Seven doctoral students in educational administration receive scholarships

Seven students in the University of Georgia College of Education's doctoral program in educational administration and policy received scholarships at the program's annual awards luncheon on March 21 at Rivers Crossing.

Ray E. Bruce Academic Support Awards

Albert Jimenez and Angela Rainwater both received Ray E. BruceAcademic Support Awards, a $1,500 annual scholarship for practitioner-scholars studying the theory and application of supervision in schools and school systems.

Jimenez, of Athens, will receive his Ph.D. in educational administration and policy this May. He is currently a research professional at the Georgia Center for Assessment, based in UGA's College of Education. Prior to his work at UGA, Jimenez was a math teacher at Clarke Central High School, working primarily with 9th grade students.

While obtaining his doctorate, he was also a Goizueta Foundation Scholar with the Center for Latino Achievement and Success in Education, as well as a Southern Regional Education Board Doctoral Scholars Fellowship recipient. Jimenez received his bachelor's degree in sociology from Augusta State University and his master's degree in sociology from Mississippi State University. His dissertation investigated the inter-rater reliability of a teacher evaluation observation instrument.

Rainwater, of Clarkesville, is a doctoral student in educational leadership. She is currently an assistant professor of education at Truett McConnell College. Prior to that, Rainwater was an instructional coach at Clarkesville Elementary School. She began her career as a teacher in elementary education in public and private schools.

Rainwater's research focuses on instructional coaching experiences that have led to supporting teachers who struggle with student success in the classroom. She is interested in instructional coaches' perspectives as they relate to the successful strategies and components used to guide teachers to overcome their struggles in areas that need more support to enhance student learning. Rainwater received her master's and education specialist degrees from Piedmont College. She earned her bachelor's degree in education from Georgia State University.

Carroll Wade McGuffey Scholarship 

Kayon Lindsay and Evelyn Wages received the Carroll Wade McGuffey Scholarship. The $2,500 scholarship is awarded to a doctoral student whose studies include research into the impact of the school's environment on teacher behavior, pupil behavior and/or pupil learning.

Lindsay, of Grayson, teaches second grade at the Lovett School in Atlanta. She began her career as an elementary school teacher in her native Jamaica and taught at both the middle and elementary school levels in the Middle East.

The fourth-year doctoral student's dissertation focuses on the implementation of Georgia's K-12 teacher evaluation policy at the school level and the variables that influence the implementation processes, and how administrators and teachers make sense of the new policy. Lindsay earned her master's degree in education at Wake Forest University and her bachelor's degree at the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica.

Wages, of Watkinsville, who is principal of Rocky Branch Elementary School in Oconee County, is in her 34th year as an educator in public elementary schools in Northeast Georgia.

The third-year doctoral student's dissertation aims to uncover roots of the standards-based movement in Georgia and how decisions in the 1980s and 1990s impact reform implementation today.  This work is designed as a historic and legal review of the public school experience in an era of change as well as an analysis of how past policy implementation and context impact future reform efforts.

Wages has enjoyed a lifelong relationship with UGA. Enrolling first as a teenager, she earned her bachelor's, master's and specialist's degrees in education at UGA. In subsequent years, collaborative grant projects allowed Wages, as a practitioner, to work alongside UGA professors to provide support for area teachers.

David J. Mullen Memorial Scholarship 

C.J. Wilder, Artesius Miller and John Iversonreceived David J. Mullen Memorial Scholarships, which provide a $2,500 award in support of a doctoral candidate preparing to work in public education. Wilder, of Jefferson, is in his first year as assistant principal at Franklin County Middle School in Carnesville. Before working in Franklin, Wilder was the French teacher at Winder-Barrow High School for 12 years where he served as the chair of the World Languages Department. He was honored as the 2010 Barrow County Teacher of the Year and received the 2013 Lawrence Stockton Award for Educational Leadership. Wilder earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in foreign language education (French) from UGA.

Miller, of Austell, is founder and executive director of Utopian Academy for the Arts in Atlanta, a new charter school approved by the State Charter Schools Commission on Oct. 30, 2013. It was the only school approved out of 16 initial statewide applications. The school is expected to open next fall on the former campus of Woodward Academy in Riverdale and is expected to have as many as 300 students in grades six through eight in its first year.

The school will provide dramatic, media and culinary arts programming in addition to single-gender classes in core subjects—math, English, social studies and science—with help from the Common Core Georgia Performance Standards-aligned Expeditionary Learning curriculum.

The second-year doctoral student is currently an administrator with Wesley International Academy, a charter school in Atlanta Public Schools. Prior to this, he was program director for the Steve Harvey National Mentoring Programs for Young Men. Miller, a product of the Atlanta Public School System, has seen hands-on academic disparities and challenges that affect youth. As a recipient of the prestigious Gates Millennium Scholars Program, Miller received his bachelor's degree in economics from Morehouse College and his master's degree in educational leadership and administration from Teachers College, Columbia University.

Iverson, of Dacula, has taught at Creekland Middle School in the Gwinnett County Public School System for the past eight years. The third-year doctoral student is currently researching the impact of re-segregation in suburban school districts in Georgia.

Before moving to the Atlanta area in 2007, he owned and operated Immaculate Dry Cleaning Co., Inc. in Cleveland, Ohio, for 10 years. Iverson began substitute teaching in the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Schools in 2003 and obtained an Ohio Professional Educators License to teach in 2006. He earned his bachelor's degree in accounting from Harding University in Searcy, Ark., and his master's degree in educational leadership and policy from UGA.