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Misericordia Student Research Fellow Tackles Shoreline Issues

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Misericordia University biology major Hunter D. Pates of Columbus, N.J., inspects the transect he established on Mordecai Island to study fiddler crab burrows and crustacean population.</div>
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Hunter D. Pates knows how to tackle.</div>
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He ably brings down running backs from his linebacker position on the football field, and addresses myriad issues that are important to the student body on campus as vice president of the Student Government Association at Misericordia University.</div>
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The Columbus, N.J., native, though, is most proud of his ability to undertake important academic and environmental issues as an undergraduate research scientist and burgeoning coastal ecologist. Pates was one of 28 undergraduate students and 14 faculty members who participated in the 2015 Misericordia University Summer Research Fellowship Program from May 26 to July 31.</div>
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“The big thing is over my first three years at Misericordia I really established a strong base on the overall scientific process,’’ Pates says about his undergraduate education. “With that kind of training, it allowed me to go out and put all of those skills to work. It helped make the process feel much easier and go much smoother. What I liked about the fellowship program is I pretty much had the freedom to develop my own research project.</div>
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“I felt like I had the freedom to reach out to other scientists in the field and establish that line of communication while getting their feedback and help. That’s something I wouldn’t have had if I went to a larger research fellowship program or larger school,’’ he adds.</div>
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The University-sponsored opportunity took him from the on-campus laboratories in Hafey-McCormick Science Hall, where his interdisciplinary research with fiddler crabs began with Barbara McCraith, Ph.D., associate professor of biology, to the endangered coastal salt marshes, salt marsh islands and shorelines of Ocean and Cumberland counties in New Jersey. His summer work also enabled him to appreciate the roles biologists and engineers play in fully understanding the coastal system, including the geology, chemistry and biology of this fragile environment, and how best to protect it.</div>
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“The work he did was outstanding,’’ says Dr. McCraith. “He really gets science. I saw it happen his sophomore year. He was turned on by science. He got bit by the research bug.’’</div>
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The goal of Pates’ investigation was twofold, as he sought to compare the effectiveness of two different shoreline erosion prevention-restoration projects on Mordecai and Money Islands, and the impact erosion has on the fiddler crab population.</div>
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The shore is somewhat of a second home for Pates, as he grew up an hour’s drive from the beach on Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, a military facility about 18 miles outside of Trenton, N.J., with his parents, MSgt. Timothy and Judith Pates. His exploration of beaches in Sea Girt, N.J., during his childhood, and now Beach Haven, Long Beach Island, N.J., shaped a lot of his beliefs on conservation efforts in his home state and elsewhere.</div>
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“Just growing up and going down to the shore has helped me to appreciate all that nature has to offer to us,’’ he says, reflecting on his formative years around the ocean that included building elaborate sand castles and seemingly nonstop boogie boarding. “And now being able to advocate for environmental causes helps to ensure people will always be able to utilize nature and all it has to offer.’’</div>
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<b>AN ESTUARY LIFE</b></div>
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A soft-spoken senior, Pates plans on attending graduate school for coastal ecologyso he can continue conducting research that has a positive impact on the environment – even one day working for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The undergraduate scientist in him reveals his practice of meticulous preparation, as he reviews notes, pictures and his already completed research poster while reviewing the collaborative work.</div>
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His research topic, “A Living Shoreline Approach to Erosion Prevention and its Effect on Fiddler Crab Burrow Densities on Mordecai Island, Barnegat Bay and Money Island,” required periodic kayak trips by himself since the locations were inaccessible by other means. On Mordecai Island, he established experimental and control sites to quantify the abundance and quality of fiddler crab burrows. He did the same at Money Island, which is technically considered a cape. In each quadrat, Pates counted the burrows and measured their diameters every two weeks at each site in an effort to determine how healthy the environment was for the crabs and other native species of plants, birds and fish.</div>
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“Salt marshes, in general, are important as they serve as a filtering system for pollutants,’’ says Pates, a Northern Burlington County Regional High School graduate and biology major at Misericordia University. “If they are healthy, it will take away wave energy from hurricanes and storms. They also act as a nursery for juvenile fish, fiddler crabs and other organisms.’’</div>
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His research was enhanced by ReClam the Bay, a regional educational and environmental nonprofit in Toms River, N.J., that reintroduces clams and oysters to the Barnegat Bay estuary to improve water quality; Barnegat Bay Partnership, a national estuary program in Seaside Park, N.J., that works to protect and enhance the Barnegat Bay ecosystem, and the Wilmington, Del.-based Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, one of 28 National Estuary Programs that work to improve the health of estuaries. Representatives of the organizations granted him access to Mordecai Island in the Barnegat Bay complex, and Money Island in Downe Township, that were critical to his research, and also offered him feedback.</div>
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Mordecai and Money islands are very similar in size, composition and importance in this complex ecosystem. Mordecai is an uninhabited 45-acre coastal marsh island that is a haven to migrating and indigenous birds and fish. Since the 1930s, about 26 acres of the island’s western shore have been lost to storm and manmade erosion, according to New Jersey Audubon. Money is bordered by the Delaware Bay and Gandy’s Beach Preserve.Their importance to this fragile ecosystem, though, also cannot be underestimated as it is a refuge for endangered bird species, like the Black Skimmer, American Oystercatchers and Yellow-crowned Night-Herons, according to the New Jersey Audubon.</div>
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This is where their similarities end, though, as different methods are being employed on these coastal shorelines to protect them from erosion, and to rebuild their shorelines and natural habitats.</div>
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<b>EROSION PREVENTION</b></div>
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Along the Money Island coast, scientists constructed living shorelines in the spring of 2014. Living shorelines is a relatively new concept along the Northeast Coast, but it has been used off the coasts of the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida and Louisiana to manage vanishing shorelines due to natural erosion and destructive hurricanes. Natural shorelines utilize organic materials to protect the shore from the energy of waves and to rebuild and, in turn, repopulate the shores with native species. A healthy and stable shoreline, for example, will have an ample supply of ribbed muscles in the sand, while also stimulating the proliferation of tall grasses that attract nesting birds, like the Piping Plover.</div>
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By utilizing coconut or coir fiber logs situated between wooden posts, and positioning oyster bags – mesh bags filled with oyster shells – in front of the fiber logs at Money Island, erosion slowed and fresh sediment was retained that enabled fresh vegetation growth and a healthy environment for native species.</div>
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Erosion has devoured most of Mordecai Island’s lower marsh through the years. Conservation efforts here are being enhanced by manmade geotubes – long, high-strength woven geotextile tubes filled with sand – that are placed offshore to absorb wave energy. The first phase of the project was completed in 2009. It has yet to be determined when the project will be completed.</div>
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<b>A HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT</b></div>
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Fiddler crabs are a good tool to measure a healthy shore environment. An abundance of the small crustaceans, for example, indicates a healthy salt marsh, while plentiful, but smaller burrow sizes indicate an increased recruitment of the crabs into the environment. An abundant fiddler crab population also aerates the soil, which encourages native grasses, like cord grass Spartina alterniflora, to take root. Conversely, fewer burrows exist on shorelines with active erosion.</div>
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Pates’ research data show the living shoreline is more effective in “enhancing fiddler crab recruitment and in reestablishing marsh habitat’’ compared to the geotubes. Money Island’s density for burrows was 118 per meter square, while Mordecai’s was only 23 per meter square. Therefore, his research suggest that the use of organic material is more effective than geotubes in “enhancing fiddler crab recruitment and in reestablishing marsh habitat.”</div>
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“His research is important for a couple of reasons,’’ Dr. McCraith adds, while reviewing a copy of his poster presentation. “It’s important for Hunter himself, as he made connections and started networking with people in research in New Jersey and Delaware. From that, he has really started to develop an understanding of the interconnectedness of everything in the marine system there – not just the science, but the economy and the social impacts as we start losing the shoreline.</div>
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“As the students in our internship program develop a better understanding of their research and the impact of shoreline erosion, they are hopefully going to be leaders in their communities, and they can educate people and influence policy based on that level of understanding. The education we are giving our students is going to carry on through their whole life.’’</div>
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Misericordia Student Research Fellow Tackles Shoreline Issues

Misericordia University biology major Hunter D. Pates of Columbus, N.J., inspects the transect he established on Mordecai Island to stu...

Texas Education Commissioner Michael Williams to Step Down

News 1:39 AM

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<b>Texas Education Commissioner Michael Williams has announced plans to step down from the position he began three years ago as the first African-American to be named in the role.</b></div>
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<b>Williams has worked in Austin for the past 16 years, working on the Texas Railroad Commission from 1999 to 2011 before becoming Education Commissioner in 2012.</b></div>
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<b>He said he is unsure what his next move will be, but that it is “time to simply head home.”  He added that he does not “ever expect to be on a ballot again,” and that he thinks he will end up in the private sector after stepping down as of January 1, writes Anna Tinsley for The Star-Telegram.</b></div>
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<b>“I don’t want to engage in thinking about the next career move while I am still on the taxpayer’s dime,” he told the Star-Telegram. “In the course of my life, I’ve been blessed and opportunities have come available. I hope I’ll be blessed again and another opportunity will present itself.”</b></div>
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<b>While in his role, Williams faced a number of challenges, from implementing a new standardized test to dealing with the results of cuts made to public school funding by the Legislature.  He was criticized for the rollout of the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, which, implemented several months before he took office, was thought by many to be too rigorous.  Around the same time, the Legislature cut around $5.4 billion from public school funding as a result of revenue forecasts that turned out to be inaccurate.  As a result, many districts had to cut staff positions and class offerings.</b></div>
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<b>Williams said that the new commissioner will face even more challenges.</b></div>
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<b>“Texas is poised to usher in a new level of high-quality Pre-K education, as well as bring greater flexibility and innovation to our school districts,” he wrote to Abbott. “You have worked to assure the return of valuable literacy and math academies as well as other supports for our teachers.</b></div>
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<b>“Finally, we are again broadening the choices and information provided to Texas parents to help them make informed decisions about their children’s education.”</b></div>
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<b>The commissioner added that he was proud of his work improving the morale of the employees of the Texas Education Agency, accountability of school districts and public awareness about the struggles of low-income students in the state, writes Julie Chang for The American-Statesman.</b></div>
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<b>Graduation rates in the state have gone up to an all-time high last year as 88.3% of seniors graduated within four years.  The number of charter school students also rose 15% each year that Williams was in office.</b></div>
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<b>Teachers in the state praised him as he stood up for districts to be allowed to choose their own teacher and principal evaluation systems despite federal requirements.</b></div>
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Texas Education Commissioner Michael Williams to Step Down

Texas Education Commissioner Michael Williams has announced plans to step down from the position he began three years ago as the first ...

Duncan Touts Education Technology at Hispanic STEM Conference

News 1:38 AM

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Outgoing Secretary of Education Arne Duncan spoke about his visions for the future of American education at Hispanic Engineering, Science, and Technology (HESTEC) week.</div>
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The fourteenth iteration of the week-long event, held at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, focuses on improving science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education for Latino students in America with the goals of increasing their opportunity and improving the lack of diversity in high-tech workplaces.</div>
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US Rep. Ruben Hinojosa introduced Duncan to an auditorium of students and educators, to whom he spoke about the importance of STEM education, increasing the availability of blended learning, and why districts should be spending their money on devices instead of textbooks.</div>
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According to Duncan, high-tech companies have trouble finding qualified Americans to work on their projects. Danya Perez-Hernandez of the Monitor quoted him:</div>
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I can’t tell you how many CEOs, how many company leaders I’ve met with, and President Obama has met with, that say ‘We want to grow, we want to keep good jobs in our community, but we can’t find the workforce.’</div>
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Duncan stressed the importance of blended learning, since it allows students to learn outside the classroom and to use their time in school more efficiently. Imelda Mejia of Valley Central related a story of math teacher Sam Nieto and his use of classroom technology. He starts class by showing students a lesson plan on his website, and then sets them to work on problems at their own pace while he visits individually with students to check on their progress. Duncan said:</div>
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The goal is to be able to have all of you students being able to learn everything you want, anywhere. The idea of just sitting in class and the only chance to learn is six hours a day, five days a week, nine months out of the year, simply doesn’t make sense anymore.</div>
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In a message specifically to superintendents, he noted that using devices over textbooks is budget-friendly and also helps students access the most up-to-date and pertinent information. In quickly-growing fields like technology and the sciences, print textbooks are often no longer relevant by the time they reach students.</div>
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Students who use devices over textbooks also have the advantage of being more tech-savvy and comfortable with technology, which is growing in importance as a job skill. Robert Schoon of the Latin Post quoted Duncan:</div>
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When we buy textbooks, most of those textbooks become obsolete the minute they show up in the classroom. WIthout a huge influx of money, we have to stop doing some things. As a nation, every year we spend $70 to $90 billion on textbooks and I much prefer to see districts starting to put that money into devices.</div>
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Despite his focus on growing the use of educational technology, Duncan emphasized the role of teachers, especially those who are trained in the STEM fields.</div>
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The idea of being able to learn anything we want at any time, anywhere we want, but also having a great teacher to talk to, to ask questions, to get feedback, I think those two things together are always going to be the most powerful.</div>
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According to Nicole Gorman of Education World, Duncan also advocated a program that will bring internet access to underprivileged students.</div>
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Duncan Touts Education Technology at Hispanic STEM Conference

Outgoing Secretary of Education Arne Duncan spoke about his visions for the future of American education at Hispanic Engineering, Scien...

Teacher Home Visits Help Build School-Family Relationships

News 9:16 PM

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In Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 90% of the children at Hobgood Elementary School are from low-income households, and principal Tammy Garrett says this creates a challenge. Blake Farmer, writing for NPR-Ed, says Garrett believes that if a teacher only knows middle class families, they may not understand why their students are sometimes tired or do not have their homework  completed.</h3>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In order to get a better understanding  of their students, and to get teachers out of their comfort zones, Garrett began boarding her teachers onto school buses to visit the neighborhoods and apartment complexes where Hobgood students live. Along the way, the bus driver takes to the intercom to explain that he picks up 50 children at one complex every morning, and teachers get ready to knock on students’ doors unannounced.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In some cases, polite pleasantries are exchanged, but other meetings actually yield conversations with substance, often with parents who do not make it to their child’s school very often.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“I don’t have a car. I can’t drive because my back got broken in two places,” she tells a trio of teachers standing in her doorway. “I’m a mom. I can’t be there with all of them all the time,” says Jennifer Mathis who has one child at Hobgood.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the past, a home visit from a teacher only meant trouble, but now home visits are used to encourage parental involvement. The National Education Association thinks visits are an excellent idea, and a school district in Massachusetts has even provided teachers with extra pay for the added work and overtime. Charter schools in Washington, D.C., have used home visits to engage parents, and D.C. traditional schools are trying out the idea as well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“If a kid doesn’t have a place to sleep or they have to share the couch with their siblings at night and there are nine kids with one bedroom or two bedrooms, it’s important for them to see that — not to be sympathetic,” she says. “It’s to empower the teachers to change the lives of the kids.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Albemarle County, Virginia’s Woodbrook Elementary School students got surprise visits from their teachers, too. Principal Lisa Molinaro says the visits strengthen the partnership between home and school, which is critical to a student’s success, writes Courteney Stuart, reporting for The Charlottesville Newsplex. She started the home visits last year and focused on low-income families and families with children who speak English as a second language.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Woodbrook’s ESL teacher Elizabeth Coppolino says the visits are powerful, especially for the families of the students she teaches. Fourth grader Emma Boyd noted it was helpful to meet her new teacher before the first day of school.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“It’s a way that we show we care and help to connect with our families before they come through the door,” said Coppolino.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In Kentucky, the Newport Middle School Cafeteria buzzed earlier this month when 200 teachers gathered for a day-long trek around the city to visit students in their homes. This was the third year the visitation had taken place, and teachers were excited about their mission to visit 1,600-plus students, reports Patricia A. Scheyer of The River City News.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The teachers are convinced that the visits establish a relationship and set a tone for the rest of the year. The teachers walk in teams of two, briefly visiting and leaving a door hanger on the knob, printed in English and Spanish, if no one is available.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Newport Superintendent Kelly Middleton learned of the home visit system when he was a principal in another county and carried it with him when he went to Mason County. There, the district won a nationwide Magna award in 2008 for the home visit idea. He says the insights and information gathered from the visits help teachers know their students and help students realize that their teachers care.</span></div>
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Teacher Home Visits Help Build School-Family Relationships

In Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 90% of the children at Hobgood Elementary School are from low-income households, and principal Tammy Garret...

Oregon Education Chief Golden to Retire

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Oregon Governor Katie Brown has announced the impending retirement of the state’s chief education officer, Nancy Golden.</h3>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Golden is retiring after a recent legislative reorganization left her with a staff but demolished the board led by the governor that was in charge of all education spending.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“Nancy has put Oregon on the road to improve educational outcomes for every Oregon student. She has been tireless in her commitment to equity and closing the opportunity gap, making progress toward the goal of a seamless education system from birth to career.  While Nancy’s knowledge and inspiring leadership will be missed, she has created an excellent foundation for us to build upon,” said Brown in a statement.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Golden, who started her career in 1974 as a special education teacher, said that she had not intended on the job becoming a long-term position, adding that she had come out of retirement to take the post and had promised her family she would not hold it long.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Her statement affirmed that now was a good time to retire, as the recent legislative session had included a number of educational investments and she believes the governor will do all she can to build on what they had started concerning a “cradle-to-career system” that would create more opportunities for all students in Oregon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Golden had previously accepted the position of education policy adviser in 2011 by then-Governor John Kitzhaber.  However, she left after lawmakers created the Oregon Education Investment Board that session.  While the governor hoped the board would oversee all education spending from early childhood to post-graduate, Golden ended up on the board when the governor, who was chairman, could not attend.  She was then named chief education officer in 2013, writes Peter Wong for The Portland Tribune.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Her retirement holds significant meaning, as the position she held represents a number of education reforms Kitzhaber tried to implement.  Kitzhaber hoped to streamline the state’s K-12 education system by removing the elected position of State Superintendent of Public Instruction, while at the same time investing more power into the Oregon Education Investment Board.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The board was abolished by lawmakers, leaving Golden’s position in a suspended state, as she held a position that reported to a board that did not exist.  Golden’s staff, who are responsible for coordinating education on all levels, remained.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Lindsey Capps, Brown’s education advisor, will take over as interim chief education officer.</span><br />
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Oregon Education Chief Golden to Retire

Oregon Governor Katie Brown has announced the impending retirement of the state’s chief education officer, Nancy Golden. Golden is re...

Study Suggests Music Training Linked to Language Skills

News 9:11 PM

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A study by Nina Kraus, Director of the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University School of Communication, has revealed the significance of music training in high school as a way of improving academic performance and strengthening hearing and language skills. Band music training, the authors say, accelerates neurodevelopment of the brain.</h3>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In her study titled: “Music training alters the course of adolescent auditory development” Kraus showed that students exposed to music training had had a faster maturation in how their brain’s responded to sound and improved their sensitivity to sound nuances.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“While music programs are often the first to be cut when the school budget is tight, these results highlight music’s place in the high school curriculum,” the research leader said. “Although learning to play music does not teach skills that seem directly relevant to most careers, the results suggest that music may engender what educators refer to as ‘learning to learn.’”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The study involved 40 high school students from low-income schools in the city of Chicago and it consisted of two to three hours of band classes each week. The study is among growing literature on music’s role in academic performance and language skills, and confirms previous studies that teens’ brains are malleable; that brain’s neuroplasticity means that teens can still respond well to interventions such as the one carried out by Kraus and her colleagues.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For the study’s purposes, one group of adolescent students participated in a group music training class and the other group participated in a Junior Reserve Office Training Corps program with a focus on fitness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Kraus examined how the teenage brain encoded speech before the intervention and three years later. She discovered through a series of phonological and linguistic tasks (such as the repeating back of lists of digits or non-English words) that band music training accelerated brain neurodevelopment. That is, the musically trained participants reached adult cortical development faster than those participating in the fitness program.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Reporting on the study, Medical Daily explains that the findings are particularly significant for students from low-income backgrounds as more often than not their language skills development falls behind that of their wealthier peers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">US News reports that even though before the study the researchers found no major brain differences among students, the latter weren’t randomly assigned the music training, but voluntarily choose the music training, suggesting an already more plastic brain.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Kraus’s previous research suggests that engaging in music-making activities improves non-music related skills including language, reading, attention and memory. The theory is that the way the brain receives and encodes pitch and rhythm differences is what allows people to interpret speech and language more efficiently.</span></div>
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Study Suggests Music Training Linked to Language Skills

A study by Nina Kraus, Director of the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University School of Communication, has reveale...

Report Finds 90% of US Freshmen Receive Grant Aid

News 9:08 PM

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According to a report released this week by the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), almost 90% of freshmen in the US get grant aid from their colleges – an all-time high number, reports Susan Svrluga of The Washington Post. The grant money covered over half of the tuition and fees for full-time first-year freshman, an average of more than 54%.</h4>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The report suggests that students and parents might not want to be discouraged by the “sticker price,” said NACUBO President and CEO John Walda. Because discounts on tuition are on the rise and enrollment has dropped at about half the schools that participated in the survey, schools are introducing competitive pricing to lure students who might be considering a less expensive education.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There are multiple challenges facing college business officers, according to NACUBO, including lower net revenue from tuition, declining enrollments, and a greater demand from parents and students for grants to assist them with college costs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In 2014, projected average net tuition revenue held steady, and most independent colleges get an average of a third of the school’s operating revenue in this way. The closing of Sweet Briar College last year seemed like a gloomy warning of the risks of tuition discounting to many college officials.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Sweet Briar’s president at the time and the school’s board said enrollment decline and discounts that were too generous hurt the school financially. Alumnae and supporters did all they could to keep the school open, which they did. Now with a new president with his eye on increasing enrollment, the college is open and students returned with their grants in place.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The 2014 NACUBO Tuition Discounting Study included data drawn from 411 private, non-profit, four-year colleges and universities. The average discount rate reached by these schools was 48% for freshmen and 41.6% for all undergraduates, up from 46.4% and 39.8%, respectively, in 2013-2014.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">To put it another way, writes Kellie Woodhouse of Inside Higher Ed, higher education institutions awarded about 48 cents of institutional grants to freshmen for every dollar collected for first-year tuition and fees. NACUBO found that about three-fourths of institutional aid was awarded to students who demonstrated financial need.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“While the economy has improved, many families are still struggling. In a lot of communities you’re still seeing, if not job losses, jobs that don’t pay nearly as much as they did,” said Ken Redd, director of research and policy analysis at NACUBO. “There’s an increased inability [for needy students to go to college] and an unwillingness to pay even if you did have the money. The level of price sensitivity … is very real.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">About 89% of first-time, full-time freshmen receive some tuition discount, which is up from 88% last year. If all undergraduates are considered, the rates drops to 77%. As a whole, undergraduates received grants that cover an average of 48.9% of fees and tuition.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The surveyed institutions’ net revenues are expected to grow by only 0.4% per student next year. But this is not a new trend - after inflation adjustment, tuition revenue has been flat-lined for the past 13 years.</span></div>
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Report Finds 90% of US Freshmen Receive Grant Aid

According to a report released this week by the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), almost 90% o...

Coursera Raises Nearly $50 Million for Expansion

News 9:05 PM

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Online education platform Coursera has raised $49.5 million in funding for planned expansion.</h3>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Coursera offers free courses in partnership with universities and generates revenue by the fees students pay to get a certificate upon completion of their class. They have paired up with more than 120 universities including Yale, Johns Hopkins, the University of Edinburgh, and Peking University.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Like most online education services, most of its 1,100 courses are oriented towards job skills rather than academic scholarship, serving to fill in gaps that traditional education leaves open.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This year, the company introduced “specializations,” which are a series of courses focused on one topic, writes Frederic Lardinois of Tech Crunch. Some examples of these “mini-degrees” include Android development or business basics, and companies like Instagram, Google, and Shazam have provided help with the curriculum. In a few weeks, Coursera plans to release six more specializations for a total of about 30.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Douglas Belkin of the Wall Street Journal quoted Coursera’s CEO Rick Levin on what fuels the platform’s growth:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This is a natural evolution. We’ve found over the last year that there is tremendous demand for job-relevant skills. We embrace bringing universities and companies together.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The companies involved in these specializations are not acting only out of generosity, however. By helping to find these courses, they can not only improve trust in their brand, but find new employees. Levin said that the benefit is mutual:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We have a big reach and these companies want the visibility. They want to know who the top performers are in the course, and potentially interest them in applying for a job.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Coursera already has 15 million users, 1 million of whom are based in China, and is still seeking to expand its reach with translations and subtitles. Times Internet, which owns the Times of India, is working with them to increase their audience in India. Languages already available include Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish, Portugese, Turkish, Ukrainian, German, Arabic, Italian, Japanese, Hebrew, and Italian.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This round of funding was led by New Enterprise Associates and included existing investors Kleiner Perkins and International Finance Corporation, along with newcomer Times Internet. Experts expect the round to reach $60 million by this fall, writes Kia Kokalitcheva of Fortune, and to include GSV Asset Management and Learn Capital. So far, it has raised $135 million.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">According to Cromwell Schubarth of the Silicon Valley Business Journal, other recent happenings in the world of online education include a $65 million funding round for Udemy in June, LinkedIn’s purchase of Lynda.com in April for $1.5 billion, and a partnership between Udacity and Google to teach skills like app development</span>.</div>
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Coursera Raises Nearly $50 Million for Expansion

Online education platform Coursera has raised $49.5 million in funding for planned expansion. Coursera offers free courses in part...

Supreme Court Dues Case Could Affect Teachers Unions

News 10:59 PM

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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Earlier last week, the US Supreme Court agreed to hear a case against the California Teachers Association in an effort to decide whether teachers and other public employees will be required to pay fees to unions in order to be represented.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">If the plaintiffs in the Friedrichs v. CTA case come out successful, the financial strength of the CTA and other public employee unions could be threatened, as all union dues would become voluntary.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The lawsuit, filed by ten teachers in California and the conservative teachers group Christian Educators Association International, argues that their First Amendment rights are in violation by requiring mandatory fees, reports John Fensterwald in The Huffington Post.  Plaintiff and teacher Rebecca Friedrichs says it is not about getting something for nothing, but instead having the choice not to support an organization they disagree with.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">“This case is about the right of individuals to decide for themselves whether to join and pay dues to an organization that purports to speak on their behalf,” Terry Pell, president of the Center for Individual Rights, which brought the case on behalf of the teachers, said in a statement Tuesday. “We are seeking the end of compulsory union dues across the nation on the basis of the free speech rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">According to Connor Wolf for The Daily Caller, the lawsuit began when Friedrichs discovered members of the California Teachers Association (CTA) received benefits at a cost to their students.  However, when she tried to leave the union, she found that she would be required to continue to pay into it.  “Unions, like any group, should have to earn members,” she added.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The plaintiffs are seeking an overturn of the Court’s ruling from the 1977 Abood v. Detroit Board of Education case, which allowed states to require public employees to decline to join a union in order to avoid “agency” or “fair-share” fees.  Those fees go toward covering the local union’s costs concerning negotiations of workplace conditions, pay and benefits, while another portion goes to the CTA and the National Education Association to cover expenses associated with lobbying in Sacramento and Washington, DC.</span></div>
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Supreme Court Dues Case Could Affect Teachers Unions

Earlier last week, the US Supreme Court agreed to hear a case against the California Teachers Association in an effort to decide whethe...

San Francisco to Push Computer Science Curriculum

News 10:58 PM

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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The San Francisco Unified School District plans on bringing Computer Science instruction to all of its students from preK to 12th grade.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Middle schools will be receiving compsci courses this coming fall, and elementary schools will follow. The goal is to have computer science curriculum in every school by the 2016-2017 school year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Bryan Twarek, the district’s computer science coordinator, said:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">We are not trying to produce an army of software engineers. We want to open all doors to this industry, and right now those doors aren’t open to everyone.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Because of the pioneering efforts of the school district, much of the curriculum will be experimental, writes Andra Cernavskis of the Hechinger Report. Existing models cater to high school students, but very little information exists on teaching computer science in elementary schools. According to Evan Faggart of Bitcoinist, developers plan on giving the youngest students tasks like making robots out of blocks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Board of Education President Emily Murase said:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Information technology is now the fastest growing job sector in San Francisco, but too few students currently have access to learn the Computer Science skills that are crucial for such careers. We are proud to be at the forefront of creating a curriculum that will build on the knowledge and skills students will need starting as early as preschool.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">A particular concern of school district officials is making sure that the classes promote lifelong skills instead of just overloading students with gadgets.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">One organization involved in curriculum creation for the district is the Alliance for California Computing Education for Students and Schools (ACCESS), which also works to bring computer science to the state’s traditionally underserved students. Julie Flapan, the executive director of ACCESS, said:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">We want to make sure that when people are talking about computer science education, they are talking about critical thinking and computational learning and not just bringing fancy technology into the classroom.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Most of the funding for the program comes from external organizations, according to Military Technologies, such as a $6 million donation from the Salesforce Foundation in 2014.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Twarek said:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">We expect to fund the pilot primarily through external sources, and we continue to seek additional sources so that we can pilot in the elementary grades.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The Chicago school district requires a computer science course to graduate high school, but San Francisco is the first city to introduce such a comprehensive program.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Hadi Partovi, co-founder of Code.org, said:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Before this announcement, I would say San Francisco was behind the rest of the country in a field where you think it would be ahead. Now it’s ahead.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Out of the city’s 18 high schools, only 10 offer any type of computer science instruction. In the 2014-2015 school year, only 5% of the district’s students were in a computer science class, and most of those few hundred students were white and male, writes EdSurge. Out of the students who took the Advanced Placement exam in computer science in 2014, 22% were female and 3% identified as African American, Latino, or Native American.</span></div>
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San Francisco to Push Computer Science Curriculum

The San Francisco Unified School District plans on bringing Computer Science instruction to all of its students from preK to 12th grade...

Inspection Finds Schools in Philly Unsanitary, Unsafe

News 10:56 PM

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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">According to findings from the office of City Controller Alan Butkovitz, conditions within school buildings in the School District of Philadelphia show hazardous issues in dire need of correction.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Inspectors from Butkovitz’s office visited 20 schools in the district between October and March, finding issues at all schools including missing exit signs, hallways and fire exit doors blocked by large objects, and permanently clogged toilets, among other problems.  Reports from Central High School include the existence of cockroaches in the restrooms.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">“The School District needs to provide a safe, sanitary learning environment for everyone, including our great teachers who must endure these conditions daily,” said City Controller Alan Butkovitz in a statement.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">A report was issued based on the findings, showing a number of issues commonly found among schools in the district.  Electrical hazards, including exposed wiring, were found in 70% of the schools visited, 95% had water damage such as mold, and 75% showed clear fire hazards including missing or expired fire extinguishers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Some cases were so hazardous, such as the exposed wiring which held a 600-volt charge found in an unlocked closet at Dimner Beeber Middle School, that inspectors tried to intervene on the spot.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">A prior review of district schools performed in 2008 resulted in 2 of the schools being moved to new locations.  Despite the new homes for Samuel S. Fels High School and Juniata Park Elementary School, both schools still showed unsafe conditions in the new inspection, writes Alison Burdo for The Philadelphia Business Journal.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">According to Engineer Marc Orgovan, a number of the issues were found in hallways rather than individual classrooms, making it unclear how many students were actually affected by the problems.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Despite numerous attempts to contact them by Butkovitz’s office in regards to the situation, officials for the School District of Philadelphia have not returned his calls.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">“You’ve got kids in Philadelphia neighborhoods, and they can’t even go to the bathroom because of what they’re going to see … they’ve got to be worried that, if they touch something on the wall, it’s going to electrocute them,” said Butkovitz, who compared bathroom conditions to those in India and other developing countries.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">District spokesman Fernando Gallard did say more funding was needed in order to correct the situation, adding, “our maintenance budget has declined. There’s no surprises here.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Gallard went on to say that the controller was welcome to help lobby the state for the additional funds for maintenance within the district.  A total of $23.9 million was spent last year, but the district is hoping for $159 million this year in order to rehire staff members, including custodians, that were lost due to an increased number of dismissals that have occurred since 2010.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The district hopes to release its own facilities condition assessment this year, which will look into the conditions of all its buildings.</span></div>
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Inspection Finds Schools in Philly Unsanitary, Unsafe

According to findings from the office of City Controller Alan Butkovitz, conditions within school buildings in the School District of P...

Education Dept Scraps College Rating System, Focuses on Research Tool

News 6:34 AM

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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The US Department of Education has announced that they will no longer be releasing college evaluations, but rather focusing instead on the creation of a tool for consumers that allows access to multitudes of higher education data.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">“The department is now promising to produce a customizable, consumer-oriented website that won’t include any evaluations of colleges but will contain what one official described as ‘more data than ever before,’” according to Chronicle of Higher Education reporter Goldie Blumenstyk. “In effect, it will be a ratings system without any ratings.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">According to Deputy Undersecretary of Education Jamienne S. Studley, the new tool will allow users to make use of “whatever measures are important to them” when looking at each school.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The original plan, created in an effort to hold schools accountable for the success of their students, was introduced by President Barack Obama almost two years ago, who said the plan would allow students to get more “bang for their buck” by being able to see schools rated by value.  In addition, he had hoped to tie each college’s ability to qualify for federal financial aid to their rating, requiring approval from Congress.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">However, that plan began to change in December of 2014 when the Education Department announced it would begin sorting colleges in the country into three categories: high performing, low performing, and those who rank in the middle.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">While that system would have been tied to federal aid, this is no longer the case, writes Peter Jacobs for Business Insider.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The new consumer data tool will be based on the 11 metrics for college evaluations suggested by the Education Department in December.  These include affordability, first-generation student enrollment, and graduation rate.  Department officials say the new tool should be released by the end of this summer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">“This college ratings tool will take a more consumer-driven approach than some have expected, providing information to help students to reach their own conclusions about a college’s value,” wrote Jamienne Studley, deputy undersecretary for postsecondary education. “And as part of this release, we will also provide open data to researchers, institutions and the higher education community to help others benchmark institutional performance.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">However, Allie Bidwell of US News and World Report writes that not everyone agrees with the move.  Molly Corbett Broad, president of the American Council on Education, called the data “imperfect and incomplete,” and said that it could potentially “create perverse incentives, mislead students and damage institutions.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The tool will also be available for use by researchers, institutions and app developers.</span></div>
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Education Dept Scraps College Rating System, Focuses on Research Tool

The US Department of Education has announced that they will no longer be releasing college evaluations, but rather focusing instead on ...

Study: Students Worried About Debt, But Hopeful for Future

News 6:33 AM

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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">According to a new study out of Ohio State University, seven out of every ten college students in the United States are worried about their financial situation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The National Student Financial Wellness Study found that 60% of college students worry they will not have enough money to pay for their education, while 30% reported being frustrated about their monthly finances.  In addition, 32% of students said they were falling behind in their studies as a result of their mounting debt.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">“The number of students feeling financial stress is striking,” Anne McDaniel, the study’s co-author, said in statement Wednesday. Loan debt and finding ways to make ends meet pressured the American college students, McDaniel, who is also the associate director of research and data management at Ohio University’s Center for the Study of Student Life that conducted the study, said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">In all, the study found 64% of students paid for their college education through student loans.  Of those, 24% reported an expectation to borrow between $30,000 $50,000 by the time they graduate, writes Vishakha Sonawane for The International Business Times.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">“About 30 percent of students with loans said they borrowed the maximum amount for which they qualify each year, which may not always be the best choice,” McDaniel said in the statement. “But the good news is that about half the students with loans said they tried to borrow as little as possible.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">In an effort to save money and not increase the amount of student loans they obtained, around 30% of those surveyed said they took fewer classes, while 16% took a break from school and 13% transferred to a cheaper institution.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The majority of students surveyed did say they felt hopeful when it came to their current financial situation, with around 80% saying they expected to be able to solve their finances by the time they graduate college.  In addition, 67% said they felt good about their future financial condition.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">“Students feel good about their decision to go to college and think it will pay off in the end,” said Catherine Montalto, the study’s co-author and associate professor of human sciences at the university.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Researchers plan to use the results of the study to find a correlation between financial problems, graduation and other issues.  According to Montalto, it is the hope of researchers to be able to help students manage their stress in an effort to allow them to make better financial decisions, but not be so overwhelmed by them that their studies or health suffer as a result.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">A total of 18,795 students from 52 two-and-four-year colleges and universities across the country were surveyed for the study, which took place between the fall of 2014 and winter of 2015.</span></div>
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Study: Students Worried About Debt, But Hopeful for Future

According to a new study out of Ohio State University, seven out of every ten college students in the United States are worried about t...

Report: New Mexico Falling Short on Middle School Education

News 6:30 AM

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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Despite the importance of middle school on a child’s academic future, a new report released earlier this week by the state Legislative Finance Committee said New Mexico is not doing enough to ensure that students in the state succeed in these critical years.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The report, Performance, Programming, and Cost of Middle Schools in New Mexico, is the first to look into the needs of middle schools in the state.  A number of reforms are suggested, not only for Legislature, but also the state Public Education Department, local districts and charter schools.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Staff members for the committee discovered that the majority of middle schools in the state routinely earn D’s and F’s on the state evaluations.  Since 2005, middle school students have only made enough gains to increase the rankings to middle ground.  While reading scores on the Standards Based Assessments have mostly gone unchanged, math scores saw a rise between 2005 and 2009, falling flat after that year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">However, state senator Howie Morales acknowledges that when policymakers discuss education, they typically focus on the ability to read among elementary students, or high school graduation rates, adding that middle school issues usually go unnoticed, writes Chris Quintana for The Santa Fe New Mexican.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“At least we’re having the discussion,” Morales, a former educator, said Thursday. “Students aren’t lost at high school. They’re lost in middle school.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Committee members report that academic success in the eighth grade has a greater effect on a student’s future than does success in their high school years.  Between the sixth and eighth grades is typically when achievement gaps are either closed, lessened, or increased, and middle school students face the added challenge of beginning adolescence.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Suggestions made within the report include additional after-school programs in order to keep students engaged, including programs related to career training and college preparation.  The report went on to say that students who miss or skip school tend to perform worse on exams than students who attend classes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Other suggestions include ensuring teachers are dedicated to specific subjects, as well as providing additional resources in an effort to ensure that teachers do not leave the profession.  It was found that between 2012 and 2014, almost one-third of all middle school teachers in the state left their positions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The report went on to say that middle schools need more funding because they have many of the same needs as high schools.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Robert McEntyre, a spokesman for the Public Education Department, said some of the concerns outlined in the report have been addressed.  The state has promised to increase the number of truancy officers at schools, and has already created a program to place social workers in schools.</span></div>
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Report: New Mexico Falling Short on Middle School Education

Despite the importance of middle school on a child’s academic future, a new report released earlier this week by the state Legislative ...

Misericordia Brings Occupational Therapy Service to Jamaica

News 10:35 PM

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Misericordia Brings Occupational Therapy Service to JamaicaAll you have to do is ask, and occupational therapy (OT) Professor Joseph Cipriani, Ed.D., O.T.R./L., will talk at length about a first-of-its-kind OT collaboration in Jamaica and how far beyond his expectations his students went during a specially designed service-learning trip to the island nation in May.</div>
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It was not a typical mission trip. Upper-level OT students had to apply and be accepted into a three-credit class that Dr. Cipriani designed specifically around the one-week trip. Most importantly, Dr. Cipriani did a pre-assessment visit to the region early in the semester and made contact with caregivers at the Mustard Seed Communities, an organization that operates homes for severely disabled children and adults across Jamaica and around the world.</div>
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“I did a preliminary trip and toured many of the Mustard Seed sites with Therapy Missions, an organization of therapists who volunteer their services around the world,” Dr. Cipriani explained. “From a therapy perspective, what made this trip different was that we took the opportunity to ask the caregivers in Jamaica what we could do to help, and developed plans of action to address particular issues involving specific residents and groups of residents even before we left. It was very collaborative and designed to address long-term needs and provide training based on our students’ clinical and theoretical knowledge.”</div>
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From a pool of 25 applicants, the students selected included 2015 graduate John Ignatovich, Forty Fort; fourth-year students Amanda Casem, Mountain Top; Kristi Cianfichi, Moscow; Jamie Opela, Binghamton, New York, and Maria Weidemoyer, Perkiomenville; and juniors Kerrie Hall, Lynbrook, New York; Deirdre Stevens, Schenectady, New York, and Mary Boyle, Fairfield, Connecticut. Assistant Professor Jennifer Dessoye, O.T.R./L., accompanied the group as a specialist in pediatric OT.</div>
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While in class, the students studied Jamaica inside and out, looking at, among other things, the culture, dialects, family structure and health care needs of the island nation, where there are only 12 certified occupational therapists to provide services to 3 million residents.</div>
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The students spent time during the later weeks of the semester designing and creating equipment and therapy aids to take with them based on Dr. Cipriani’s observations. One in particular, a sensory stimulation mat created by Casem and Cianfichi, was designed to help severely disabled children with limited movement feel sensations, such as touching a rope and seeing themselves in a mirror – that healthy children experience in their everyday lives. Weidemoyer created a V-shaped sensory box to help give children access to sensory stimulation while being securely supported by staff in an upright position.</div>
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Upon arriving in Jamaica in late May, the students were not only immersed in the culture, they experienced an intensive interaction with therapy assistants and the large number of severely disabled children that are cared for in the Mustard Seed homes. For all involved, the learning was amazingly eye opening, offered unparalleled clinical experiences, and planted in the students the seeds of how they, as individuals, can help address global health care needs one patient at a time.</div>
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“This experience showed our students that there is more to OT than the fancy, new-century equipment they have been trained to use,” offered Dr. Dessoye. “These children are severely disabled and have no iPads or fancy wheelchairs – what they need is help with feeding and the other very basic skills of daily life. Our students needed to go back to the fundamentals of basic therapy and be creative in their approach.”</div>
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The students exceeded expectations in accepting the challenge.</div>
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“Working at the Mustard Seed Communities was such an incredible experience,” said Casem, who had the satisfaction of seeing the sensory mat she designed being used to help young children. “Not only did we work with some amazing kids, but we presented an in-service for the staff, educated them on some therapeutic techniques, and brought and made some equipment that they do not have access to. As the first of hopefully many annual trips of our OT department to Mustard Seed, I believe we got the ball rolling to really make a difference and change the kids’ lives for the better,” she added.</div>
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“Not only does our (Misericordia’s) connection with Mustard Seed benefit the kids, but I learned a lot as an OT student while we were there,” Casem emphasized. “I was able to gain hands-on practice of the skills that I learned in the classroom, and even though we were faced with such limited resources and equipment, I learned how to be more adaptable. Learning skills through experiences like this will help me for the rest of my life as a future OT.”</div>
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Ignatovich was the only graduate of the group, as he was awarded a master’s degree in OT at Misericordia’s 89th Commencement just a week before the trip. “My experience in Jamaica was a humbling one,” Ignatovich offered, citing the joy brought on simply in sharing a smile with a young boy. “I learned how the basic necessities in life, such as friendship and culture, could be so important for quality of life. As far as my career as an OT goes, this experience helped me to understand that I can really build a rapport with anyone. It doesn’t matter the culture or religion of the person … we are all human beings. I look forward to the future in finding ways to improve the quality of life with any patient I work with.”</div>
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Immediately following the trip, Ignatovich began his career as an occupational therapist at Wayne Memorial Hospital, Honesdale. He plans to continue his education at Misericordia and earn a doctorate degree in occupational therapy.</div>
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“Since Amanda (Casem) and I had been to Jamaica before, we knew a little bit about what to expect, but this experience was still very different from our previous one,” added Weidemoyer. “Because this experience was focused on OT, we had a different frame of mind. We had projects and things to focus on before we went down, and when we got there we were so determined to work on everything that we saw.”</div>
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Weidemoyer says that one of the hardest parts of the trip was recognizing that their time in Jamaica was temporary and their work may not be continued after they left. “This was their everyday life, and we weren’t about to completely change it after only one week,” she added. “Even with this in mind, every smile we put on the face of a child was worth the anxiety, fear, excitement, sadness, and hard work that we endured before, during, and after the trip. Our professional lives are now changed forever. We now know that our practice area as OTs does not only lie within the borders of the United States – we are proud globally practicing OTs, and we can’t turn back now.”</div>
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Dr. Cipriani explains that based on the successes seen during the Misericordia trip, the efforts in Jamaica will soon involve additional universities that are being brought together by the occupational therapists who volunteer at Therapy Missions. It is an opportunity to be a part of a unique educational collaboration that he said was previously unheard of on the island nation. Skype sessions involving OT students and faculty at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan; Georgia Regents University, Augusta, Georgia, and Misericordia have been held. The plan is to have each university adopt two specific Mustard Seed homes in Jamaica and visit each one annually with the hope to improve the continuity of education of the Mustard Seed staff and care of the residents.</div>
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Donations are welcome to help defray the cost of future trips. For information on the Misericordia University Jamaican OT project, contact Dr. Cipriani at jciprian@misericoria.edu, (570) 674-6412.</div>
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For more information about Misericordia University, please call (570) 674-6400 or log on to www.misericordia.edu. Founded and Sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy in 1924, Misericordia University is Luzerne County’s first four-year college and offers 34 degree programs on the graduate and undergraduate levels in full- and part-time formats. Misericordia University ranks in the top tier of the Best Regional Universities – North category of U.S. News and World Report’s 2015 edition of Best Colleges and was designated a 2015 Best Northeastern College by the Princeton Review.</div>
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Misericordia Brings Occupational Therapy Service to Jamaica

Misericordia Brings Occupational Therapy Service to JamaicaAll you have to do is ask, and occupational therapy (OT) Professor Joseph Ci...