Alumnus Donates, Creates New Scholarship
College and Warner Alumnus, Herbert Miller ‘62, ‘64W (MA), pledged a $62,500 gift to the Warner School; $50,000 to establish the Herbert R. Miller Scholarship Fund, and $12,500 through 2011 in Annual Fund payments – also making him a charter George Eastman Circle member.

The Herbert R. Miller Scholarship will be awarded to a teaching and curriculum student, who has the prospect of doing something to “make a difference” in the use of technology in education, mathematics education, or both.

Blokhuis Receives International Scholarship, Presents at Conference
Jason Blokhuis, a doctoral student, has been awarded a scholarship from the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain (PESGB) to attend the PESGB Philosophy of Education International Summer School at Roehampton University in London, England, July 9-13, 2007. Only 15 participants are selected each year from an international pool of applicants. This year’s participants will come from the United Kingdom, Taiwan, Canada, the United States, and the Netherlands.

In addition, Blokhuis presented a paper entitled, “On Orthography, French Fries, and Patriotism” at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the Philosophy of Education Society in Atlanta, Georgia. The presentation was part of a special ‘work-in-progress’ thematic session on the Purposes and Principles of Civic Education.

Mitchell Honored with 2007 Outstanding Adult
Student Award
Jennifer Mitchell, master’s student, has been selected as one of the three University of Rochester Outstanding Adult Students for 2007. The award recognizes adult students who have excelled academically while balancing academic work with their commitment to family, career, and community. Mitchell was honored at an Awards Banquet on Wednesday, April 25.

Mitchell will graduate this October with dual teaching certificates in social studies and special education. Previously, she worked as a museum educator at local historical sites and museums and as a social services case worker. Her previous work experience has allowed her to reconnect with education. She currently is an education resource manager for the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls where she prepares curriculum. In addition to her busy life, Mitchell and her husband are foster parents to four children.

Students in EDU 432 Contribute to History Project
Students in EDU 432, Theory and Practice in Teaching and Learning Social Studies, participated in the Asian Pacific American History Project of Greater Rochester (APA-HiP). The students collected oral histories by conducting audio or videotaped interviews of Asian Pacific Americans living in the Rochester area. These tapes will become part of a database of oral histories being developed as part of the APA-HiP project. Ellen Santora, assistant professor, chose APA-HiP as a class project to give her students a cross-cultural learning experience that would focus on Asian Pacific American experiences in negotiating a bicultural identity both in the larger community and in educational settings.

Founded in 2002, the APA-HiP is a not-for-profit corporation committed to collecting, documenting, and preserving the history of Asian/Pacific Islander Americans in the Greater Rochester area. The organization also promotes communication and relationships between various Asian and Pacific Islander groups to help foster a sense of pride in belonging to the Greater Rochester community. The organization’s Web site can be found at www.rochesterasianhistory.org.

Jennifer Mitchell, a student participant in the APA-HiP project, was surprised by how much knowledge and understanding she gained, and feels the lessons learned will make her a better teacher. “This project reminded me how important it is to talk to someone firsthand – while we may study the immigration trends of Asians, Irish, or other groups or the impact of slavery on African Americans, I don’t often think about what the current experiences of these communities are within my own area,” said Mitchell. “Talking to my students and their families is critical to gain perspective on their own experiences. I also was reminded once again to ensure that all groups that are sitting in my classroom are represented in my curriculum – I want my students to be able to see themselves in what they are studying.”

Lia Boland, another student participant, stressed how the project reiterated the importance of perspective in history and social studies. “In social studies, we learn about immigration in a very general sense, but often do not have the opportunity to examine a case study of an individual’s experience,” said Boland. She looks forward to including oral histories in her classroom curriculum. “Many students learn so much more from a story told by a person versus a text book,” added Boland.

The students helped document a small piece of our collective and pluralistic historical consciousness and a broader understanding of the Asian American experience in Rochester.