2008-2009 - Grand Valley State University

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COE Achievements Student Awards Glenn A. Niemeyer Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award Angela Lohman | GVSU College of Education Degrees: B.A., Grand Valley State University 10 Major: English/Language Arts with elementary teaching certification Awards: GVSU English Department 2008 Book Award; GVSU Outstanding Elementary Teacher Award; GVSU Glenn A. Niemeyer Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award High School: Holland High School, Holland, MI Class of 1994 Member: Sigma Tau Delta, English Honor Society, Grand Valley State University “There is nothing about teaching I don’t like. In my Pre-K teaching, I loved the kids’ enthusiasm and their natural love for learning. In my current 4th grade class, it’s so exciting to watch them bloom – both as students and as people.” The Glenn A. Niemeyer Award, Grand Valley’s most prestigious academic award, honors faculty and students who strive for excellence in all aspects of their academic experience. Angela Lohman has been on the road to becoming a teacher for a long time. Because the teaching job market was so depressed when she entered collage, Lohman enrolled as a nursing major. Before long, she realized nursing wasn’t her passion and she didn’t feel committed to the program. So she left school for a few years before deciding to return to college and pursue the dream she realized she’s always had – to become a teacher. As she talked with advisors and practicing teachers, she says that over and over they mentioned GVSU. “If you want to be a teacher, go to Grand Valley,” she remembers one telling her. “The students that come out of that program have the best preparation for the classroom of any I’ve worked with.” Lohman took this advice and enrolled in GVSU. She worked full time and went to school part time for eight years and finally reached her goal. In December 2009 she graduated from Grand Valley with a bachelor’s degree and an elementary teaching certificate. She credits her husband as being a source of great strength and help during those busy years. Saugatuck Public School has hired her as a long-term substitute teacher while she searches for a full-time position in an area school district. When Angela discovered her classroom needed books, she filled the baskets with her own collection of favorites.
Graduate Teacher Certification (GTC) Grads Make Their Mark Sally Triant Sally Triant Honored as Outstanding Adult Learner Above: Sally proudly displays a handful of carrots, an end-of-season harvest from the community garden she and her husband started in downtown Grand Rapids. Every year, one adult student from each of the 12 institutions that belong to the Grand Rapids Area Higher Education Network, (GRAHEN), is honored as an Outstanding Adult Learner. These students exemplify the ability to successfully juggle career, school, family and community responsibilities. Faculties nominate students, who then submit an application, an essay and two letters of recommendation. Three judges select the winners based on their community service, leadership, academic accomplishments, workplace achievements and grade point average. The Outstanding Adult Learners each receive a GRAHEN cash stipend and are honored in April at a memorable awards ceremony and reception. Sally Triant was the GVSU College of Education winner. “Throughout the years I have had numerous opportunities to share my passion with my community and I cherish the times I have spent planting gardens with both children and adults. It was my activism that propelled my desire to attain my own dream of becoming a certified teacher.” Student Awards A Journey to the Classroom Sally Triant’s journey to the science classroom came from the ground up. A 1998 Michigan State University graduate in the fine arts, she found work in the world of food banks, where she encountered children who had no idea where their food came from. “The roots of my current pursuit are literally grounded in the gardens where I first learned to grow my own food,” she says. “Subsequently, my work with food banks and the public schools brought to my attention the fact that many children are unaware of the most basic components of plant biology. It became my passion to reunite children and adults with the environment through the element that impacts them the most, the source of their daily nourishment.” In 2006, Triant enrolled at GVSU to earn a teachable major in integrated science. “I chose this subject,” she says, “because much of what I love about teaching children about the outdoors comes from the passion I feel to preserve and protect the diminishing wild places in the world. I see science as the link that makes the wonders of our planet accessible to students.” After completing a major in integrated science, she enrolled in the COE Graduate Teacher Education (GTC) program, an intensive, one-year, full-time teacher training program for adults who hold a bachelor’s degree in a teachable major. Triant received her teaching certificate in April 2009 through the GTC program, and is only five classes away from earning her master’s degree in education. Her community service resumé includes: • Blandford Environmental Education School (student teaching) • Goodwillie Environmental School (Forest Hills Public Schools) • GVSU Community Garden Committee • MSU Extension Master Gardener Program • Sweetwater Local Foods Market • Mixed Greens: Growing Kids Who Grow Gardens • The Food Depot: Northern New Mexico’s Food Bank Triant notes that she has enjoyed these last years of schooling very much and that this award “...is the icing on the cake. I know I am doing the right thing. I am very passionate about it.” COE Achievements 11
Page 1 and 2: College of Education Annual Report
Page 3 and 4: A Year in Review: 2008-2009 COE Mis
Page 5 and 6: Grand Valley State University Outst
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Page 11: Faculty Honors and Degrees Roger M.
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Page 21 and 22: COE Service - Faculty and Staff COE
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2008-2009 - Grand Valley State University

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