Equity and Diversity Cohort gives Redbird teaching candidates experience in urban settings.
Preparing culturally responsive educators
Unit: Special Education
Educational entrepreneur
Special education alum Parker Duwelius ’19 saw an opportunity to create an environment to help others develop deeper relationships with their peers while volunteering in a special needs classroom.
Taking Flight: Senior year disrupted by a brain tumor, but that didn’t stop this activist
Gavin Cunningham almost choked on his M&M milkshake when he checked his email over a break from a madrigal dress rehearsal and saw a congratulatory message from Illinois State University. Tuition would no longer be a worry. He was being awarded the McLean County Full Tuition Scholarship, which provides free tuition for up to four years.
Scholarship helped Faith Fosco graduate despite childhood challenges
Faith Fosco’s long-fought journey inspired her to become a special education teacher and a champion for her future students.
Catching up with Dr. Mindy Ely
Department of Special Education assistant professor Mindy Ely is working on two exciting projects: a new master’s program in low vision and blindness and a cerebral visual impairment clinic with Easter Seals.
Mindfulness group to support colleagues and students through the transition
When it became clear that the remainder of spring classes were migrating to an online/distance learning format, Dr. Becky Beucher, assistant professor in the School of Teaching and Learning, decided to host a virtual meet-up for faculty and staff in the College of Education to create a supportive space for colleagues to “bear witness to
Alum’s agriculture-based curriculum brings about new teaching in STEM
Although she was raised on a farm, Katie Buckley did not expect to create a future revolving around educating youth on agriculture using STEM concepts.
$1.23 million Department of Education grant to assist future teachers of infants and toddlers who are deaf or blind
Under the direction of Maribeth Lartz and Mindy Ely, the funds will help develop the LIMITLESS program, leading cohorts in integrating special education and speech language pathology coursework into their training.
Department of Special Education launches campaign for new assistive technology
A crowdfunding campaign is underway for the Department of Special Education to raise money for new and updated assistive technologies (AT). Illinois State’s special education program is one of only two in the U.S. that prepares teachers in D/deaf and Hard of Hearing, Low Vision and Blindness, and Learning and Behavior Specialist. Our students take
Deaf and hard of hearing graduates ready to give back
Brenda Nedved, Haley Drucker, and Mark Reppen are the deaf and hard of hearing program’s only graduates this December. The three students are all members of the deaf community. While Nedved grew up as a child of deaf adults, Drucker and Reppen were born deaf.
