Alumni Spotlight

Sesame Street’s founder is a UA College of Education graduate

The World’s Largest Educator

Just about everyone knows Big Bird, Elmo, and the Cookie Monster. In fact, to many people, these Sesame Street characters feel like family. Because of Sesame Street’s worldwide reach — it’s shown in more than 120 countries! — the program is considered the world’s largest educator. What you may not know is that the creator of Sesame Street, Joan Ganz Cooney, is a UA College of Education graduate. After graduating from the University of Arizona in 1951 with a degree in elementary education, she worked as a newspaper reporter. In 1954, she moved to New York City to write for television. Ten years later, she received a local Emmy Award for her study of the anti-poverty program in New York. She then embarked on one of the most significant projects of the late 20th century. After studying the use of television for preschool education and successfully soliciting more than $8 million in funding from foundations and federal agencies, Joan Ganz Cooney founded the Children's Television Workshop and created Sesame Street.

Buy Me Some Peanuts and Crackerjack!

The UA Wildcat baseball team played an exhibition game against the Tucson Sidewinders in April, and all proceeds were used to buy books for preschoolers and help fund a UA study of local childcare needs.

The College of Education and the Institute for Children, Youth, and Families have joined forces in The Early Childhood Development and Learning (ECDL) initiative to address the needs of young children and families in Southern Arizona.

This summer, ECDL faculty and students will launch the Southern Arizona Benchmark Study of Early Child Care and Education Use and Quality. Researchers will collect information from 1,000 families in Southern Arizona about their experiences and concerns regarding local childcare and early education. The initiative will result in new programs leading to teacher certification in early childhood education, which will be mandated by law in coming years.

To reward family participation in the study, the UA will donate books to the preschool programs where the families’ children attend.

Dean Ron Marx was happy to see the professional and college athletes give back to their community through education. He also was happy — albeit a tad nervous! — to throw out the ceremonial first pitch. “All my friends were worried I wouldn’t be able to get the ball over the plate.” He did just fine.

I Did Not Know That!

Our UCATS program is a model for teacher preparation for the country. Here’s how it works: In the semester before student teaching, students take all of their methods courses at a local school. The courses are taught by both clinical and regular faculty members. This not only orients students to the field in which they will eventually work, but it also gives them the opportunity to apply what they are learning in a real classroom with real children. What this means is that teacher candidates will have spent a whole year in a local public school by the time they graduate.

Contact Shirley Fisher for details.

Erasmus Left No Stone Unturned

The College of Education held its inaugural Erasmus Circle Lecture and Dinner at the JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort and Spa, March 29.

The Erasmus Circle, named for the Renaissance scholar whose work in education changed humanity, is a society that provides significant unrestricted financial support for the College of Education to advance the initiatives of the dean in scholarship, teaching, and research.

The Dawning of The Erasmus Circle raised $30,500 in one night — and the amount has more than doubled since then!

The evening’s keynote speaker was Guggenheim Fellow and UA Professor Susan Karant-Nunn, director of Late Medieval and Reformation Studies. She held up a picture of Erasmus, which she said had been over her desk for 35 years, and spoke about Erasmus’ life and times.

“Erasmus” (aka John Pedicone) hits the crowd up for some cash

Erasmus himself (aka Distinguished Faculty Fellow John Pedicone) startled the group when he interrupted Dean Ronald W. Marx’s speech and walked through the audience pleading for funds. He muttered his famous quotations — such as “Leave no stone unturned,” “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch,” and “A penny saved is a penny earned” — as he made his way through the crowd.

Left to right: Jinx Patterson, Carol Dobson, and Nancy Berge

Left to right: Stevie Mack, Bill Wissler, Janis Johnson, and Rosemary Davis

There were more than 140 guests at the event, including Founding Members Nancy Berge, Ann and Fred Boice, Kris Bosworth, Esther Capin, Rosemary and Mike Davis, Bill Estes, Shirley Fisher, Prudence and Bill Haney, Bob Hendricks, Naomi and Gene Karp, Stevie Mack and Mike Grassinger, Morris H. Martin, Anne Marx, Emily Meschter, Jinx Patterson, and Nancy and Reese Woodling.

Also attending were UA President Peter Likins, UA Provost George Davis, Evelyn Carswell Bing and David Bing, Peggy Douglas, Dorothy Finley, Marilyn Ludwig, Marion Pickens, Vance and Sandy Riggins, Roger Pfeuffer, Peter and Terry Downey, Linda Arzoumanian, June Webb-Vignery, Dick and Susan Imwalle, Lynn Halaska, Joe and Renie Cesare, Chuck and Claire Albanese, Ginny Griffis, Debbie D’Amore and Rep. Dave Bradley, Rob and Amy Draper, Ron Shoopman, Ken Kay and Karen Christensen, Frank Alvarez, Jaimie Leopold, Bill Wissler and Janis Johnson, and Jerry and Cricket Gallegos.

Contact Nina Daldrup for details.

The Delights of Tutoring

Our students have shared their own knowledge and skills with Tucson-area school children since 1997 in the WordCats*MathCats (WCMC) program. Housed in the Department of Language, Reading, and Culture (LRC) and part of the LRC Literacy Initiatives, it is designed to raise reading and math skills in young children.

The WCMC program provides opportunities for college students to gain valuable and closely supervised classroom experience. This type of first-hand learning often isn’t provided by their course work prior to their student teaching.

A recent grant from the First Page Literacy Foundation Fund of the Community
Foundation for Southern Arizona provided $2,000 for books and supplies to be used by the tutors.

Lucinda Soltero, an LRC doctoral student who coordinates the program, says although the grant received is small, it has had some far-reaching effects. “I have some really terrific letters from the little kids about how grateful they are for the tutoring with their homework. A social worker at Miles After-School Program describes the connection the college students have made with the Miles students as ‘inspirational and uplifting.’

“In one case,” says Soltero, “the counselor told me about a youngster who had very poor school attendance. But, since her weekly tutoring sessions began, she has been coming to school regularly and looks forward to her tutoring session.”

Contact Lucinda Soltero for details.

Awards & Honors

Luis Moll, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs

• Luis Moll, associate dean for academic affairs, has been named the recipient of two prestigious awards. The awards were presented in April at the American Educational Research Association conference in Montreal.

Moll is the first recipient of the Henry T. Trueba Lifetime Achievement Award. The Trueba Award recognizes Moll for his service in academic scholarship, student mentorship, and service to the education community and to the Latino community.

He also is the recipient of the Sylvia Scribner Award. The Scribner Award recognizes and honors current research conducted within the last 10 years that represents a significant advancement in the understanding of learning and instruction.

Moll, a native of Puerto Rico, joined the college in 1986.

• U.S. News & World Report released its yearly academic rankings in April. The College of Education had two programs ranked in the Top 25: Our higher education program ranked 16th, and educational psychology ranked 21st.

• The College of Education’s Department of Special Education, Rehabilitation, and School Psychology received an Honorable Mention from the Institute of International Education for its work in exchange opportunities for students with specific learning, health care, and independent living needs.

The Andrew Heiskell Awards for Innovation in International Education are designed to promote and honor outstanding initiatives conducted in international higher education.

Stan Maliszewski

Richard Ruiz

Robin Ward

SERSP has created a program which includes virtual exchanges, short-term exchanges, and carefully planned traditional semester-long exchanges designed to promote cross-cultural learning and professional development to improve future employment opportunities.

Dean Ron Marx said that “our faculty in rehabilitation counseling have been national leaders in removing barriers to participation in education, so it is especially gratifying to receive recognition in the IIE's Heiskell Award competition. Moreover, our unique location on the border has given our faculty the opportunity to provide leadership in international exchanges using new technology along with more traditional face-to-face visits.”

• Stan Maliszewski, clinical associate professor in the Department of Educational Psychology, was awarded a $100,000 grant to research approaches to school counseling accountability from the Arizona State Department of Education, Division of Career Technical Education. The grant is in collaboration with Boston University and The University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

• Richard Ruiz, professor in the Department of Language, Reading, and Culture, has been an award-winning fellow these days. He received the College of Education’s Outstanding Faculty Service Award for his dedication to social justice and the Outstanding Faculty Leader Award for his tireless dedication to students and their success.

• Robin Ward, assistant professor in the Department of Teaching and Teacher Education, received the Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award for her extraordinary contributions to her students and the teaching profession.

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