Success Stories:
Our MBA, MME and MSE students do great work in both their field of study and the community at large.
MSE Students Develop Training Manuals for Haitian Teachers
Every morning before her first-grade students in the Derry Township School District enter her classroom, Marianne Brace Purdy, a current master of science education student, glances at a photo on her wall of a far less affluent group of students and teachers from Les Bon Samaritains school in Haiti. The photo is a framed thank-you gift to her for co-writing a teacher training manual on the best practices for teaching science. She and another master of science education student, Amanda Deibert ’03, completed the manual as part of an independent study project.
“As a teacher, this has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career,” Purdy said. “I am not only making a difference for my students, but for students in another part of the world.”
Two years ago, under the direction of MSE Adjunct Instructor Jeff Remington, Purdy and Deibert began work on the training manual to help elementary school teachers in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere learn the best, research-based practices for teaching science. It is extremely rare for any formal science instruction to be offered in Haitian elementary schools.
Remington flew to the island nation of Haiti in November with the manual Purdy and Deibert wrote and used it during a teacher-training session he led at Les Bon Samaritains school. The LVC manual and training session were very well received.
Even though she has yet to travel to Haiti, Purdy said, “I have become emotionally attached to the children of Haiti. I hope to travel there someday to visit and teach science.”
Her project partner, Deibert, agreed. “I am very proud to have had a part in the early development of a science program for Les Bon Samaritains school and hope to continue my involvement in this remarkable project.
“This project was challenging for several reasons,” Deibert added. The teachers of Haiti speak French and live in the poorest of conditions. They have limited science equipment, and many of these teachers do not have experience with science inquiry skills. Any supplies donated to the school must be hand delivered, which makes it difficult to offer them books or science equipment.
President Bush Names LVC Science Teacher as one of Top U.S. Educators
President George W. Bush honored science teacher Joey Rider M’02, a graduate of LVC’s Master of Science Education (MSE) Program, with the 2006 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. “My MSE degree from LVC is what turned me on to science!” Rider said in an interview after receiving her award. She is now an adjunct instructor in LVC’s master’s degree program, as well as a teacher at Schaeffer Elementary School in Manheim Township, Lancaster County.
This award, the nation’s highest honor for teaching in mathematics and science, was presented to Rider in mid-May during a trip to Washington, D.C. Rider also received a $10,000 award from the National Science Foundation, the federal agency that administers the awards program on behalf of the White House. She was the only Pennsylvania honoree and one of only 93 teachers nationwide to receive the prestigious award this year.
Jeff Remington, also an adjunct instructor in LVC’s MSE Program, won the award in 2003. He is a science teacher for the Palmyra Area Middle School.
In the citation given to Rider, President Bush commended her “for embodying excellence in teaching, for devotion to the learning needs of the students, and for upholding the high standards that exemplify American education at its finest.”