Kudos

The Midwest Association of Colleges and Employers (MwACE) recognized Ellen Anderson, assistant director of Career Services at NIU, by awarding her the J.W. Paquette Superior Leadership Award at its annual conference.

Sheri Papay, president of MwACE, said she had the “sincere privilege of honoring Ellen for her significant and consistent leadership to this organization and her endless dedication to the on-going needs of this association.”

Anderson has been actively involved within MwACE since 1988. During this time, she held several offices on the executive board, was an assembly member, chaired several committees and conferences, presented at a number of conferences, led several task forces and was instrumental in developing the online version of MwACE’s 50-year history.

“Ellen has truly demonstrated significant and consistent leadership within this organization,” Papay said. “I saw first-hand how much dedication she has for this organization. Her knowledge of MwACE and dedication to the future success of this organization is evident in all she does.”

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A 2005 book by NIU alumnus Thomas McCann, NIU English Professor Larry Johannessen and Dominican University Education Professor Bernard Ricca is being honored for its research contribution in English education.

The book, “Supporting Beginning English Teachers: Research and Implications for Teacher Induction,” examined ways to counteract the daunting challenges that oftentimes drive new teachers out of the profession.

The Conference on English Education of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) will present the Richard A. Meade Award to the three co-authors during its Nov. 17 convention in Nashville. The Meade Award recognizes published research that investigates English/Language Arts teacher development at any educational level.

In nominating “Supporting Beginning English Teachers,” scholars from the University of Georgia and Temple University wrote: “We believe that this attention to the full impact of teaching on a young teacher provides this book with a scope that is unparalleled in the literature on teacher education, professional development and mentoring . . . We are sharing the book with our students and colleagues. We think it will become a landmark publication in the field.”

More information on the book can be found online.

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The Pleiades chapter of Mortar Board at NIU was presented with the Silver Torch Award for the 2005-2006 academic year at the organization’s national conference held last month in Columbus, Ohio.

The chapter was one of 40 outstanding chapters to receive the Silver Torch Award, presented to chapters executing timeliness and dedication while exemplifying the ideals of scholarship, leadership and service.

Mortar Board is a national honor society that recognizes college seniors for outstanding achievement in scholarship, leadership and service. Since its founding in 1918, the organization has grown from the four founding chapters to 214 collegiate and 43 alumni
chapters with more than 240,000 initiated members across the nation.

The Pleiades chapter of Mortar Board at NIU was chartered in 1971.

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Promod Vohra, dean of the NIU College of Engineering and Engineering Technology, recently received word that his paper, “An Undergraduate Curriculum with a Global Engineering Emphasis,” was voted the best paper of the 5th Global Congress on Engineering Education.

The congress was sponsored by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Joining Vohra as co-authors on the paper were his daughter, Divya Vohra, a master’s student at CEET, and Romualdas Kasuba, the former dean of the college.

The paper was given as a keynote presentation at a meeting of the UNESCO International Centre for Engineering Education held in Brooklyn, N.Y., in July. It was based upon efforts under way to prepare industrial engineering students at CEET for careers in the global economy.

The paper outlines an undergraduate engineering curriculum that emphasizes the importance of learning a foreign language, includes student projects sponsored by multi-national corporations and envisions online collaboration with engineering students in other parts of the world and exchange programs for faculty and students.

Vohra said the plan presents a densely packed global academic program that can be created with only minor modifications to existing programs.

“Programs like this are important,” Vohra said. “It is in the best interest of the country to graduate engineers who are capable of understanding global issues and functioning in a global economy.”

An expanded version of the paper will be published in an upcoming edition of The Global Journal of Engineering Education.

8-21-06