Congratulations to these members of the NIU College of Education family!
Alison Douglas, who graduated from the NIU College of Education in August 2021 with her Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction, is a co-winner of the AERA Special Interest Group Research in Reading and Literacy’s Dissertation Award for Literacy Excellence.
The choice of Douglas’ dissertation abstract – “Avoiding ‘Oh My God’ Experiences: How White Female Developmental Literacy Instructors (Dis)Engage Race in Their Instructional Decision Making” – comes with an invitation to attend the AERA Annual Conference in April, where she will receive a certificate and a monetary award.
Douglas also has been encouraged to submit her extended abstract as a paper proposal to the Special Interest Group: Research in Reading and Literacy for its 2023 AERA conference, and has been given the opportunity to present virtually during the AERA SIG: RRL Business Meeting.
She is professor of English and director of College Readiness at Elgin Community College.
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Bottom: Vanessa Beckham and Kaley Oplt.
Gudrun Nyunt and three of her students in the Department of Counseling and Higher Education – master’s alumnae Vanessa Beckham and Kaley Oplt, who graduated last spring, and current doctoral student Jeanine McMillen – published research in Journal of American College Health.
Their article, “Flourishing (or lack thereof) during COVID-19: A comparison of students’ social-psychological well-being by demographics, course modality, and housing arrangements,” concluded that students experienced a significant drop in social and psychological well-being from before the pandemic to the start of the Fall 2020 semester.
Meanwhile, the study found, most students had not returned to pre-pandemic levels toward the end of the term.
Nyunt, an assistant professor of Higher Education, and her trio of student-collaborators received a $1,000 NASPA Region IV-E Research and Assessment Grant to conduct their survey and analysis of 1,723 responses.
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Shannen Sutherland, a student in the M.S.Ed in Counseling program, has been named NIU Intern of the Semester for Fall 2021 by Career Services.
To qualify for the award, applicants must write about their work experience and supply letters of recommendation from their employer and an NIU faculty member.
Sutherland wrote about her internship in counseling at Buffalo Grove High School and was recommended highly by both her NIU faculty and employer. She is now eligible to compete for Intern of the Year.
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