Alumni News

Whether it’s in the classroom or after school, Pedro Navejas Rodriguez (U-ACT ‘13) is working to create spaces where all students feel valued.

That desire brought Navejas Rodriguez, a first-generation college graduate, to Grandview Middle School where he teaches 8th grade journalism and language arts, as well as Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) and alternative learning methods classes.

At the University of Washington’s Robinson Center for Young Scholars, Alexandra Goodell (PhD ‘18) has watched students get so immersed in learning that everything else gets put by the wayside.

“We had one teacher in the accelerated Algebra II class last year and she was saying, ‘The students all wanted to take their books out to lunch with them! I had to make them take a break’,” Goodell said.

At Evergreen Elementary School in Shelton, most students grow up in high-poverty environments. Many are English language learners who are the children of immigrants from Latin America.

In the face of adversity, however, Principal Adina Brito (MIT '96) is helping create a culture where all students believe they can succeed, for which she recently was honored as a member of the 2017 Class of National Distinguished Principals.

Noah Zeichner (MIT '04) and Diana Hess (PhD '98) are being honored by the National Council for the Social Studies during its annual conference this November.

Zeichner, who teaches at Ingraham International High School in Seattle will receive the 2017 Award for Global Understanding while Hess, dean of University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education, will receive the 2017 Jean Dresden Grambs Distinguished Career Research in Social Studies Award.

Katie Ward (MEd ‘11) believes in the power of connecting with students. For Ward and her students at Sequim High School’s Hope Academy, building trust and practicing emotional honesty is the foundation for creating deeper relationships and for giving young people who’ve struggled in traditional classrooms an opportunity to find their path through high school.

At Hope Academy, an alternative program for ninth through 11th-graders at Sequim High School, students work in a mixed-grade class for one or more periods each day. 

Jean Hernandez (EdD ‘96), a higher education leader who has dedicated her career to opening opportunities for diverse communities in the Puget Sound region, is being honored this month by the University of Washington’s Multicultural Alumni Partnership.

This academic year, Shelley Stromholt (PhD '15), a University of Washington College of Education postdoctoral scholar and alumna, has received a prestigious Fulbright Research Award to study community-centered science learning alongside educational researchers in Norway.

After growing up alongside a family member with autism, Katy Bateman (PhD ‘17) was inspired to become a champion for inclusion in education.

Throughout her life, Bateman was intrigued by the therapies and education services that were used to help her cousin learn.

“She had limited language when she was younger and we worked a lot on her language,” Bateman said. “As I got older, I saw her language progress into speaking full sentences. She now has a part-time job and she loves it. Seeing her language start to click made me think, ‘How can I do this for other kids, too?’”

Children who read and write at home — whether for assignments or just for fun — are building long-term study and executive function skills, according to a paper from the University of Washington.

And while home literacy activities have already been associated with higher test scores, the new study shows these activities also provide students with tools for lifetime success.

Growing up in New Orleans, Elzena McVicar (MIT ‘10) was surrounded by a family filled with teachers. Years of family conversations about education convinced McVicar that teaching was not for her.

While working on her bachelor's degree in anthropology, however, McVicar took a work study job as a tutor. Then, after graduating from college, she found herself working in an elementary school as an AmeriCorps volunteer. These two experiences changed McVicar’s perceptions of education, ultimately leading her in a new professional direction.