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George Zion, an alumnus from the Department of Learning and Instruction, was recognized by the College of Engineering Technology at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) for being a knowledgeable teacher and mentor. Zion was honored with the 2018-2019 Eisenhart Award for Outstanding Teaching for his ability to build bridges for students making the transition from high school to college.

Sameer Honwad, assistant professor from the Department of Learning and Instruction, is working with partners from the Royal Thimpu College (RTC) in Bhutan to start a museum that focuses on highlighting socio-scientific issues such as environmental sustainability and climate change. This idea was derived from a collaborative project titled “Weaving Strands of Knowledge: Connecting Culture and Science to Climate Change” funded by the American Association of Museums. As part of this project, students from RTC and the University of New Hampshire (UNH) travelled to each other’s communities in the summer of 2017. During this time, they collected audio stories from locals who work with the land in New England and Bhutan.

Understanding the instructional practices of information literacy (IL) in community college libraries, as well as the perceptions of librarians and students regarding the IL needs of students, is a nationwide concern. Currently, community colleges account for over 50 percent of the institutions of higher education and these colleges educate nearly half of the post-secondary students.

Stephen Jacobson, UB Distinguished Professor from the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy, has been all over the world teaching courses and participating in many different research projects. “Everyone wants to go visit a country that is excelling in education, but there is more to learn by going to places that are still evolving,” says Jacobson, who was brought to Albania to discuss education from an American perspective, and is involved with a large international research project in India to reduce gender-based violence with the use of prosocial computer games.

There are a number of schools in Western New York and throughout the state that are struggling to meet state education standards. To help address this concern, Corrie Stone-Johnson, associate professor from the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy, along with department colleagues Thomas Ramming, Melinda Lemke and Aliza Husain, are developing a university-based micro-credentials program for principals seeking the skills to improve these schools.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded Say Yes Buffalo and its partner institutions — including UB — a 22 month, $2.9 million grant to increase college completion rates for Buffalo Public School (BPS) graduates. Say Yes Buffalo, launched in 2012, is a community collaboration dedicated to increasing high school and postsecondary graduation rates. Say Yes Buffalo is also a college scholarship program for BPS students.

Michelle Layer Rahal (EdM ’93, Elementary Education) wrote and published “Straining Forward” in 2018, which depicts the story of Minh Phuong, a Vietnamese girl who endured abuse, prison and torture during the Vietnam War to become the third Asian woman in America to be ordained a Presbyterian pastor. “I didn’t set out to write Minh Phuong’s story,” says Rahal. “I felt called to it, and sometimes we need to follow our gut.”

Alexandra Schindel, associate professor from the Department of Learning and Instruction (LAI), is partnering with Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper to support their youth-centered education programs. High school students from Buffalo Public Schools are recruited to participate in these programs. This collaborative project, which includes LAI faculty members Ryan Rish and Sameer Honwad and UB Department of Geology faculty member Christopher Lowry, is part of the UB Graduate School of Education Faculty in Residence Program.

When she was a sophomore at UB, Joanna Saintil was fired from the College Success Center in Buffalo Public Schools' Bennett High School by Nathan Daun-Barnett, associate professor from the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy, who hired the work study students for the center through a GEAR UP grant. Saintil, currently a master’s student from the Department of Counseling, School and Educational Psychology (CSEP), often challenged her supervisors to do more to help Bennett students. As her temper became shorter, she began to hurt her relationships in Bennett.

Amy VanScoy, associate professor from the Department of Information Science, was collecting data in the United States when she decided to turn her research on librarians into an international study. “Personally, I find it ethnocentric if I only conduct studies in the United States,” said VanScoy. “I want to do research in other countries because there has to be some differences that we can learn from.” She is leading a global project across Slovenia, South Africa and the United States examining different librarian approaches to reference and information services (RIS).