Student Stories Archive

Students Poirier and Smith’s article published in The History Teacher

An article co-authored by SOE graduate students Michelle Poirier and Hillary Smith with senior lecturer Robert Maloy and lecturer Sharon Edwards, both of the Department of Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies, appeared in the November 2010 issue of The History Teacher, a quarterly journal published by The Society for History Education, Inc. The article, titled “The Making of a History Standards Wiki: Covering, Uncovering and Discovering Curriculum Frameworks Using a Highly Interactive Technology,” is the graduate students’ first published piece. Both students currently teach American History in western Massachusetts high schools. Poirier is a master’s student in the School’s Bridges to the Future Pathway; Smith is a master’s student in its 180 Days in Springfield Pathway.

Sowell ( M. Ed. 2007) named to UF post

Jamal Sowell (M.Ed. 2007), a former University of Florida student body president, has been named executive assistant to UF President Bernie Machen. Sowell joined the Marine Corps after graduating UMass Amherst. Read more about him…

SOE’s Stoffel wins State Outstanding Graduate Student Award

Josh Stoffel, sustainability coordinator at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a graduate student in higher education administration, recently won the Richard F. Stevens Outstanding Graduate Student Award for Massachusetts given by NASPA-Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education. Read news release. Read the story in the Hampshire Gazette.

Tatiana Krayushkina awarded Edmund S. Muskie Graduate Fellowship

Tatiana Krayushkina, a Master’s student in the School of Education’s Department of Educational Policy, Research and Administration’s International Education concentration has been awarded an Edmund S. Muskie Graduate Fellowship by the U.S. Department of State. Krayushkina is from Tajikistan.

Established by the U.S. Congress in 1992 to encourage economic and democratic growth in Eurasia, the Edmund S. Muskie Graduate Fellowship Program is a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) of the U.S. Department of State. By selecting emerging leaders from 12 countries of the former Soviet Union, the Muskie program aims to promote mutual understanding, build democracy and foster the transition to market economies in Eurasia through intensive academic study and professional training. In addition to their academic programs,

Muskie fellows gain exposure to American values through a community service experience and develop professional skills through a full-time internship in their field of study.

School of Education doctoral student Nyongani awarded AAUW International Fellowship

Martha Nyongani, a doctoral candidate in the School of Education’s Department of Education Policy, Research and Administration, has been awarded a 2010-11 International Fellowship from the AAUW, formerly known as the American Association of University Women.

First awarded in 1917 to Virginia Alvarez-Hussey, who studied medicine at the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania and then returned to Venezuela where she became a specialist in the treatment of leprosy, the AAUW International Fellowships have been given to more than 3,000 women from 135 nations. Recipients are selected for academic achievement and demonstrated commitment to women and girls. They return to their home countries to become leaders in their fields in government, academia, community activism, the arts, and science.

“AAUW International Fellowship has given me the strength to continue believing that I can make a difference in my own life, that of my family and my community,” said Nyongani, of Malawi. “I intend to use the award to help me concentrate on mitigating negative externalities that affect access and equity of education in low-resource countries. My research focuses on exploring social marketing as an alternative strategy for planning school food programs in Malawi.”

Harmony in her classroom
Teacher shares her passion for music with elementary students

by Meaghan Casey for The Educator, Springfield

Amanda Woolley has had music on the mind since she was 7. Today, the 22-year-old award-winning teacher is spreading her passion for rhythm and harmony to students at the Dorman and Lincoln elementary schools.

“Music has always been a huge part of my life,” said Woolley, who grew up in Point Pleasant, N.J. “My parents wanted to provide me with the opportunity to take lessons, so I started with piano and then picked up flute in the elementary school band.”

Woolley went on to participate in various ensembles including marching band, symphony band, concert band, hoop band, flute choir, chamber choir and vocal jazz. She became the drum major of her high school marching band and of the University of Massachusetts Minuteman Marching Band, leading rehearsals and performances as field conductor and assisting with leadership activities.

“That was when I realized I loved teaching other people,” she said.

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Recruitment for college doesn’t have to wait until high school
By Alison DeRito, School of Education graduate student, Bridges to the Future elementary education pathway

It isn’t everyday that a student-teacher has the opportunity to share her love for her alma mater with nearly 70 fourth graders.

In the “Bridges to the Future” pathway at the School of Education at UMass Amherst, graduate students are placed in public schools in the Greenfield, Gill-Montague, and Orange, Massachusetts, school districts. I was placed in Sheffield Elementary School in Turners Falls, Mass., for my spring practicum. “Bridges” is unique in that it places a special emphasis on a community-service learning project. When my mentor teacher, fourth-grade teacher Michele Hazlett, told me that the fourth grades would be attending a performance at the Fine Arts Center at UMass Amherst, I was thrilled. When she asked if I’d like to tour the students around the campus for the whole day, I was honored and hopeful that I could turn this field trip into something special for my community-service learning project.

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Springfield middle school students perform for School of Education TEAMS students

Danielle Johnson walked to the front of the room and turned to face her classmates. With emotion, the seventh grade student rehearsed her part, describing how she was “surrounded” in daily life by people who smoked.

“I don’t feel like dying because of the stupidity of people around me,” she said.

Johnson was one of 48 students from Springfield, Mass., Duggan Middle School’s social studies and science classes who recently traveled to UMass Amherst’s School of Education to present to students in Dr. Robert Maloy’s Tutoring Enrichment Assistance Models for Schools (TEAMS) class a series of two-voice poems and public service announcements they had written.

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