PsyF/QME Graduate Student Awards in Leadership, Teaching and Research
Go directly to awards for:
Leadership Award Recipient: Caroline Hilk
Caroline has been described by her fellow students as caring,
proactive, helpful, and informed. These terms are apt descriptors of
Caroline’s interactions with her peers as she has worked to keep
them informed of student relevant issues at the departmental,
college, and university levels. She has been especially active in
the COGS. Her leadership has also been evident in less formal
settings. For example, she has organized social events to help new
students integrate into the program. Further, when students need
help or advice in either their personal or academic lives, Caroline
is there to offer her help–typically with a large, enthusiastic
smile.
Teaching Award Recipient: Danielle Dupuis
Those who have seen Danielle in front of the classroom can
attest to how passionate, dedicated, and engaging she is. Danielle
has great rapport with all her students, and she strives to treat
her students with respect and kindness. As a gifted teacher, she
makes it a mission to understand just what each student needs in
order to learn effectively. When teaching statistics, Danielle tries
to show students right from the beginning of the course that
statistics is not scary or difficult, nor is it just “math.”
Danielle attempts to help students see how statistics is relevant to
their everyday lives. Danielle’s mean student ratings of her overall
teaching ability are above average, ranging from 6.1 to 6.6, and her
students have many positive things to say about her impact as an
instructor. One student recently commented that Danielle is “One of
the best teachers I have had at the University…She always was on the
same level as her students and I always felt comfortable asking
questions…I would love to take more classes with this instructor!”
Research Award Recipient: Lija Greenseid
Lija has been described as a conscientious, insightful, and
productive researcher. She has conducted extensive research projects
throughout her graduate career and she has also been a leader
outside of the University as an Evaluation Specialist at
Professional Data Analysts, Inc., in Minneapolis. She is a skilled
writer and has the ability to effectively organize and lead other
students in the pursuit of different research projects. As her
adviser notes, Lija not only goes the extra mile, but she goes the
extra 10 miles. Lija’s understanding of the relationship between
research questions and methodologies is exemplary, and she always
strives to guarantee that her research methods are rigorous. Lija
can take ill-formed ideas and produce coherent research plans, and
she has excellent skills in critiquing work and providing creative
and insightful suggestions for improving it. In her time as a
graduate student, Lija has published one journal article, and has
presented at 10 conferences. She has also written or assisted with
almost 30 different research and evaluation reports.
Leadership Award Recipient: Yukiko Maeda
Yukiko has been described as one of the most well-rounded graduate
students currently enrolled in our program. Not only is she a good
student, but she has excelled at research, having published several
articles as well as presenting several major papers at conferences.
Yukiko has also excelled as a teacher. She currently teaches a
section of EPSY 5261 (Introductory Statistics), and she has received
many favorable comments about her teaching from students. All of her
accomplishments pale in comparison to the work she has done for the
Office of Research Consultation (ORC). Yukiko always goes above and
beyond her required duties in order to provide research assistance
to members of the College of Education and Human Development and the
University community at large. She spends countless hours giving
advice and researching different techniques that clients of the ORC
want to use. Yukiko’s hard work and dedication to excellence make
her a strong role model for all graduate students.
Teaching Award Recipient: Kate Bohn
Kate has been a teaching assistant for several courses,
including Human Relations, Learning, Cognition, and Assessment, and
our doctoral-level statistics course, EPSY 8262. She has also taught
three sections of our graduate-level introductory statistics course
(EPSY 5261), while at the same time conducting research in the area
reading comprehension. Kate is an enthusiastic and dedicated
teacher, and her overall teaching ratings have ranged from 5.0 to
6.8. Kate is reflective in her teaching and she is always striving
to improve her effectiveness as a teacher. As a student in Joan
Garfield’s “Becoming a Teacher of Statistics” course, Kate was a
strong and insightful contributor to class discussion, and her
thoughtful comments and questions were evidence of her desire to
learn all she could about becoming a successful teacher. Kate uses a
variety of different techniques in her classroom, including
cooperative learning, and she always sets high expectations for her
students. She clearly wants all of her students to succeed, and her
passion for teaching is not lost on her students. As one former
student said, “I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this class.
Kate’s energy is contagious and really enhances the learning
process. I never had a stats course before, but feel it has enhanced
my life.”
Research Award Recipient: Kate Bohn
Kate has been described as an excellent researcher who shows
initiative in designing and implementing research, in addition to
developing research proposals and paper topics. Her work is
interdisciplinary and involves using multiple methods, and she
excels at all of these. Kate is an active member in Tony
Pellegrini’s social development lab, and she has spent time in the
lab working on a longitudinal study examining social dominance and
aggression in preschool-aged children. Kate is also involved in
research related to the cognitive processes that underlie text
comprehension in children, and she is a graduate trainee in the
Center for Cognitive Sciences. She has published articles in the
Elementary School Journal and Educational Researcher, and
she currently has a paper under review for the top journal
Developmental Psychology. In addition, she has co-authored two
book chapters and has presented at close to 20 conferences.
Leadership Award Recipient: Kari Ann Ediger
Kari Ann was selected as the student
representative to Ed Foundations and in that capacity she has
communicated the content of faculty meetings to students as well as
maintaining contact with students between meetings so that she can
adequately present their views. She was also the lead teaching
assistant for the learning cognition and assessment course where she
was working closely with the other assistants to provide leadership
as well as working with her own students. She has been described
as listening to others, showing concern for them and taking their
views into account.
Teaching Award Recipient: Cary Roseth
Cary has taught both the undergraduate
3264 and graduate 5261statistics courses. His overall teaching
ratings range from 5.5 to 6.9 — a great accomplishment given the
difficulty of the content and challenges faced with many students
who have never been exposed to statistics. Carey has introduced
many creative ways to engage and motivate students while working
with the other instructors of the statistics courses.
Cary believes that good teaching begins where the students are.
He states “even the best planned field trip will fail if students
don’t or can’t get on the bus. Thus, good teaching is relevant,
multidimensional, intellectually approachable, yet always
challenging.” One of his students said, “I have been at the U of M
for a long time, and I have never had a professor or instructor that
was this effective.”
Research Award Recipient: Mary
Jane White
Since 2001 Mary Jane has published 5 papers — including a
first authored paper in Contemporary Educational Psychology, has
submitted 2 others and is preparing yet another 2 for submission.
She has presented 8 papers (3 as first author) at professional
conferences and will be presenting another 3 later this spring. Her
nominator reported that Mary Jane is a team player and full
contributor to ongoing research efforts and is willing to work on a
paid or volunteer basis. In addition to being a great collaborator,
Mary Jane has also developed her own line of research on embodied
cognition. Mary Jane’s team mates attest to her maturity,
intellectual curiosity, sense of organization and responsibility,
and devotion to the pursuit of an academic career. She is described
by her nominator as being exactly what we want in our students.
Leadership Award Recipient:
Jeff Harring
Jeff was selected by the methodology faculty to serve
as the inaugural consultant for the Office of Research
Consultation. The office opened two years ago and has been an
important resource for students and faculty not only throughout the
College, but around the world. The success of this office is in
large part due to the initiative of Jeff Harring and his ability to
communicate with students and faculty in many disciplines. Jeff not
only provides direction and support for individuals’ research
activities, but also acts as a counselor, mending inter-personal
relationships, providing guidance for students on how to handle
their advisers and examination committees, and giving students the
strength to continue and complete their degree programs. He is the
ultimate adviser, simply because he is not an adviser.
Teaching Award Recipient: Andy Zieffler
Andy has TA’d both undergraduate and graduate statistics
courses and taught 9 sections of EPSY 3264. His overall teaching
ratings range from 5.5 to 6.9 — a great accomplishment given the
difficulty of the content and challenges faced with many students
who have never been exposed to statistics. He believes that the
best way to learn statistics is to do statistics. He employs
interactive teaching styles, encouraging discovery and synthesis of
skills and knowledge that many find out of reach, and requires
students to discuss their understanding of the material – fostering
statistical literacy, communication skills, and analytical
thinking. His efforts in the classroom have made students
previously anxious about learning statistics at ease with the
subject matter. Students report that statistics has become an
exciting course and they actually look forward to going to
statistics.
Research Award Recipient: Ann Ooms
Ann has co-written and co-presented 9 research papers in the
last 3 years at National and International conferences and also
presented a single-authored study on an instructional technology
intervention at AERA this year. She has published two co-authored
articles in the Journal of Educational Computing Research and the
Journal of Research on Technology and Education, and has submitted
three additional co-authored articles for publication
consideration. Her nominator reported that Ann is a team player and
full contributor to ongoing research efforts. She has a strong work
ethic, eye for detail, and great technological expertise. Ann’s
contributions are significant in that she goes beyond doing the
minimum to satisfy her co-authors, but puts forth an effort to take
her contributions to the next level — beyond what a typical RA would
contribute. One team with whom she collaborates reported: We can
truly say that Ann feels more like a colleague than a RA.
Leadership Award Recipient:
Agnes Kiss
Agnes was selected by the students to be their
representative to the psychological foundations faculty this year.
In this role she has been communicating with faculty about options
for a student lounge and opportunities for social integration of
students into the department and university – one of her research
interests. She was also a founding member of an emerging mentoring
program for incoming students in psychological foundations. The
faculty would like to recognize her for these efforts and encourage
her continued commitment to the welfare of all students as well as
her own academic success. We are happy to present this year’s
leadership award to Agnes Kiss.
Teaching Award Recipient: Panayiota Kendeou
Pani has been teaching in the Psychological
Foundations statistics courses and has assisted in both statistics
and learning and cognition courses. To Pani, teaching is both an
art and a science. Her ultimate goal as a teacher is to develop
self-regulated learners who will have a combination of learning
skills and self-control to facilitate their lifelong learning. Her
most recent course evaluations for EPSY 3264 for instructor’s
knowledge, respect and concern for students, clarity in
presentation, and respect for individual differences were all over
6.5 out of 7.0. We would like to recognize her for these efforts
and encourage her continued commitment to teaching as well as her
own academic success. We are happy to present this year’s teaching
award to Pani Kendeou.
Research Award Recipient: Yukiko Maeda
Yukiko has co-written and co-presented 6 research
papers in the last 3 years at national conferences. Her work on
each of those papers was beyond the typical involvement for an RA,
including the development of research questions, completing
exhaustive literature reviews, developing coding schemes, performing
data analyses, and writing-up the results of analyses. One paper,
co-written with Michael Rodriguez and co-presented at AERA has
recently been submitted to Psychological Methods, a premier
methodology journal. Methodology faculty have recently had to
negotiate over who will be able to work with Yukiko, a sign of a
student in demand. We would like to recognize her for these efforts
and encourage her continued commitment to research and continued
efforts toward additional publication. We are happy to present this
year’s research award to Yukiko Maeda.
Leadership Award Recipient: Michael Miller
When Michael joined the psychological foundations program, he
immediately became involved in various service and leadership roles,
both in and out of our program. In the Council of Graduate
Students, he was first a psychological foundations representative;
he then became the Vice president of internal relations, and finally advanced to become the
president of the council. Michael’s
assistantship record also shows a service and leadership
orientation, working in the Office of the Associate Vice President
for Outreach, as a research assistant in special education, and as
an instructional technology fellow for the Department of Educational Policy and
Administration.
Around a table of differing opinions, Michael serves first as a
collector of information before moving toward decision making. He
is skilled at keeping other stakeholders involved in the process
even when their own voices aren’t filling up the room. Michael
walks the talk.
Teaching Award Recipient: Tina Patane Kruse
This is the second year Tina has been nominated for the teaching
award; she has now been nominated for all three awards but this is
the first she has received. Tina has played an important leadership
role as lab instructor for EPSY 3119/EDHD 5001—Learning,
Cognition, & Assessment and as the distance instructor for the same
course to students at the Crookston Campus via internet and ITV.
When Tina was asked to be lead lab instructor, she immediately
worked with the team of lab instructors to standardize the course to
be as effective in reaching the course objectives as possible. She
recently participated in the redesign of that course. She has also
participated as a TA and co-instructor for EDHD 5009—Human
Relations and EPSY 5240—Principles & Methods of Evaluation.
In evaluating her teaching, students most often use the
adjectives such as “enthusiastic,” “knowledgeable,” “organized,” and
“energetic.” Many times students have cited her as the best
graduate instructor they have ever had. In one student’s
correspondence that was submitted to support her nomination, the
student wrote: “Now that grades are final, I want to let you know
that you were terrific. You made the labs interesting, you had
excellent organized lesson plans, and your enthusiasm for the
subject was contagious.”
Research Award Recipient: Panayiota Kendeou
Panayiota is involved in research at every level. She is
coordinating a large, longitudinal study involving a research team
of 4 graduate students and 8 undergraduates, focused on the
development of early literacy skills. Further, she is conducting
independent research on college students’ understanding on science
texts. Panayiota is one of the strongest students I have had the
pleasure to work with. She is very knowledgeable, has very strong
experimental design and statistical skills, and – perhaps more
importantly — has an incredible knack for identifying important
issues. What is impressive is that she NEVER takes a shortcut in
her research and all lines are of very high quality.
Panayiota has published in journals including Contemporary
Educational Psychology and Learning and Instruction. Last year she
gave 6 presentations at professional conferences (two of which as
first author), and will present 3 more at AERA and SRCD this year.
She also has several papers in the pipeline.
Leadership Award Recipient: Barbara Hawkins
Barbara’s ability to reach out to others during times of stress,
handle crises, and complete her duties as a graduate student and
teaching assistant is noteworthy. She has become a role model for
several of the women in our program area and other students as
well. One nominator expressed appreciation to Barbara in that she
has strengthened every one of the courses that she has attended or
assisted in with this faculty member. She consistently conducts
herself in a professional and respectful manner. Barbara’s hard
work and willingness to share her time with others make is easy for
us to recommend her.
Her work with international students is especially noteworthy;
she extends office hours and works with students one-on-one to help
them with their English translations and mastery of course concepts.
Teaching Award Recipient: Donna Butterbaugh
Donna is an experienced, confident, and caring teacher. She is very
professional in all aspects of teaching and preparing for her
courses. Her handouts are always of the highest quality and she has
initiated putting her course materials on WebCT. She continually
develops new activities to use in her classes and is always
searching for new ways to improve or enhance her classes. Donna
takes an active role in the planning and reviewing of courses and
activities in the statistics sequence. When the program lost an
instructor for 5261, she stepped in one week before classes began to
co-teach this course with Professor Harwell with great success.
Donna’s students are very appreciative of her teaching. Her most
recent students have commented: “She is an excellent teacher,” “You
are good at explaining and helping out the students,” and “I really
enjoyed this class much more than I thought I would.”
Research Award Recipient: Chi Keung (Alex) Chan
Alex has created and managed several large data bases that look at
performance of students from the Saint Paul Public Schools and
statewide. One of the important research projects he has undertaken
is an investigation identifying Saint Paul students who live in
public housing and their achievement. In this project, and others,
he has employed state-of-the-art techniques including hierarchical
linear modeling of complex data that has theoretical foundation with
practical and policy applications. Alex will be presenting some of
the results from that project at an international conference held in
Toronto this summer.
As well as possessing the usual range of methodological and
substantive skills, what sets Alex apart is his effort, persistence,
and commitment to research.
Leadership Award Recipient: Vicki Brown
Vicki is committed to helping students in the program connect
with faculty, find housing, and make the successful transition into
their first year of graduate school. She has informally mentored
fellow students through prelims and the first year experience. She
is in constant communication with students — providing them with
updates about program changes, course offerings, events, and
activities going on in the department.
In addition, graduate students in the program frequently stop her
in the hall or e-mail her with praise and support for the active
role she takes as the student representative in psych foundations
Teaching Award Recipient: Michelle Everson
Michelle is a gifted teacher. She puts a tremendous amount of
thought, time, and energy into her teaching. She creates wonderful
handouts, develops new activities, and conveys to students how much
she wants them to succeed in learning the material. Students give
her the highest ratings and often comment on how much they enjoy
taking the dreaded statistics course from her, that it was quite an
enjoyable experience.
Michelle has shown leadership among the other graduate teaching
assistants, compiling her materials and making them available to all
who teach the course. She also helps the GTAs deal with every day
teaching challenges.
Research Award Recipient: Julie Lynch
Julie started as a research assistant on her current project, but
she quickly evolved into a main investigator as she took on one
responsibility after another. Gradually, Julie has taken it upon
herself to coordinate the research. She trains and supervises other
students, is responsible for financial management, for contacting
and recruiting participants, data collection and coding, for the
statistical analyses, annual reports, and writing up the results for
publication and the granting agency.
This year she has revised and resubmitted a paper for publication
in the Journal of Educational Psychology and was involved in three
conference presentations.
September 2006
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