Alumni News

For Kendall Fujioka (BA '14), putting on a second hat for the ABC Unified School District wasn’t exactly by choice. Stepping into the role of program director was necessary when the previous director retired, but she embraced it.

The position placed her in charge of two major grants for the district in southeast Los Angeles County and means she represents ABC on the California Student Mental Health Policy Workgroup. As a project director and member, she contributes to recommendations for state legislation to support youth mental health throughout California schools.

When Matthew Henley '13 came across an educational psychology course at the University of Washington, his response was, “That sounds interesting. I like teaching and I’ve been taking classes in psychology, but I didn’t know these things were combined as an academic discipline.”

She started the application from Vietnam with only a week before the deadline. She had an outline and just needed to put all the pieces together. Then she hit a roadblock.

How did she exemplify one or more habits of a globally competent individual? How did she, as a teacher, foster global citizenship in a classroom environment?

Jennifer Macias Morris (MIT ‘15) knew she had what the NEA Foundation was looking for in selecting its Global Learning Fellows—she just needed to figure out how to explain it.

In a phenomena known as “summer melt,” many high school graduates plan to pursue higher education, but something derails them over the summer.

“They get confused, they don’t know how to fill something out, and then they don’t show up to their first day, and don’t show up for the rest of the year,” Natalia Esquivel - Silva (BA '18) explained.

It’s a chain of events that throws off the plans of many young people, with lifelong consequences.

An astonishing amount of data is collected in education—a typical student will accumulate millions of data points, between preschool and high school graduation alone, ranging from standardized tests to administrative logs—yet leveraging all that information to drive improvement is a persistent challenge.

Jose Hernandez (PhD ‘15) is working to bridge that gap by making education data more accessible and actionable.

More than 700 new teachers, researchers, leaders, policymakers and early childhood professionals were honored during the University of Washington College of Education’s graduation ceremonies on June 5.

The festivities featured two members of the College’s Class of 2018 discussing their role as educator-activists in ensuring access to high-quality education for all students.

Adaurennaya Onyewuenyi, who graduated with her doctorate in learning sciences and human development, called on her classmates to engage daily in work to create a more equitable educational system.

Diana Hess (PhD '98), a scholar renowned for her work advancing civic education, has received the University of Washington College of Education’s 2018 Distinguished Alumnus Award.

Hess, dean of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and holder the Karen A. Falk Distinguished Chair of Education, is winner of two of the most prestigious awards in education research: the American Educational Research Association’s Outstanding Book Award (2016) and the Grawemeyer Award in Education (2017).

For the past 50 years, the University of Washington has helped lay the foundations for educators worldwide to think deeply about how to empower all students to become productive citizens.

On April 27, this work and the leadership of James A. Banks, Kerry and Linda Killinger Endowed Chair in Diversity Studies, will be celebrated during the UW Center for Multicultural Education’s 30th annual symposium.

As a third-grade teacher, Kacy Lebby (MIT ‘15) is bringing the outdoors into her classroom by teaching all subjects, not just science, from an environmental perspective.

Yet growing up, Lebby never saw herself becoming a teacher. As a hands-on learner, she always felt more comfortable outdoors than in a classroom. This trait led her to become an outdoor educator, where she taught subjects such as recreation and backpacking to middle and high school students.

As program director of the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) at Wenatchee Valley College, Yuritzi Lozano (MEd ‘13) has witnessed the power of students becoming advocates for their own education.