Congratulations Students (compiled May 2011)

Rebecca Burns, doctoral candidate in curriculum and supervision with an emphasis in educational leadership, has been named winner of the 2011 Phi Delta Kappa Andrew Kozak Fellowship Award. The fellowship is awarded to outstanding Penn State graduate students who represent the organization’s ideals of leadership, research, and service to public education.

Eric G. Lovik ’10 Ph.D. has received an award for his Penn State doctoral dissertation. He was named winner of the Dissertation of the Year by the Dalton Institute on College Student Values at Florida State University. The award includes a cash prize and forthcoming publication of his dissertation in the September issue of the Journal of College and Character.

Lovik now serves as director of Institutional Effectiveness at the College of The Albemarle, Elizabeth City, N.C.

The Penn State chapter of the Student Pennsylvania State Education Association (SPSEA) won first prize in the statewide Learning Center Competition at the SPSEA Conference, held in April in Pittsburgh. The students’ project was an Area Code Mathematics learning center that included a large map of the United States with one area code for each state, and instructions for learning how to add and subtract three-digit numbers.

At the banquet, it was announced that Michael Gottfried, an SPSEA officer, won a $2,500 Lucy A. Valero Scholarship. The Valero scholarships are aimed at attracting capable new teachers to the profession. Lucy Valero spent 18 years working with PSEA’s student program, building it into one of the strongest in the nation.

SPSEA is a pre-professional association dedicated to advancing leadership skills and professional development among future educators across the Commonwealth.