Congratulations to these members of the NIU College of Education family!
Q Hutchings, assistant professor in the Department of Counseling and Higher Education (CAHE), has received ACPA-College Student Educators International’s Commission for Professional Preparation Teaching Excellence Award.
The ACPA CPP Teaching Excellence Award recognizes instructional faculty in Higher Education and Student Affairs graduate programs who:
- Use multiple approaches in classroom/practicum instruction and evaluation.
- Stimulate intellectual curiosity in students.
- Show evidence of employing cutting-edge knowledge in the field.
- Demonstrate commitment to student learning as instructor, role model or positive influence on career development of students.
- Reflect on past teaching experience or professional practice to improve current practice
Hutchings will receive the award in March at the annual ACPA convention.
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TJ Schoonover, assistant professor in CAHE, is the recipient of the School Counselor Advocate Award from the Association for Child and Adolescent Counseling.
The award is given to a school counselor who demonstrates exceptional advocacy while providing students with developmentally appropriate programming and being an active and collaborative member of the school community.
Schoonover is a licensed school counselor, licensed professional counselor and registered play therapist interested in researching childhood trauma and evidence-based interventions to support children exposed to trauma.
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Valronica Scales, who graduated in Spring 2022 with her Ed.D. in Higher Education, received the ACPA’s Burns B. Crookston Doctoral Research Award for her dissertation research.
The award recognizes research by a doctoral student or students that entails original, journal-quality work that brings greater understanding to the learning or development of students or the organization and administration of student affairs practice.
Scales’ dissertation was titled, “Eat Glass and Walk on Fire, while Managing a Pandemic: Experiences of African American Women who Serve as Chief Housing Officers.”
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Razan Eltayeb, an M.S.Ed. student in Visual Disabilities, is the recipient of one of two scholarships from the Illinois chapter of the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired.
IAER awards yearly scholarships to two students who live and attend school in Illinois and who hold junior, senior, graduate or postgraduate status. Scholarship candidates must be enrolled in classes leading to certification areas in the field of education or rehabilitation of persons who are blind or visually impaired.
Stacy Kelly, a professor in the Department of Special and Early Education, wrote Eltayeb’s letter of recommendation.
“For one of her graduate assistantship assignments this academic year, Razan is researching and writing a peer-reviewed manuscript on the topic of Arabic-speaking JAWS used in conjunction with refreshable braille displays,” Kelly wrote.
“This is no small task,” Kelly’s letter continued. “There are likely only a few people on this planet who would have the knowledge and skills to pull this information together for this contribution of new knowledge for our field. Razan is one of these very few individuals.”
Eltayeb, one of the college’s Dr. G. Scholars, is specializing in assistive technology and vision rehabilitation therapy. She will be honored Feb. 23 at the IAER annual meeting in Naperville.
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