Education Celebration Honors Students, Alumni, Community Partners

On Thursday, April 28, 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, master and doctoral candidates, and alumni were honored during the event.

The School honored the Brighton Central School District with the Community Partner Award, which recognizes the great resources that relationships with schools in the region provide. Over the past year, teachers and administrators from Brighton Central Schools worked extensively with the School of Education to envision, develop, and realize the Collaborative Education for Equity Partnership. The collaborative partnership developed a teacher training curriculum, implemented a teacher pipeline program, and established a Future Teacher’s Club for middle and high school students interested in teaching. Student teachers Inaya Queeglay, Tamaron McKnight, and Cassandria Horvath were recognized for the “bold step they took in becoming the inaugural group of student teachers in the teacher pipeline program” and the “dedication, perseverance, and grit” they showed.

Maria Katsetos was given the Undergraduate Adjunct Teaching Award, and Jim Belair was given the Graduate Adjunct Teaching Award.

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

Liliana Rucci received 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 Kaylee Green 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.

Inaya Queeglay received the Outstanding Undergraduate Educator—Childhood Award. Like Green, Queeglay 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 Emma Paradise; she was honored for modeling leadership through campus involvement and by serving as a positive influence to her peers.

Seven awards recognized student success at the graduate level.

Recognizing leadership and the potential for a distinguished career in a diverse and rapidly changing society, the Outstanding Childhood Education Student Teacher Award was presented to Kaylee Hamlin while the Outstanding Adolescence Education Student Teacher Award was presented to Rachel Meyvin. Both awards recognize candidates who have utilized exemplary knowledge, skills, and dispositions to impact student learning during student teaching.

Graduate students Nathan Martin and Abby Berrettone received the Excellence in Capstone Research Award—Adolescence and the Excellence in Capstone Research Award—Childhood, respectively.  Both awardees were recognized for their high-quality literature review and creative and innovative action research projects.

Jonathan Giglio was this year’s recipient of the Dr. Ronald Edmonds Award of Excellence for demonstrating 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 Kacie Ferrando, recognizes her significant contributions to class discussions and group projects, and acknowledges that she exemplifies the attributes and values of effective leadership.

The Distinguished Library Media Award was given to Eva Grasso 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 Arthur L. Walton, Jr. Award for Executive Leadership. This award recognizes the achievements of alumni from the Ed.D. Program who have been successful both personally and professionally. This year’s recipients were Dr. Vicky Ramos, district superintendent of the Wayne-Finger Lakes BOCES; Dr. Tanya Eastman, director of education and training at United Way of Northern New York; and Dr. Diane Recinos, president of Berkeley College.

Prior to the Education Celebration, the School held an induction ceremony for the newest members of Kappa Delta Pi Honor Society. Inductees included:

• Undergraduate students: Alexandra Duma, Mikayla Grad, Jenna Guarino, Brennen Kilcoyne, Emily King, Olivia Nassivera, Sophia Sportelli, Taylor Stamp, and Samantha Wehner.
• Graduate students: Argus McCrumb, Serena Ramirez-Wilson, and Courtney Monahan.
• Doctoral students: Stephanie Baker, Paul Benz, Nichole Brown, Renee Burgess, Christopher Callahan, Priscila Echevarria, Twiggy Eure, Melissa Greco Lopes, Ashanti Haynes, Emery House, Beth Hurny-Fricano, Chris Kukenberger, Wanda Labrador, Susan Lohret, Steven Lysenko, Josh Mack, Janette McCoy McKay, LaToya Medley, Lorilet Monegro, Tatiana Parker, Jill Pippin, Tyron Pope, Tasha Potter, Stephanie Quarles, Wendy Ross, Lisa Senf-Perez, Bert Shillingford, Jason Simoni, Jennifer Singer, Francisca White, and Melissa White.