We all want the best environment for our children, and when there’s an unmet need, UNC Greensboro students and alumni do everything in their power to meet that need, even if it hasn’t been done before. In 2018, Principal Carla Flores-Ballesteros ’04, found herself pitching an idea to support the students in her community through language development.
If you see a flight attendant using sign language to communicate with passengers aboard Piedmont Airlines, it’s likely UNCG alum Elice Evans ’18, who received her bachelor’s degree in Interpreting, Deaf Education and Advocacy Services (IDEAS).
Graduate students engaged in innovation with the UNC Greensboro School of Education will soon have a new fellowship opportunity available to them thanks to the generosity of Paula and Rick Short who have established an endowment. Recipients of the award will work closely with the School of Education’s Impact Through Innovation (ITI) program which will lend support to the development and implementation of their ideas.
School media specialists work with every student in a school and work to make their libraries a welcoming place for their students, providing them with an environment to learn and expand their knowledge. One of those media specialists is Amber White, a 2022 master’s graduate of UNC Greensboro’s library science program who is currently employed at Kirkman Park Spanish Immersion Elementary School.
After earning her Ph.D. in Counselor and Counselor Education from UNC Greensboro in 2008, Dr. Elysia Clemens headed west to Colorado and a tenure-track position in the counseling department at the University of Northern Colorado where she remained for over a decade. But then Clemens jumped at the opportunity to move into a role with the University of Denver’s Colorado Evaluation and Action Lab, a unit that assists government agencies and community partners with research into public policy matters.
Following 13 years as a school counselor with Jersey City Public Schools, CED alumna Sweety Patel is now in her fourth year as the Director of School Counseling Services for Carteret Public Schools in New Jersey.
Currently the Academically or Intellectually Gifted (AIG) teacher at both Trindale and Archdale Elementary Schools, Sophie Herring was honored as the 2022-2023 Teacher of the Year by Randolph County Schools this fall. Herring earned her bachelor’s degree in elementary education through UNC Greensboro’s Department of Teacher Education and Higher Education in 2016.
The Round Rock Independent School District, just north of Austin, Texas, serves about 45,000 students and is where Dr. Amy Grosso, a 2008 Ph.D. graduate of UNC Greensboro’s Department of Counseling and Educational Development (CED), has helped to implement what may be the future of the relationship between schools and the police.
When searching for its next superintendent, Guilford County Schools (GCS) did not need to look far for its new leader. Dr. Whitney Oakley, who earned her doctoral degree in educational leadership from UNC Greensboro’s School of Education in 2011 and was serving as the district’s interim superintendent, was recently selected to guide North Carolina’s third-largest public school district.
Driving a school bus for Guilford County Schools, serving as a secretary in the county’s transportation office, and working as a teaching assistant in Rockingham County Schools (RCS) could not fulfill Justin Cunningham’s desire to work with students. So he decided to enroll in the initial cohort of UNC Greensboro’s Piedmont Teacher Residency Partnership program.
