Teaching and Learning

Scholarships Enable Students to Student Teach in Rural Montana

For years, students from the Montana State University Department of Education have completed their student teaching in rural Montana schools. Thanks to a pair of gifts totaling $150,000, more students may soon be able to do the same.

The gifts – $125,000 from MSU alumni Diane Knapp Pulfrey and her husband, Cory Pulfrey, and $25,000 from Janyce and David Hoyt – will support rural student teaching scholarships. Read more at MSU News.

NSF Grant to Build After School Science Programs

Montana State University has received funding from the National Science Foundation to engage Montana kids in scientific explorations relating to life under the snow – in their very own school playgrounds.

During MSU’s Using Technology to Research After Class (UTRAC) project, youth in Montana after-school programs will use environmental sensors to record and compare schoolyard measurements to improve science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning.

The project focus – life under snow – will take advantage of Montana’s long winters, existing after-school programs and MSU’s pre-service teacher education program to engage elementary students in measuring snow depths, snow water equivalents (the weight of water in a standard volume of snow after melting), soil and air temperatures, and soil production of carbon dioxide. Read more at MSU News.

A Collaborative Classroom at a Bozeman School Benefits Students and Teachers

An innovative collaboration between Montana State University’s College of Education, Health and Human Development and an elementary school in Bozeman is bringing benefits to schoolteachers, schoolchildren and MSU students and faculty alike.

Known as the Hyalite/MSU Collaborative Classroom for Teacher Education Partnership, the collaboration enables MSU education students to put teaching methods they learn in university courses into practice in a real elementary school setting. The partnership also provides professional development opportunities to local schoolteachers and opportunities for MSU faculty to work closely with those teachers, while local schoolchildren have opportunities to engage in new learning experiences. Read more at MSU News.

HHD Professor Collaborates with U.K. University on Counseling Education

In her second year in the HHD counseling program, assistant professor Cristen Wathen’s research focuses on several areas—using mindfulness in small groups and the internationalization of counselor education and counseling. This past year, she has been researching and publishing in both areas.

“Every country has some form of counseling,” said Wathen. “With our global society, there is a push to learn what others are doing in counseling, as well as to increase our students’ multicultural competence.”

Working with Bonnie Meekums, counselor trainer at the University of Leeds in England, Wathen and counseling students arrived at Reid Hall one morning last winter at 6:30 a.m. when it was 20 degrees below zero for a distance learning teleconference with counseling students in England. The professors thought it would be beneficial and fun, as well as cost effective, to get students together to dialogue about counseling in their respective countries.

“There is a need to expose students to different perspectives as part of counselor training,” said Wathen.

Each group prepared questions, then discussed differing perspectives. The British students perceived that mental health counseling had less of a stigma in America and that many people went to counseling. Montana State students were able to share that though there is progress in reducing stigma, it still exists, especially in a rural state like Montana, where the “Montana cowboy” metaphor exists. This metaphor relates to a person being independent and less likely to ask for help when it may be needed.

While the United States’ counseling is built upon a prevention and wellness model, Great Britain was more focused on a medical approach. Similarities were also noted, such as the importance of self-awareness in training programs, the stress of graduate school, and the challenges of counseling. In regards to mental health stigma, the British students shared that the “British stiff upper lip” metaphor connected to the Montana cowboy metaphor. For students on both sides of the pond there was a desire to decrease stigma and increase the services provided for mental health needs.

Wathen and Meekums, along with Rebecca Koltz, associate professor of counseling at MSU, presented the results at the British Association for Counseling and Psychotherapy conference in London last summer, and are currently collaborating on a manuscript, “The Montana Cowboy and the British Stiff Upper Lip: Innovative techniques for cross cultural dialogues in the counselor education classroom.” Wathen and Koltz hope to expand videoconferencing sessions in the future to bring students together from other countries, as well as other states in the U.S.

Town’s Harvest Garden Receives National Outreach and Engagement Award

Towne’s Harvest Garden, Montana State University’s student-initiated farm and community-supported agriculture project, has received a commendation from the Association of Public and Land–grant Universities as an exemplary outreach and engagement project.

The nod from APLU came in response to MSU Extended University submitting Towne’s Harvest Garden for the APLU’s Outreach and Engagement Scholarship and C. Peter Magrath Engagement Award and recognized Towne’s Harvest Garden as “a dynamic outdoor classroom, a living laboratory for research and a primary venue for community engagement.” Read more at MSU News.

Technology Education Students Design Prosthetic Leg for Dog

Students in the MSU’s Department of Education technology education program were presented with a unique and challenging project fall semester when they had to design and engineer a prosthetic leg for a dog. When the nine students begin their senior capstone class, “Manufacturing and Designing,” their instructor said she had a surprise project for them, but wouldn’t tell them the specifics of what she had in mind.

“Someone named Anni needs your help,” said Lidia Haughey, assistant teaching instructor in the Department of Education’s technology education program. Read more at MSU News.

Education Graduate Student Awarded Washington Foundation Scholarship to Better Education of American Indian Children

A Montana State University doctoral student who has firsthand knowledge of educational challenges in Indian country plans to use her degree to work for better education for American Indian children.

“I want to work with communities to build school systems that lead to academic and life success, leadership, agency and tribal development,” said Michael Munson, who is enrolled in MSU’s Indian Leadership Education and Development, or I LEAD, program. The program offers American Indian teachers an opportunity to earn a master's degree or doctoral degree in school administration without having to leave their jobs. Read more at MSU News.

Counseling Programs Receive Accreditation

Three programs in HHD’s masters of counseling program were recently granted accreditation by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational programs (CACREP), a specialized accrediting body recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. The three programs are Clinical Mental Health Counseling; Marriage, Couple and Family Counseling; and School Counseling—all receiving accreditation for eight years. Rebecca Koltz, assistant professor in marriage and family counseling and CACREP liaison, said the self-study process began in 2010 and culminated with the site visit in October 2014. Accreditation was based on the self-study, the report from the visiting team, and MSU’s response to the team’s report. “It was a very significant process,” said Koltz. “There were over 250 standards and we had to meet all of them to become accredited.” CACREP sets standards for the field and level of care. Koltz noted there was a “huge shift” from the old standards to the new ones, which focus on assessing and documenting student learning outcomes. While it is good to know programs are accredited, students are also benefiting from the process. Because benchmarks are more intentional and tangible, students not only understand what they are learning, but also why. Koltz said an additional benefit of accreditation is that many employers, such as the Tri-Care program for veteran services, are required to hire employees who have graduated from a CACREP accredited program. Faculty involved in the accreditation process included Koltz, Mark Nelson, Adina Smith, Cristen Wathen, and Katey Franklin.

Dietetics Student Wins National Scholarship

Virginia Nollmeyer received the Colonel Miriam E. Perry Goll Memorial Scholarship from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Foundation. This is a national scholarship and a huge honor to receive it. She also won one of the highest honors for a senior - the Roland R. Renne Award—and was recognized at the Day of Student Recognition Reception in April. Currently, Nollmeyer is a member of the 2015-16 Montana Dietetic Internship in the Department of Health and Human Development. Read more about EHHD student scholarship recipients.

College of EHHD Students Have Led Student Government for the Past Two Years

Destini French says being president of Associated Students of Montana State University (ASMSU) is “the cherry on top” of her time at MSU. French, who was a senior in family and consumer sciences in 2014-2015, first arrived in Bozeman from Los Angeles to play on the MSU women’s basketball team.

“I wanted to get out of California and try something different,” said French. After playing for a year, she sustained a knee injury that ended her basketball career, but not her academic career. At first she was interested in film, but her academic advisor suggested she try family and consumer sciences because of her interest in helping people. French said she “is a fan of learning something you can use now or 50 years from now” and FCS is the perfect program for her philosophy. She became involved in many campus activities, such as serving as an orientation leader and as president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, and joining a sorority (AOπ) and the MSU Student Alumni Association. With her involvement in activities and encouragement from her resident advisor, she decided to run for president of ASMSU.

“A common theme in my life is that opportunities seem to happen to me,” French said. With “one campus, one community” as her theme, French initiated a new ambassador program that employed eight freshmen to connect with campus offices (ASMSU Day Care, KGLT Radio, Museum of the Rockies) to build relationships. She believed in bridging the gaps among all student organizations to be more collaborative. Over the summer, she met with Human Resources and the Office of Student Affairs to become more informed about their operations and how they relate to students, and she worked to increase peer to peer communications to enhance residence life.

The message French hoped to leave MSU students with after her tenure is “get involved while you can.”

Levi Birky, a secondary education student at MSU, stepped into the presidency for Associated Students of Montana State University (ASMSU) and is leading student government for 2015-2016. Birky, from Kalispell, Montana, is a junior and has been actively involved in ASMSU since he walked onto campus as a freshman. Meet Levi and learn about his presidency.