After years of equipping Rockford middle schoolers to create makerspaces, Pi-Sui Hsu wanted to elevate her outreach to another level. Hsu, a Presidential Engagement Professor in the NIU Department of Educational Technology, Research and Assessment, had taught her after-school students and summer
Read moreYear 14: Double-alum Jason Dietz savors role as Sundling Middle School principal
When Jason Dietz started teaching fourth-grade, he immediately thought that he’d found his forever home. The place was Mundelein, the year was 1998 and Dietz had just completed a fresh-out-of-college stint working in a middle school as a program assistant for special
Read moreCongratulations!
BREAKING NEWS! The NIU College of Education ranked No. 54 out of 313 in U.S. News & World Report’s 2025 Best Online Master’s in Education Programs! This is the 13th consecutive year that our online graduate programs have been nationally ranked. ***
Read moreNIU celebrates fall commencement
Congratulations to our newest NIU College of Education alumni! Two of our amazing graduates were featured in videos shown during the ceremonies. Meet Genesis Miranda, who earned her B.S.Ed. in Special Education: Visual Impairments … … and Jordan White, who completed his
Read moreWishing you a joyful holiday season
A message from Bill Pitney, acting dean of the NIU College of Education. Dear Faculty and Staff, Like it often does, December is delivering days that are frigidly cold next to days that seem to herald the arrival of spring. Snow is
Read moreRachael Mahmood tells new graduates to know their ‘why’ stories for teaching
For December graduates of the college’s educator licensure programs about to embark on their classroom careers, the question was direct. What type of teachers will they become? It was something Rachael Mahmood, the 2024 Illinois Teacher of the Year and a 2016
Read moreCOE colleagues talk belonging priority, ways to address ‘belonging uncertainty’
Creating a culture of belonging starts with self-examination. “When we’re thinking about belonging for students,” says Bess Wilson, chair of the Department of Special and Early Education, “I think that we have a natural tendency to lean toward, and empathize with, students
Read moreIn unearthing NIU student life history, HESA students grasp current meaning
As a member and leader of Prism, Peregrin Capriglione is fully familiar with the campus organization’s work to provide educational and social activities for LGBTQ students and their allies. Now, thanks to their HESA 500: Foundations of Higher Education course, Capriglione is
Read moreFour-time alumna Monica Schroeder ready, eager to become North Shore 112’s first Latina superintendent July 1, 2026
Monica Schroeder grew up attending a private school in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago and then parochial and public schools in north-suburban Skokie. She was a first-generation American with bilingual parents who immigrated to this country as teens; her father, Raul
Read moreNIU awards Stacy Kelly for excellence in mentoring master’s, doctoral students
Not one moment of Stacy Kelly’s career has transpired outside the realm of visual disabilities. “I always knew, from an early age, that I wanted to be a teacher. I really like everything about school and learning,” says Kelly, professor in the
Read moreCall to action: Yenitza Guzman inspired by Counselor Educator of the Year honor
Yenitza Guzman wants to make the greatest impact possible in her calling to help others. “As someone who has worked with underprivileged and diverse populations, I know that there is a lot of trauma out there. I know that there is a
Read moreNIU assessment team explores potential of AI in accreditation with ETRA student
Months after the Higher Learning Commission reaccredited NIU, a doctoral student in the Department of Educational Technology, Research and Assessment is helping the university understand how artificial intelligence can enable those continuous processes. The work of Stella Jung, who is pursuing her
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