(1), 32-54. Anderson, C. A., Horner, R. H., Rodriguez, B. J., & Stiller, B. (2013). Building systems for successful implementation of function-based support in schools. International Journal of School and Educational Psychology, 1(3), 141-153. Sánchez, S., Rodriguez, B. J., Huerta, M. E., Castro-Villarreal, F., Guerra, N., & Flores, B. (2013). A Case for Multidimensional Bilingual Assessment. Language Assessment Quarterly: An International Journal, 10(2), 160-177. Nora, A., Crisp, G., & Reyes, N. (2013). Higher Education. In Oxford

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Administrators’ Legal Digest, 29 (5), 2-4, 14-16. Thompson, D.P. (2013). Student Rights, Parental Rights, & Attendance. In Vornberg, J., Hickey, W., & Borgemenke, A. (Eds.), Texas Public School Organization and Administration: 2012 (13) 425-464. Dubuque, IA: Kendall-Hunt. Montemayor, A., & Mason, L.L. (2013). Teaching verbal operants to children with autism using precision teaching and errorless learning. TASH in Action. Mason, L.L., Perales, J., & Gallegos, E. (2013). Community based development of rural behavior analysts. Rural Special Education Quarterly Sayer, P. (2013). Translanguaging, TexMex, and Bilingual Pedagogy: Emergent Bilinguals Learning through the Vernacular. TESOL Quarterly, 47(1), 63-88. Sayer, P. and Ramírez Romero, J.L. (Eds.) (2013). Mextesol Journal: Special Issue for 2013: Research on the Programa Nacional de Inglés en Educación Básica, 37(3). Langman, J. and Sayer, P. (2013). Qualitative sociolinguistics research. In C. Chapelle (Ed.), The encyclopedia of applied linguistics. Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. Meadows, B. and Sayer, P. (2013). The Mexican Car Controversy: An Appraisal Analysis of BBC’s Top Gear and the Reproduction of Nationalism and Racism through Humor. Discourse, Context & Media, 2(2), 103-110. Sayer, P. and Ban, R. (2013). What Students Learn besides Language: The Non-linguistic Benefits of Studying English as a Foreign Language in Primary School. Mextesol Journal, 37(3), 72-89. Sayer, P., Mercau, V. and Blanco, G. (2013). PNIEB Teachers’ Profiles and Professional Development: A Needs Analysis. Mextesol Journal, 37(3), 109-122. Miranda, M. A. (2013) Homegirls in the Public Sphere. Austin: UT Press. Prieto, L. (2103) Pedagogies from Nepantla: Testimonio, Chicana/ Latina feminisms and teacher educa-

tion classrooms. Equity & Excellence in Education, 45(3), 411-429. Balkin, R. S., & Juhnke, G. A. (2013). The theory and practice of assessment in counseling. Columbus, OH: Pearson. Juhnke, B. A., Juhnke, G. A., Curtis, R., Thompson, E. H., Coll, K. M., Yu, F., Moyer, M. C., & Mullett, A. E. (2013). Using Motivational Interviewing with school-age bullies: A new use for a proven, evidenced-based intervention. Journal of School Counseling, 11(14). Juhnke, G. B., Juhnke, G. A., & Henderson, K. (2013). The Homework Identification Plan (HIP): A creative, Solution-Focused game plan designed to promote high school student athletes time management skills and homework completion. Journal of Creativity in Mental Health, 8(2), 186-202. Juhnke, G. A., Henderson, K. L., & Juhnke, B. A. (2013). The Juhnke, Henderson, Juhnke Child Abuse and Neglect Risk Assessment Scale: A mnemonic instrument used to assess potential maltreatment risk for children. The Family Journal: Counseling and Therapy for Couples and Families, 21(1), 57-64. Juhnke, G. A., Juhnke, B. A., & Henderson, K. (2013). Using the 2WHO-SCAN mnemonic to respond to bullying survivor’s needs. VISTAS 2013. Juhnke, G. A., & Henderson, K. (2013). Treating Substance Abuse and Addictive Disorders. American Counseling Association Practice Brief. Juhnke, G. A. (2013). Social relationships: How to increase your social capital and success. In P. F. Granello (Ed.) Achieving a Healthy Lifestyle. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Juhnke, G. A. (2013). Walking God’s path. In First Light Christian Fellowship (Ed.) Spiritual journeys of Christian Faculty and Staff at The University of Texas at San Antonio. San Antonio, TX: First Light Christian Fellowship.

Kim, D., & Nuñez, A.-M. (2013). Diversity, situated contexts, and college enrollment: Multilevel modeling to examine student, high school, and state influences. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 6(2), 84-101. Nuñez, A.-M., & Elizondo, D. (2013). Closing the Latino/a Transfer Gap: Creating Pathways to the Baccalaureate. San Antonio: American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education, Educational Testing Service, and University of Texas at San Antonio. Nuñez, A.-M., Hoover, R., Pickett, K., Stuart-Carruthers, C., & Vazquez, M. (2013). Latinos in Higher Education and HispanicServing Institutions: Creating Conditions for Success. ASHE Higher Education Report 39(1). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Nuñez, A.-M., Murakami-Ramalho, E., & Ruiz, E. (2013). Interrupting the usual: Creating a sense of belonging among Latina faculty. In G. JeanMarie, C. Grant & B. Irby. (Eds). The duality of women scholars of colors: Transforming and being transformed in the academy. Research on Women and Education Series. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. Kangala, V. & Rendon, L. (2013). Birthing internal images: Employing the cajita project in a college classroom. In Sanders, L.A. (Ed). New Directions in Teaching and Learning,134, 41-52. McGee, P. (2013). Supporting academic honesty in online courses. Journal of Online Educators, 10 (1). McGee, P., & Anderson, M. (2013). Project realities: Shifting course delivery method . In Benson, A. D., Moore, J. L., & van Rooji, S. W. (Eds.) Cases on Educational Technology Planning, Design and Implementation: A Project Management Perspective, 114-133. Hersey, PA: IGI Global. Cervantes, M. (2013). Squeezebox Poetics: Locating Afromestizaje in Esteban Jordan’s Texas Conjunto Performance. American Quarterly, 65 (4), 543-566.

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Michael Karcher, $297,583, Department of Justice, “Ten and 40 Years After Mentoring: Longitudinal Analyses of Relationship and Developmental Processes as Moderators of Outcomes in Two Experimental Studies” Jorge Solís, $327,640, University of California Santa Cruz, “Secondary Science Teaching with Language and Literacy Acquisition (STELLA): A Collaborative Research Project” John Zhang, $30,000, UTSA Office of the Vice President for Research, “Solving the Dilemma of Post-Myocardial Infarction Exercise Training on Myocardial Remodeling”

Roxanne Henkin, $20,000, National Writing Project, “San Antonio Writing Project: Professional Development in a High Needs School” Kathryn Henderson, $2,710, COEHD Office of the Dean, “No Duty to Warn in Texas: Licensed

Professional Counselor’s Knowledge, Perceptions, and Reporting Patterns of Harm to Others” Juliet Langman, $3,748, COEHD Office of the Dean, “Teaching Through Talking: Exploring and Directing Teachers’ Discourses of Teaching and Learning” Christopher Rivera, $3,749, COEHD Office of the Dean, “The Effects of a Multimedia Shared Story Intervention to Teach Vocabulary to Students with an Intellectual Disability” John Zhang, $10,000, COEHD Office of the Dean, “Effect of Different Exercise Modes on Cardiac Function and Geometrical Changes After Myocardial Infarction”

Alberto Cordova, $14,017, UTSA Vice President for Research, “Physiological Desensitization and Violent Video Games: Is There an Ecological Buffer”

The University of Texas at San Antonio has been awarded a $1.4 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to assist community college students seeking to pursue teaching degrees in mathematics and science. A UTSA multidisciplinary team involved in acquiring the grant included Aaron Cassill, UTSA director of STEM Initiatives and principal investigator; co-principal investigators Gloria Crisp, associate professor in the College of Education and Human Development’s (COEHD) Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies; and Lorena Claeys, executive director of the Academy for Teacher Excellence in the COEHD; and Daniel Sass, associate professor in the College of Business Department of Management Science and Statistics. Additionally, Claudia Verdin from Northwest Vista College will act as coordinator for the Alamo Colleges.

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Awards and Grants

Dennis Davis, $25,000, University of Michigan, “Early Career Researchers to Conduct Secondary Data Analyses of the MET Longitudinal Database” Zenong Yin & Meizi He, $9,044, Shanxi Evergreen Service, “Pathway to Health: A Lifestyle Intervention to Prevent Diabetes” Gloria Crisp, $33,987, Association for Institutional Research, “Predicting Successful Remediation Among Hispanic Students” Emily Bonner, Lorena Claeys and Can Saygin, $570,000, The Higher Education Coordinating Board, “South Texas STEM Educator Center” Erica Sosa, $8,626, City of San Antonio, “Follow up Evaluation of Healthy Hubs” Felecia Castro-Villarreal, $5,750, COEHD Office of the Dean, “Culturally Responsive School Consultation”

William Cooke & Donovan Fogt, $30,000, UTSA Office of the Vice President for Research, “Acute Effects of Vaporized Nicotine on Metabolic, Cardiovascular, and Cerebrovascular Responses in Humans” Dennis Davis, $49,932, Spencer Foundation, “A Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Examination of Teachers’ Specialized Knowledge for Supporting Reader-Text Interactions” Alberto Cordova, $3,579, COEHD Office of the Dean, “Motor Imagery in Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder”

AWARDS & GRANTS

Alicia Maurer, Kim Bilica, Claudia Guerra, & Michael Mary, $20,060, National Park Service, “Develop Educational Curriculum for Spanish Colonial Demonstrations Farm at Mission San Juan”

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Awards and Grants

Dean Betty Merchant and Encarnacion Garza, in collaboration with Helene Ärlestig, Monika Törnsén, and Olof Johansson from Umeå University in Sweden, and with Elizabeth Murakami-Ramalho from UT, Permian Basin, have been recognized by the Emerald Literati Network for their paper, Successful school leadership in Sweden and the US: Contexts of social responsibility and individualism. The paper was published in the International Journal of Educational Management and received the mark of “Highly Commended” in the Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2013. Heather Trepal received the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision Outstanding Article Award for her publication, “Experiences of Motherhood in Counselor Education.” Dr. Trepal’s work is recognized by one of the most prestigious journals in the counseling field. Thelma Duffey joined leaders in the American Counseling Association on Capitol Hill as they educated legislators on mental health practice. Gerald Junke was invited to serve on the Ronald Reagan High School Campus Improvement Committee, whose charge is identifying the needs of the school for the students and also identifying the campus strengths that are in place. Carmen Tafolla was awarded the Letras en La Frontera distinguished achievement award for significant contributions to literature “en la lengua castellana.” Carmen Tafolla’s latest book of poetry, Rebozos, swept the 2013 International Latino Book Awards, winning First Place in three categories – Best Book of Bilingual Poetry, Best Art Book, and Best Gift Book. Dr. Tafolla was also honored at the Inkstravaganza Gala with Gemini Ink’s Literary Excellence Award. Margarita Machado-Casas was instrumental in the success of this year 4th Annual Latino Education Advocacy Days (LEAD) which was live-streamed online and was viewed in 17 countries and had 16 million viewers. It also made the google trending news list that day. Machado-Casas and Ellen Riojas Clark,

The College of Education and Human Development was named the 2013 Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) Program College Advocate of the Year for college’s dedication and support of HUBs in 2013.

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The Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Urban School Leaders Collaborative was selected by the University Council for Educational Administration to receive its inaugural Exemplary Educational Leadership Preparation Program Award. UTSA was only one of two universities in the nation to receive the award, following a competition that included master’s programs in educational leadership from around the country. Department of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies professor emeritus, shared the stage with the conference’s keynote speaker, San Antonio’s Mayor Julian Castro at California State University San Bernardino. Margarita Machado-Casas was recipient of the International Initiatives Grant; as a result of her work, she became board member and co-editor (beginning Spring 2014) of one of the top education journals in Spain, La Revista de Pedagogía Social. She is also a part of the editorial board of La Revista de Educación (Chile), Revista Siglo XX1 (Spain), Revista Educación y Futuro (Spain). Marco Cervantes, was selected as a visiting scholar by the Institute of Texan Cultures and is working to construct a Mexican American and African American Cultural Fusions Exhibit. Wayne Wright was selected to serve on the Editorial Review Board of the International Multilingual Research Journal. Wayne Wright accepted an invitation to serve on the Technical Advisory Board (TAB) for the English Language Proficiency Assessment for the 21st Century (ELPA21) consortia, which is a consortium of 11 states led by Oregon to create common English Language Proficiency Standards and Assessments that are aligned with the Common Core State Standards. Kristen Lindahl, is a recipient of one of The International Research Foundation for English Language Education’s (TIRF) highly competitive Doctoral Dissertation Grants. Belinda Bustos Flores was selected to serve on the Editorial Review Board of the Teacher Educator. Juliet Langman was a recipient of the COEHD Faculty Research Award.

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Patricia Sánchez was elected CAE (Council on Anthropology and Education) 1st Year Member at Large. Howard Smith was on an expert panel on dual language for the Spanish Language and Cultural Exchange Program –Español for Todos. David Thompson will become President of the Texas Council of Professors of Educational Administration in September 2013. Anne-Marie Nuñez will serve as the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) Program Chair 2014 in Washington, D.C. The second Wintergarden doctoral cohort began their second year of coursework with the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. The Wintergarden program offers classes to an under-served region in Southwest Texas, and brings COEHD professors to teach in the local community at Southwest Texas Junior College. William Cooke won the President’s Distinguished Achievement Award for Research Achievement at the 2013 University Excellence Awards.

Laura I. Rendón, UTSA professor of educational leadership and policy studies, was named one of the Most Powerful and Influential Women in Texas by the National Diversity Council. She received the award at the Texas Diversity Council’s ninth annual Texas Diversity and Leadership Conference in Dallas.

Rosalind Horowitz, a Fellow of The National Academy of Education, was invited to serve as a Working Group Leader, and Chair and Discussant of Dissertations Fellows Research at The National Academy of Education Meeting in Washington, D.C. Dr. Horowitz also served as Chair of the American Educational Research Association, Division G, Social Context in Education,

PROMOTIONS PROMOTION TO ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR WITH TENURE Abraham DeLeon, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies

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Theodorea Berry was invited to attend the Lecture Presentation for the Leadership Academy at Mercer University in March 2013 in Atlanta, GA. Dr. Berry also participated in six Peer-Reviewed Conference Presentations across the nation. She is also serving as the Presidentelect for the Georgia Educational Research Association. Mari Cortez is the newly appointed Editor for Dimensions of Early Childhood Journal.

Donovan Fogt won the Richard S. Howe Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award at the 2013 University Excellence Awards.

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Research Mentoring Award and presented this award at the AERA Conference in San Francisco. She also presented a paper, Talking Texts: How Voice Enters into Written Argumentation of 21st Century School-Based Writing at the XV Comparative Education World Congress at The University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Awards and Grants

Margarita Machado-Casas was elected to serve on the American Educational Studies Association Executive Council.

Crystal Kalinec-Craig, the co-writer of Math Through Mariachi Curriculum, was selected to participate in AERA 2011 Division K Graduate Student Seminar.

Christine Moseley served on the statewide steering committee to plan and organize the Texas Natural Resource/Environmental Literacy Plan (ELP). She organized writing sessions and review sessions in San Antonio and Austin (which was a two-year process), and co-hosted ELP Summit in January with Laura Bush as keynote speaker. Dr. Moseley also co-hosted a reception for 50 GLOBE partners across nation in San Antonio in April with Our Lady of the Lake University and UT-Tyler GLOBE partners at the U.S. GLOBE Partners’ 2013 meeting. She was also invited to be an instructor for the Amazon Educators Academy in July to Peru for three weeks. Northside Independent School District dedicated Folks Middle School to Dr. John M. Folks, senior lecturer in The University of Texas at San Antonio’s College of Education and Human Development.

PROMOTION TO FULL PROFESSOR Meizi He, Department of Kinesiology, Health, and Nutrition. Misty Sailors, Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR EMERITUS Barbara Gonzalez-Pino, Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching

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Alumni Spotlight

OUTSTANDING ALUMNA:

“I loved seeing the [UTSA] campus start to build and grow and I have been right there with it all along the way. It’s a great system and I believe strongly in it. I feel like I really have invested in the success of the university.” - Dr. Yvonne Katz

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DR. YVONNE KATZ

Why she thinks COEHD is the cat’s meow

By Jo Ann Jones/College of Education and Human Development

f there’s one thing that Dr. Yvonne Katz loves, it’s The University of Texas at San Antonio. The retired superintendent and College of Education and Human Development graduate received her master’s degree in educational leadership in 1974; and, in the four decades that followed, transformed the lives of thousands of students under her leadership. Katz always knew she wanted to be a teacher. The Baytown, Texas, native still remembers pretending to be her brother’s teacher, chalkboard and all, when they were growing up. “I used to play school with my brother when I came home from elementary school,” said Katz. “I had my little blackboard, my chalk, an eraser, little index cards, and spare paper my father brought home from the office.” As she continued her primary and secondary education, her passion for teaching grew deeper, fueled by the inspirational teachers she had and still

remembers to this day. “Ms. Dorothy Lowe was my seventh grade English teacher,” said Katz. “She was a little bitty lady. She wasn’t even five feet tall, but she would command everybody to listen to her. She was a very strong English teacher and taught me, literally, everything that I know and remember about English and writing.” Katz’s dream to teach led her to the state’s capital where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from The University of Texas at Austin and began her lifelong career in education. In the years that followed, Katz taught in Austin, Texas, Spring Branch, Texas, and Virginia, before finding herself in San Antonio, just as a new university, The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), was about to emerge. “I met with original president of UTSA, Arleigh Templeton, and talked with him about the new university that was going to open up and was still in the process of becoming accredited,” she said. “I said to him, ‘If you all can take a chance on me, I can take a chance on you all becoming accredited.’” And she took that chance, becoming one of the first people to attend classes when the university opened its doors. All of her classes, she said, were held in the Koger Center, a business park located south of the San Antonio Medical Center, while the Main Campus was under construction. “We had one little room called the Library that had no books in it,” she recalled. “We had to order the books that we wanted and they sent a van twice a day to UT Austin to get those books.” While working to receive her master’s degree through COEHD (then known as the Division of Education), Katz continued to work as a special education teacher in Northside Independent School District (NISD). As she pursued her degree, she always kept her dream of becoming a principal in mind.

“I was really pleased with the professors that we had,” said Katz. “Dr. Wayne Laughery was my major professor. When I told him that I wanted to become a principal, he didn’t laugh or say, ‘You can’t do that.’ He said, ‘You sit right down here and we will just plan that out for you.’” In August 1974, Katz received one of the 82 degrees conferred at UTSA’s first graduation, six months after the university received full accreditation. In the ensuing years, she used what she had learned as an education student to work her way up the ladder in NISD. “The course work that I took in COEHD helped me as I became the director of special education and then principal in Northside [ISD],” said Katz. “It really helped me apply the current research at the time to my school and that helped the teachers teach better.” But this was just the start of her incredible career in the public education system. From 1985 to 1992, Katz served as the first female superintendent for Harlandale Independent School District. She then moved to Oregon and became superintendent for the Beaverton School District before returning to Texas to lead the Spring Branch Independent School District for two years. Katz served a total of 20 years as a superintendent before retiring in 2004. In 1991, the Texas Association of School Boards named her as one of the top five superintendents in the state. “I think the best part about being a superintendent was providing programs and resources to students,” said Katz. “I really focused on every student being successful. It was exciting for me to be able to do that.” During her tenure as an educational leader, Katz was honored with several awards, including the Outstanding Educator Award by Texas A&M Continued on page 27

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University, where she received her doctoral degree; the Outstanding Woman Executive Award by the Texas Council of Women School Executives; and the Bob Grossman Leadership in School Communication Award by the National School Public Relations Society. Now in retirement, Katz serves as chair of the San Antonio Women’s Chamber of Commerce and sits on the Board of Trustees for the Alamo Community Colleges, where sometimes, she said, she sees a familiar face or two. “I see quite a few former students who have become leaders of their own now at the Alamo Colleges,” she said. “It’s just really neat. It comes home to roost with you all the time.” Like the students she led as a superintendent, Katz has left a lasting impression on the faculty, staff, and students in COEHD. “Dr. Yvonne Katz lives her life in a bold, uncompromising, generous, and joyful manner, and her exuberance inspires and challenges all of us to move beyond our self-imposed limitations,” said Dr. Betty Merchant, dean of COEHD. “The title of one of my favorite books by Byrd Baylor best exemplifies Dr. Katz’ overall attitude toward life: ‘I’m in charge of celebrations.’” Next year will mark the fortieth anniversary of UTSA’s first graduating class, a class Katz is proud to say she was a part of. Since then, she has retained close ties to the university and to COEHD. “I loved seeing the campus start to build and grow and I have been right there with it all along the way,” she said. “It’s a great system and I believe strongly in it. I feel like I really have invested in the success of the university.” The campuses may have changed and the student body grown in size, but to the COEHD grad, UTSA will always be the young university she dared to believe in and that dared to believe in her.

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Alumni Spotlight

Katz

OUTSTANDING ALUMNI:

DR. BURNIE ROPER Leading Lackland ISD into the future By Deborah Silliman Wolfe/College of Education and Human Development

or the last 22 years, Lackland Independent School District superintendent Burnie Roper has steadily moved up the ranks in the San Antonio school system. A lieutenant colonel with the U.S. Army Reseerves and University of Texas at San Antonio graduate, Roper and his team are incorporating new ideas and technology into his school district to better prepare Lackland’s students for the changing education landscape. The Spectrum staff had a chance to sit down with Roper and get to know him a little bit better. Q: What made you want to get into education? A: Honestly, I was just trying to finish up my undergraduate degree at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and since I was always good at math, I decided to get certified to teach math. But that summer when I graduated, I had to go to my Officer Training in Virginia for five months, so I missed

the beginning of the school year. I started subbing at San Antonio ISD’s Davis Middle School, and then they hired me as a 6th grade math teacher the following year. I taught for four years, and in that time, started pursuing my master’s degree because I really admired my principal at the time and wanted to get into administration as well. When an opportunity to work as an assistant principal at Southside ISD came up, I jumped at the chance. Q: What was one of your most memorable experiences at Southside ISD? A: While I was at Southside, I decided to become a foster parent, and ended up with four young men, all teenagers. There I was, all by myself, trying to raise these teenagers while working full time. That was quite an experience, and I did my best to try to help them. I talk to the youngest one every week, he says he still considers me his Dad, and I pray for him every day. While I was fostering these young men, I took an assistant principalship at Judson ISD. That was a great experience, and for those two years, that was my

“I am more blessed than what I deserve. It is really amazing when I look back at where I started and where I am now. I am just humbled that I am even able to serve in this position.” - Dr. Burnie Roper

Continued on page 31

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Student Spotlight

COEHD STUDENTS A How the College of Education and Human Development is helping them achieve their dreams and make a difference in the world

AlexandriaDeal

PaolaBasaldua

Q: How has your experience been as a COEHD student? A: I am in love with my major and I’m glad that public

Q: Who inspired you to become a teacher? A: One day, a lady at the Serenity House in Austin,

Public Health, Junior

health is here in COEHD. The COEHD students in my health classes have been very helpful and I really like the professors. The classes are a lot smaller, so I am able to have a one-on-one relationship with them.

Q: What skills have your COEHD classes taught you? A: My global health class is amazing. It has definitely

taught me that the world is more than me and that I can’t just think about myself. And I have definitely learned leadership skills from the group projects I have in my classes.

EC-6th Bilingual Generalist, Senior

where I was working, told me that I’d be great as a grade school teacher, a bilingual one. She said I should go back to college, a four-year university, and relive everything I missed out on. The though actually rung inside by heart and I went for it.

Q: What made you choose a to study bilingual education? A: I am a Mexican-born student who attended grade

Q: What do you plan to do with your degree after you

school all the way to high school in Mexico; therefore, I battled with my Spanish to English transition. Plus working with children like me, who struggle throughout school and through their language acquisition, is rewarding to me.

A: I am a pre-dental student now and would like to

Q: How have the faculty and staff in COEHD positively

graduate?

become a dentist. I hope to work abroad, so I want to try and get an associateship with another dentist and make enough money so that I can travel and provide free dental resources to those in need.

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influenced you?

A: One person that has been an inspiration to me

is Dr. Robert Milk. He is such a great professor and makes me feel inspired to never stop growing, learning, and pursing what I want.

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Profiles and photos by Jo Ann Jones

ChristianUme-Ezeoke

KatieHebert

Community Health, Senior

EC-6th Generalist, Sophomore

Q: What do you love most about the community health

Q: Why did you choose to study in COEHD? A: Teachers from high school, family members, and

field? A: I love going out and helping the less fortunate, especially when it’s health related. This past summer, I went on a trip to Honduras with the Global Health Brigades and helped implement health screenings in impoverished communities. Community health outreach is something that I have always been passionate about. It’s what drew me to the Community Health program.

Q: Who in COEHD has inspired you? A: I love Dr. [Zenong] Yin. He is one of my favorite

professors. When he sees that you are not performing up to the caliber that you are able to perform, he’s there to push you and talk to you and give you whatever time you need to make sure you get back on track.

Q: How are your COEHD classes? A: I love my classes! They have a service learning com-

ponent to it where we have a lecture in class but we also go out into the community and actually implement things that we learned in class.

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Student Spotlight

S ASPIRE TO INSPIRE

friends always told me great things about COEHD. I have found out from experience as a student at UTSA that COEHD really cares about preparing their students for careers in education, and I couldn’t be happier that I chose to study here.

Q: Why did you choose to pursue a degree in education? A: I chose to pursue a degree in education because I

have a passion and love for working with and helping children. I was inspired to become a teacher after helping my mother in her first-grade classroom. I enjoyed tutoring and helping her students with their work.

Q: What have you learned from your COEHD classes

so far? A: My experience in the College of Education and Human Development has taught me how to better manage my time and commitments while still maintaining strong academic excellence in my classes.

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Student Spotlight

JeffreyPodmayer

Masters in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies with a focus on Higher Education

his Washington-State native and Educational Leadership and Policy Studies graduate student is is the first graduate student in the program to persure his program internship abroad. Podmayer will be headed to Stellenbosch, South Africa. Spectrum staff sat down with him for a quick Q&A.

Q: Where are you going to be doing your internship?

A: I will be living in Stellenbosch,

South Africa at Stellenbosch University. Stellenbisch is located just East of Cape Town, South Africa.

Q: What will your intership responsi-

bilities include? A: I will be interning at Stellenbosch University working in their Centre for Student Structures & Communities with undergraduate students. I will also be working with international students in the International Studies Office. I will be working with students as a support role and an administrator in South Africa.

Q: You are the first student in the

Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Higher Education focus to do the required internship for the program overseas. What made you want to take your internship experience abroad. A: During my undergraduate studies at Whitworth University (located in Washington State) I had the opportunity to study abroad for a month in South Africa with a group of about 20 students. We traveled the majority of the month, and I wanted to go back to Africia and stay in one place for a while to really get to know one area instead of only being in a town for a day or so.

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training ground. At the time, it was the largest school in the state of Texas, with close to 5,000 students. I was then offered a job at Cole Junior/Senior High School at Fort Sam Houston. I was there only a year when my principal at the time walked into my office and said, “Stacey Junior/Senior High [at Lackland] has an opening for a principal. That’s all I’m saying” and walked out. He didn’t want me to leave, but he knew I wanted to be a principal. Q: So, you applied for the job at Stacey? A: Yes, I was offered and took that job where I served as a high school principal for five years. But during my third year, I got a call from the Army that I had gotten orders, and that I was going to have to mobilize to Virginia for 545 days. I came over to Dr. David Splitek’s office, he was the Lackland ISD superintendent at the time, and told him about the orders and that I knew he couldn’t keep me in my principal position. He looked at me and said, “Why not?” He kept me in the position of principal, and gave me everything I needed to continue working part time from my station in Virginia. While I was in Virgina, I also had the chance to work on my doctorate.

Q: What happened when you came back from your mobilization? A: When I came back to San Antonio, there was a rumor that Dr. Splitek was going to retire. He called me into his office, and told me that he was going to retire. He mentioned he had been talking with the school board president and the president asked if I (Dr. Splitek) thought you (Roper) would be interested in the job. I mean, that is why I was going to school to get my doctorate, but I had never imagined it would happen so soon. And now, I just finished my fifth year as superintendent. Q: You have had an amazing career so far! You must be proud. A: It is really amazing. I came from very humble beginnings. My mom was a single parent and I had one brother and two sisters. My mom struggled and probably made at most $18,000 a year and raised all of us and her grandchildren. It was very difficult, but I grew up in church, and that helped me the most. My pastor and some men in the church mentored me. That helped me along the way, and nothing but the grace of God helped get me to where I am today. I am more blessed than what I deserve. It is really amazing when I look back at where I started and where

Community Service

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job. He was telling me all about the kids and the reward of being able to guide and mentor students into learning. I am just excited to be a part of that, especially in middle school. I really want to be a light into the middle school because I know a lot of kids are struggling.” Other UTSA students received a sense of gratification when their elementary students participated in competitions and won. Matthey Middle School in Southside ISD was one of the seven schools that participated in ATE’s service learning outreach. This past spring, their Robotics Club, lead by faculty advisor and seventh and eighth grade science teacher Ron Wells, competed against 16 other middle school teams with their underwater remotely operated vehicle in the NASA ROME Challenge. They tied for first place. “I have the highest regard for the UTSA student mentors and I hope they continue with the program,” said Wells. “They all had this spark in their eye about wanting to work with children and that is the reason why we are there.”

Community Impact

commit to at least 25 hours of community service a semester. Informal learning club mentors also receive technology to enhance their academic studies, which mentors can keep upon completion of their two-semester commitment. “I’d really like to see some of them [service learning opportunities] really get off the ground, like online tutoring,” said Sczech. “We want to continue building and developing the informal learning club mentors because we will have pre-Columbian math clubs getting started and we’ll need undergraduates’ assistance with those.” For some UTSA students, working with the elementary school children has given them the confidence they needed to continue the pursuit of their degree. “Robotics has just opened up my eyes to many opportunities for teaching and [seeing] just what that looks like and getting some experience,” said Hernandez. “I chose this degree because I met a middle school teacher and he had told me all these great stories about how he loved his

I am now. I am just humbled that I am even able to serve in this position. Q: What do you enjoy about working in the administrative side of schools? A: My favorite thing about working in the administrative side of things is being able to affect change. If things are not going the way they are supposed to be going, then I am able to recommend that something needs to be done, or a process that could be changed. I never do that myself; I have a cabinet, a team, and we all work together to try to do what is best. But I can make that happen, I can make a positive change. Q: The College of Education and Human Development recently opened up a center focusing on the needs of military families, the Center for the Well-Being of Military Families. Do you think that is important for a city like San Antonio to have? A: Yes, I am hoping the center will be able to address some of the challenges we have because our military students do have a lot of challenges. Though it is getting better in that we are drawing down from all these deployments, it will be great to have a center at UTSA that will be able to work with the Military Child Education Coalition to help classroom teachers better understand the needs of military children.

Alumni Spotlight

Roper

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Donors

DONORS

Donors of cumalative giving toward the College of Education and Human Development between 1/2013 and 11/2013 $100,000 - $150,000

$1,000 - $2,499 Mrs. Marilyn Playle

Gift Fund of the

Baptist Health

St. Lukeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Lutheran

San Antonio Area

Mrs. Teresa Callis

Foundation

Ms. Manuelita Cazares

Mrs. Leticia Rios

Ms. Michelle Anguiano

Mrs. Maria Rosales

Mrs. Cheryl Wurzbach

Ms. Michelle Reilly

1Sg Ret Osiel Lopez

Dr. Alan Shoho

Mr. Antonio Mendez

Mr. John Folks

Ms. Alexis Zamora

Mr. Gerald Hightower

Mr. Quenton Sanders

Mrs. Lydia Panvini

Mrs. Cynthia Murray

Mrs. Juli Wessies

Mrs. Sarah Belew

Mrs. Fran Kurtz

Mrs. Nancy Easterling

Ms. Katrina Montoya

Mrs. Rona Lesser

Foundation of San Antonio Mr. Alonso Ancira H-E-B Tournament of Champions Charitable Trust

Bilingual Education Student Organization Maj. Rafael Villarreal Mr. William Peterson

Aranda-Olivares

Mrs. Wanda Guntz

Texas Guaranteed

Ms. Maricela Oliva

Student Loan

Mrs. Bianca Calvert

Corporation

$100 - $499

Mrs. Stephanie Hoffman

Mrs. Evelyn Cobarruvias

Dr. Marian Martinello

Mrs. Roxanne Wright

Ms. Sylvia Marcus

Dr. Ellen Clark

< $99

Ms. Naomi Feldman

National Academy of The USAA Foundation Association for Institutional Research The Long Foundation

Dr. Gerard Dizinno

Mrs. Anne Jimenez Mrs. Patricia James Mrs. Sandra Edwards Ms. Helen Wolf

$10,000 - $24,999

Mr. James Gordon

Southwest Independent

Ms. Abigail Sanchez

School District

$5,000 - $9,999 U. S. Family Foundation, Inc. Mr. John Montford International Life Science Institute Research Foundation

$2,500 - $4,999 Dr. Gillian Cook

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$500 - $999

Mrs. Nancy

$25,000 - $99,999

Education

Health Ministries, Inc.

USAA Matching

Ms. Kimberly Weaver Mrs. Karen Hoskins Dr. Bruce Barnett Mrs. Celeste Cavazos Mrs. Maxine Farrimond Mrs. Sandra Liska Dr. Brenda Jones Mrs. Patricia Leisy Mrs. Vicki Gonzales Mrs. Irma Tejeda Mrs. Sonia Munoz-Gill Ms. Esperanza Lopez

Dr. Lesley Harbin Ms. Maria Perales Mr. Jerry Gonzalez Mrs. Yolanda Benavides Mrs. Patricia Becker Mrs. Melanie Schmelzer Mr. Robert Villafranca Mr. Larry Benson Mrs. Ellen Barnett Mrs. Stephanie Aaron Ms. Breese Gearhart Mr. Charles Morales Mrs. Elizabeth Mcever Ms. Rhea Mahbubani Ms. Denise Wray Mrs. Anna Ramos Ms. Florencia Caniglia Mrs. Flo Gonzalez-Flores

Mrs. Viola Cavallini Mrs. Roselyn Andrews Ms. Mary Lein Rev. Ruben Archield Mrs. Margaret Hughston Ms. Deborah Reid Mrs. Roberta Kelner Mr. Russell Rice Mrs. Margaret Waters Mrs. Ofelia Fonseca Mrs. Elizabeth Gray Mrs. Kathleen Manz Dr. Vanessa Kenon Mrs. Samantha Gonzalez Ms. Melissa Mccalister Mr. Warren Dennis Mrs. Emily Harris Ms. Vanessa Ramirez

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Ms. Donna Crawford

Ms. Noralisa Arce

Ms. Stacey Williams

Mr. Paul Uribe

Ms. Melanie

Mr. Alvaro Gomez

Bauernschmidt

Mr. Alex La De Garza

Mrs. Lisa Labus

Ms. Rachel Klein

Mrs. Gloria Gonzales

Mrs. Kristina Hamilton

Mrs. Laura Aldana

Ms. Raquel Reza

Ms. Tiffany Willgus

Mr. John Chavez

Ms. Charlene Alvarado

Mrs. Monica Cortez

Mr. Victor Cruz

Ms. Jessica Perez

Mrs. Laura Mitchell

Ms. Maria Ramirez

Mrs. Blanche Mora

Ms. Jessica Campbell

Mr. Patrick Atkerson

LTJG Michael Jordan

Ms. Gloria Connor

Ms. Anamaria Kaufman

Mrs. Valerie Vargas

Mr. David Saldana

Ms. Lynda Gonzalez

Mrs. Brittany Timmons

Ms. Ana Dufault

Mr. David Dretke

Ms. Rita Avendano

Ms. Annie Shin Tyng

Mr. Andrew Fothergill

Mr. Liâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;l Paul Reyes

Mrs. Stephanie Reush

Ms. Jennifer Matonis

Ms. Diane Trevino

Ms. Vanessa Martinez

Mr. Juan Silva

Mr. Severiano Castro

Ms. Angelina Garza

Mrs. Joanna Breach

Mrs. Felicia Salinas

Ms. Leonor Delgado

Mr. Adolph Lopez

Mrs. Cathy Neville

Ms. Alexis Clark

Ms. Stefanita Valdez

Mrs. Cecilia Galindo

Ms. Lorie Atwood

Ms. Michelle Boyle

Mrs. Amy Lazar

Ms. Judith Salge

Mr. Clinton Fry

Ms. Katherine Kitchens

Mrs. Nicole Washington

Mrs. Stacy Serna

Ms. Renee Waisner

Mr. Henry Puente

Mr. Sergio Evans

Ms. Maria Meza

Mrs. Natalie Garza

Ms. Stephanie Herrod

Ms. Audrey Gonzalez

Ms. Marlene Garcia

Ms. Cheri Barrera

Mrs. Lisa Ortega

Mr. David Garcia

Mrs. Amanda Cortez

Ms. Tabitha Hurley

Mr. Mahir Berkhadley

Ms. Susan Flores

Mrs. Terri Henry

Mr. Jose Mendoza

Mrs. Bethany Bates

Ms. Rosalie Aguilar

Ms. Frances Sparks

Ms. Mary Hemker

Mr. Robert Villarreal

Ms. Vanessa Perez

Mr. Homero Gonzales

Ms. Monica Lopez

Mr. Jeffrey Hines

Mr. Joshua Pearson

Mr. James Ruiz

Ms. Sierra Luna

Mrs. Sandra Aguilar

Ms. Valerie Avalos

Mrs. Rebecca Isaacson

Mrs. Rhoda Garza

Mrs. Phyllis Watkins

Mr. Vicente Sanchez

Mrs. Susan Pellone

Ms. Emily Daniel

Mrs. Barbara Townsend

Ms. Alexa Calumpiano

Mr. John Leno

Ms. Callie Taylor

Ms. Isabel Martinez

Ms. Vanessa Cobarruvias

Mrs. Victoria Gomez

Mrs. Johnette McWhorter

Mrs. Sonya Acosta

Mrs. Valerie Maldonado

Mr. Dane Fuller

Ms. Carla Benson

Mrs. Barbara Skipper

Ms. Maria Gonzalez

Ms. Angelita Cruz

Ms. Suzanne Rivera

Mrs. Billie Harding

Ms. Kaeli Kouzounas

Ms. Desiree Gil

Ms. Christina Garcia

Mrs. Kerry White

Ms. Cynthia Padilla

Mr. Ryan Glaser

Ms. Marcia Hirshfield

Mrs. Diana Gaytan

Ms. Veronica Loera

Ms. Aviva Anzak

Mrs. Teresa Klemcke

Mr. Juan Soto

Ms. Diana Villa

Ms. Patricia Finley

Mr. Dustin Stark

Mrs. Monica Briones

Mrs. Patricia Keenum

Mr. Brian Adams

Ms. Celeste Webb

Ms. Alma Buitron

Ms. Lauren Estrada

Mrs. Antonia Murguia

Mrs. Shirley Goerdel

Ms. Carrie Fontenot

Mrs. Guadalupe Negrete

Development, visit

Mr. Daniel Terrones

Mrs. Adela Castillo

Mrs. Linda Conley

utsa.edu/giving

Jiang

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Donors

Mr. Lance Gloyer

For more information on giving to the College of Education and Human

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One UTSA Circle San Antonio, Texas 78249-0651

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