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Stephen F. Austin State University’s educator preparation program within the James I. Perkins College of Education hosted its first Partners in Educator Preparation Appreciation Banquet on May 26 on the university campus.

During their final semester before graduation, SFA students majoring in education begin their student teaching in school districts across Texas.

The banquet recognized school administrators, mentoring classroom teachers, field supervisors, administrators, and faculty and staff members in the educator preparation program for their support throughout the year.

Dr. Jannah Nerren, associate dean in the College of Education’s Office of Assessment and Accountability, said SFA sends approximately 350 students each academic year into approximately 550 classrooms across Texas to complete their student teaching.

“This banquet strengthens the relationship between the stakeholders involved in educator preparation of our teacher candidates,” Nerren said. “We wanted to emphasize how important it is for us to work together in our various roles to help prepare this generation of future educators.”

The evening included an informal reception with music provided by students from SFA’s School of Music, dinner, a keynote speech and an awards presentation.

Nerren said keynote speaker Dr. Kandi Hill-Clarke, dean of the Bayh College of Education at Indiana State University, inspired attendees with a motivational speech about the importance of education.

“Dr. Hill-Clarke’s goal was to make all the educators in attendance feel valued and appreciated while underscoring the importance of the educator as the individual who creates the possibility for all other professions,” Nerren said.

SFA teacher candidates nominated their field supervisors and mentoring teachers for awards, which were presented during the banquet.

Cheryl Van Norman and Linda Bruton, both SFA adjunct faculty members, received the Outstanding Field Supervisor award for their work in helping more than 40 SFA student teachers during the fall and spring semesters. Paul Banner from Furneaux Elementary School in Carrollton and Valerie Frazier from Hendrick Middle School in Plano received the Outstanding Cooperating Teacher award for the fall and spring semesters.

“I’m very pleased with the event’s turnout and attendees’ enthusiasm,” Nerren said. “We think it was a successful event, and our mission was accomplished.”

More than 14,000 miles away in Bangalore, India, Stephen F. Austin State University graduate student Nandita Mehrotra puts the finishing touches on her thesis in preparation for its defense.

During the past few months, she has been studying patient-turnaround time at an outpatient cancer center in India and the role interior design plays in health care settings.

As a full-time employee in India, Mehrotra was able to complete her Master of Science in human sciences online in May through SFA’s School of Human Sciences within the James I. Perkins College of Education.

“The ability to pursue a master’s degree in the U.S. while living in India was wonderful,” Mehrotra said. “I was able to complete my degree only because it was available online.”

Heather Catton, director of international studies and programs at SFA, agrees offering courses online provides international students with great opportunities.

“For students like Nandita, who are working full time and/or have a family, they can’t drop everything and move to another country to earn their degree,” Catton said. “When a degree can be offered completely online, it’s a great option for students because they have access to the academic content. They can continue to work, live at home, and still have a U.S. degree and a different perspective.”

Mehrotra said she enjoyed the experience.

“It was very interesting to interact with faculty members and students halfway around the world and understand their way of thinking, working and expressing thoughts, ideas and analyses,” Mehrotra said.

Through Desire 2 Learn, SFA’s online course-delivery system, Mehrotra worked with other SFA students and faculty members. Her coursework consisted of the completion of specialized health care readings and textbooks, performance of on-site facility analyses and weekly interaction with renowned leaders in the health care design industry, which she described as interesting and helpful.

Mehrotra surveyed patients for 12 days for her thesis to obtain an understanding of patient experiences and satisfaction levels. She mapped the movement of 19 patients in the facility and interviewed 15 health care providers and staff members. She also studied patient, doctor and staff member perspectives on patient turnaround time.

“The Collaborate feature in Desire 2 Learn is a wonderful tool for online education and really makes the educational/classroom interaction easy and enjoyable,” Mehrotra said. “I was able to attend a significant percentage of online study sessions because of the difference between Indian Standard Time and U.S. Central Time. When it was morning at SFA, it was late evening in Bangalore, and I was home from work then.”

Dr. Mitzi Perritt, professor of interior design and graduate coordinator in SFA’s School of Human Sciences, met with Mehrotra weekly via Collaborate in D2L and said it was as if they were in the same classroom.

“Nandita has been a special student. She is eager to learn, very respectful and produces high-quality work. It has been an amazing experience for me to work with her as her major professor and teacher,” Perritt said. “Our relationship is a close one, and we have enjoyed working together.”

International experience and cultural exchange are at the heart of the biennial trip Stephen F. Austin State University theatre students make to Ireland every other June.

Visiting the sites of major events in Irish history, which is inextricably tied up in the country’s dramatic tradition, is another key benefit. Throw in a lot of museum visits and theatre-going, and you have the makings of a once-in-a-lifetime learning experience, according to Dr. Richard Jones, professor of theatre in the SFA School of Theatre.

“Many of the students who go on the trip have never been out of the U.S. before, and simply the day-to-day process of experiencing a different culture, even for a couple of weeks, expands horizons,” he said.

Every other summer since 2006, Jones has taken a Summer I theatre class to Ireland where students see Irish plays performed in famous theatres, tour historic sites, and participate in workshops and seminars with noted artists, scholars and theatre administrators. The students will leave June 12 and return June 29, spending 10 days in Dublin and six days in Galway.

Among the more interesting events the SFA students have attended included a poetry reading and book-signing with Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney and Dutch poet Rutger Kopland in 2006 and a one-woman show of “Molly Bloom” (the entire last chapter of ‘Ulysses”) on Bloomsday night in 2008. A highlight in 2010 was a completely unscheduled tour of the Smock Alley Theatre led by Kristian Marken, the man in charge of converting the space back into a theatre. This same tour with Marken is now a regular part of the trip, along with a visit to the house Oscar Wilde grew up in (a site not open to the general public). There’s been a private production of the award-wining “The Cambria” with only the SFA group and a group from the University of California in the audience in 2012, and a workshop with the Abbey Theatre’s voice director, Andrea Ainsworth in 2014. The students also visit the Books of Kells and the Long Room at the Old Library at Trinity College. They’ve done walking tours of both Dublin and Galway, and they’re going to an evening of music and story-telling at the Brazen Head Pub (established 1198) for the third time this trip.

The students have done day-trips out of Galway, including one to Inis Mór, the largest of the Aran Islands, and the other to Thoor Ballylee (W.B. Yeats’s tower in County Galway), Coole Park (Lady Augusta Gregory’s estate, where much of the planning for the Irish Literary Theatre took place), and the monastery ruins at Kilmacduagh.

“This year, for the first time, we can actually go inside Thoor Ballylee, which had been closed for several years because of flood damage,” Jones said. “And we’re adding the Woodville Walled Garden to that tour this time around. And, of course, we see theatre productions every year. This year will include productions at the Peacock, Abbey and Smock Alley theatres in Dublin and at the Town Hall Theatre in Galway, plus Trad on the Prom, an Irish dance show in the ballroom of a Galway hotel.”

This year’s trip coincides with the centennial of the Easter Rising.

“We’ve always covered the Easter Rising in the readings and lectures that precede the trip, but this year promises to be special,” Jones said. “When we were there 10 years ago, the 90th anniversary commemorations were everywhere, so the centennial promises to be even crazier.”

The students have traditionally toured Kilmainham Gaol (jail), and they’ve stopped at the GPO (General Post Office, where the proclamation of an independent Ireland was read) on a tour Jones leads up O’Connell Street. This year, the O’Connell Street tour will be incorporated into a commercial walking tour called Revolutionary Dublin, 1913-23.

The students are eagerly anticipating a private session with award-winning Irish writer, performer and musician Little John Nee, who struck up a friendship with SFA students after they watched him perform in his show “Sparkplug” in Galway in 2014.

“I’m not sure how much will be performance and how much will be a seminar, but we’re excited, either way,” Jones said. “And we were thrilled to hear that John was recently elected to Aosdána, an honorary organization for Irish artists, limited to 250 members.”

Other learning sessions will be with Willie White, formerly the artistic director of the Project Arts Centre for several years who is now artistic director of the Dublin Theatre Festival. “He’s been kind enough to meet with us every trip,” Jones said. “We were also lucky enough to get a seminar with Willie’s successor at the Project, Cian O’Brien, and we’ll be meeting with him for the third time this trip. We’ll also have a seminar with Nicholas Grene, one of the most celebrated scholars of Irish theatre; I think this is the fourth time Nicholas will be joining us.

“Our students are not merely encouraged but required to see other cultural sites,” Jones added. “There’s a point system requiring students to go to shows, museums, etc., on their own. No specific show or venue is required, but most students find their way to the National Museum of Archeology, the National Gallery, the Dublin Writers Museum, Christchurch Cathedral, the Cliffs of Moher, Galway Cathedral and other venues.”