Honors and Awards
REACH Dorm Named Outstanding
The National Association of College and University Residence Halls recognized University of Iowa Stanley Residence Hall’s 10th floor as its outstanding Community of the Month in October. Resident Assistants Ericka Tank, Hannah Zimmerman, and Beth Cline were noted for providing outstanding support for the residents.
Tenth floor Stanley is home to traditional students and the REACH (Realizing Educational and Career Hopes) community. REACH, a two-year transition certification program for students with intellectual, cognitive, and learning disabilities, teaches students how to become independent, career-oriented, and sociable.
RAs stressed community with their residents.
“We acknowledged we had two distinct communities and no matter how much each identity differs from another, we are still all one community: We are 10th floor Stanley. We are all University of Iowa students. We all want to feel accepted, and we all want to become friends,” Tank said.
Traditional and REACH residents alike were curious about each other and wanted to find out more about the other. Both communities addressed their differences but really strived to support the community.
“When I walk through the halls or have my door open, I can hear all residents joking with each other, laughing together, and comforting each other in times of need,” Tank said. “It is a great feeling—a feeling of unity, belonging, and hope for the future."
Tank says she also sees the residents support one another’s interests and whatever paths they’ve chosen, and how they trust one another and seek each other for advice and comfort on decisions.
When walking to class the other day, two REACH residents and a traditional student could be seen greeting each other and stopping in the midst of students changing classes to talk.
“Our community really has become one big 10th-floor Stanley community,” she said. “Although each resident has been able to maintain his or her own identity, they have also accepted each other’s. All residents have truly gone up and out of their way to contribute to a united community.”
2012 Obermann Fellows
Graduate Fellows
The Obermann Graduate Institute on Public Engagement and the Academy selected four College of Education doctoral students as Fellows. This opportunity allows them to explore how civic engagement can enhance teaching, research, and creative work.
Pasquesi has coordinated civic engagement efforts at Colorado College, where she taught community organizing to student activists and supported faculty in community-based learning and research. She organized a program where college students coached underrepresented middle and high school students to create student-led social action projects.
Her current research interests include the civic mission of higher education and democratic community partnerships.
Maybaum’s research is grounded in her classroom experiences with adult learners at Kirkwood Community College, where she teaches as a full-time faculty member in the English Department.
Maybaum aims to work with local G.E.D. students drawing on their literacy histories as the generative grounds from which “language experience stories” will be created and shared in a public reading.
Onwuameze’s academic interests include studying risk factors associated with educational inequality and social disadvantage, the academic achievement gap between white and black students.
Onwuameze plans to implement a project that can link the University of Iowa and the community with academically at-risk high school students. She hopes that the university–community collaboration will serve as the platform for achievement and success for these students.
Miller is a nationally board certified art teacher who has taught elementary art for 10 years in the public schools. She is now an instructor and graduate studies coordinator for Art Education at the University of Northern Iowa.
Her work currently focuses on socially engaged art practices with public school art teachers throughout Iowa. She also teaches art in places like the Iowa Juvenile Home. Her research interests include bookmaking with incarcerated women and girls, using technology with pre-service teachers for reflection, and collaborative art-making processes.
Undergraduate Fellow—Mackenzie O’Connor
The Obermann Center for Advanced Studies named Mackenzie O’Connor, who is majoring in English and Secondary Teacher Education with Talented and Gifted and Reading endorsements, an Undergraduate Fellow.
“Mackenzie’s work with adult immigrant students is best described as an example of publicly engaged scholarship,” Associate Professor Carolyn Colvin said. “She is the ideal teacher and student—engaged, curious, and anxious to learn more.”