Education Celebration Honors Students, Alumni, Community Partners

On Friday, May 3, the St. John Fisher College Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. School of Education held its annual Education Celebration, recognizing the College’s support for education, educators, and community leadership. Graduating seniors, graduate candidates, and alumni were honored during the event.

The School honored Shortwood Teachers’ College in Kingston, Jamaica with the Community Partner Award, which recognizes the great resources that relationships with schools and entities can provide. The College has now twice partnered with Shortwood to offer a student-exchange, sending Fisher undergraduates to Jamaica for several weeks, while hosting Shortwood students here. 

Four awards were given to undergraduate students, recognizing their academic excellence, leadership, and commitment to education.

Hillarie McIntosh, an inclusive education major, was given the Outstanding Undergraduate Teacher Community Service Award, which recognizes a candidate who has demonstrated the use of community service in ways that connect teachers to the communities they serve, impacting and improving learning and growth for all.

The Outstanding Undergraduate Educator Adolescence Award was given to inclusive education major Britni Martin, who was honored for her involvement in activities that exemplify the School of Education’s social justice tenants of diversity, achievement, compassion, knowledge, and service, as well as for her achieved academic excellence.

Inclusive education major Megan Eddy was given the Outstanding Undergraduate Educator Childhood Award. Like Martin, Eddy was recognized for involvement in activities that align with the School’s social justice tenants and for her academic successes.

The Outstanding Undergraduate Teacher Leadership Award was given to Josh Miles, also an inclusive education major. Miles was honored for modeling leadership through campus involvement and by serving as a positive influence to his peers.

Several awards recognized student success at the graduate level.

Cassie Ripley was given the Excellence in Literacy Education Award, which recognizes significant contributions in the literacy graduate program from students who exemplify the attributes and values of a highly effective literacy professional.

Recognizing leadership and the potential for a distinguished career in a diverse and rapidly changing society, the Outstanding Childhood Education Student Teacher Award was given to Caroline Kimber while Dylan Gramlich received the Outstanding Adolescence Education Student Teacher Award. Both awards recognize candidates who have utilized exemplary knowledge, skills, and dispositions to impact student learning during student teaching.

Graduate students Natalia Mocciaro and Erik Woods received the Excellence in Capstone Research Award-Adolescence and the Excellence in Capstone Research Award-Literacy, respectively. Both awardees were recognized for their high-quality literature review and a creative and innovative action research projects.

Kristen Dolan was this year’s recipient of the Dr. Ronald Edmonds Award of Excellence for demonstrating the passion for raising awareness of and commitment to providing all students with the support needed to be well-educated, as was shown by the award’s namesake.

The Distinguished Leadership Award, given this year to Mathew Angell, recognizes his significant contributions to class discussions and group projects, and acknowledges him as a candidate who exemplifies the attributes and values of effective leadership.

The Distinguished Library Media Award was given to Julia Loson for her significant contributions to class discussions and group projects, as well as her effective leadership.

During the ceremony, the School also announced recipients of the Distinguished Alumni Awards, which recognize Fisher graduates for consistent, outstanding performance as exemplary models of the College’s very proud heritage of preparing leaders in education and public service.

The Distinguished Teaching Award was given to Adam J. Pelletier ’16 (M.S.), who earned a bachelor’s

degree in English literature from The College at Brockport in 2011, then earned a master’s in adolescence special education from Fisher.

A teacher at Southwest High School in the Bibb County (Georgia) School District, Pelletier teaches British, American, and AP literature, and founded two student teams, the media team, and the chess team. The chess team advanced to the Georgia State Championships the last two years.

The student-run media team at Southwest was started to teach students about the many aspects of media. Initially it focused on how to plan, record, and produce multiple live and taped events, including sporting events, concerts, and a weekly news broadcast. The media team has introduced students to careers and opportunities in the broadcasting, journalism, and production fields. Pelletier also served as the varsity softball coach for two years. After school, he can be found helping students with anything from essays to applications to life advice.

Jeremy Smalline ’98, ’05 (M.S.) was this year’s Distinguished Educational Leadership Award recipient. Smalline began his career in education as a third and fourth grade teacher at School No. 41 in the Rochester City School District, followed by teaching in the West Irondequoit district before joining the Greece Central School District (GCSD) in 2005. He is currently the director of student services and school improvement where he develops methods to better measure, understand, and improve educational processes. 

In his time with the GCSD, Smalline has led district-wide professional development, including the District Summer Leadership Academy, and has focused on intervention strategies for at-risk students across all grade levels, including coordination of mental health support with counselors, social workers, psychologists, and substance abuse professionals.

He facilitates engagement and communication by aligning administrators, faculty, staff, and parents, and led a group tasked with promoting positive communication between schools and the transportation department.

The final award of the evening, the Arthur L. Walton, Jr. Executive Leadership Award, was presented to Dr. Kelly Clark ’15 (Ed.D.).

Clark is a consultant and lecturer, and currently serves as the founding director of the Q Center at Binghamton University in New York State. She has more than 25 years of experience as a social justice educator and is an expert in LGBTQ cultural competency and masculinity as it relates to homo- and trans- phobias.

In her past role as director of community safety programs at the Gay Alliance in Rochester, Clark developed and led cultural competency trainings focused on working with LGBTQ victims of violence. Clients included victim service providers, rape crisis, law enforcement, S.A.N.E. nurses, the District Attorney and Public Defender offices, domestic violence advocates, and others.

Clark also worked directly with LGBTQ victims of violence and discrimination where she developed a passion for ending violence against the transgender community.

She earned her doctorate in December 2015, and her dissertation examined the practice of homophobic gender policing among adolescent boys. Clark is also a graduate of the University of Rochester where she earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in counseling and human development.