Three students in UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School awarded Philip and Helen Green Research Fellowships

The Gevirtz School’s Center for Education Research on Literacy & Inquiry in Networking Communities (LINC) is proud to name three Philip and Helen Green Research Fellows for 2008-09 – Laura Hill-Bonnet, Vivian Rhone, and Azure Stewart. The Green Research Fellowship Fund is awarded in memory of Phillip and Helen Green to support graduate student research on classrooms that provide for democratic practices and equity of access for immigrant and second language students of working class background, identifying practices that work and supporting students in gaining access to American society.

“The three doctoral scholars who received the Green Family Research Fellowship are each outstanding researchers and educators. They have demonstrated excellence in research focusing on how decisions and interactions of teachers, students, and policymakers support and constrain the opportunities for learning afforded linguistically and culturally diverse students,” says Dr. Judith Green. “They bring personal experience, professional commitment, and a depth of knowledge to the work they will undertake as Fellows of the Center for Literacy & Inquiry in Networking Communities. Although undertaken in different educational communities, the three studies and areas of research will help create new possibilities for students who are seeking new support for their future academic and work lives.”

Originally from North Carolina, Laura Hill-Bonnet got her B.F.A. in modern dance and French from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro and teaching credentials in foreign language and English as a second language from North Carolina Central University and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, respectively. She taught in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro public schools for seven years, and upon moving to Santa Barbara, taught ESL at SBCC. Hill-Bonnet earned her M.A. in Cultural Perspectives and Comparative Education from UCSB in 2005 and is currently a doctoral candidate in the same program. Her research focuses on the development of disciplinary knowledge (math) among children with varying degrees of Spanish/English proficiency in dual immersion schools.

Vivian Lee Rhone II acquired her B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, in Interdisciplinary Field Studies. With concentrations in Education (primary area), Economics, and English, she titled her Senior Thesis “Finding the Best Urban Education Philosophy: Ontological Perspectives to Pedagogy.” Rhone enters her third year of doctoral studies this upcoming fall in the emphases of Cultural Perspectives and Comparative Education and Research Methodology, with a concentration on Qualitative Methods. Her master’s project centers on “New Teacher Recruitment and Navigation in Program Improvement (PI) Schools,” a case-study on a PI school located in Northern California. June 2008 ended a year of induction into an inner-city new teacher recruitment program, an Intern Credentialing program, and a year of teaching English and A.V.I.D. at a Title I high school. Her research interests include: equity, access, accountability and evaluation in California public schools; urban education teaching philosophies and pedagogical implementation, curriculum inscription, underrepresented minority participation in higher education (K-16, graduate, academia, campus administration), educational policy and systems management, social-justice advocacy, and reform. Rhone plans to continue her research agenda, working with educators, researchers, and activists at UCSB, UC Berkeley, Stanford, and in the greater San Francisco Bay Area.

Azure Stewart is a doctoral student in the Department of Education, Teaching and Learning emphasis. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications-Digital Media from CSU Sacramento, and a Master of Arts degree in Education-Instructional Technology from San Francisco State University. While interning as an instructional designer for the American Automobile Association (AAA), Stewart became interested in how people interact with and socialize within and through technology. In addition, she is interested in how technology as tool can assist teachers in the classroom. Azure’s research interests are in interdipliscinary discourse in technological environments.

[Laura Hill-Bonnet, Vivian Rhone, and Azure Stewart are available for interviews; contact George Yatchisin at 805 893 5789]
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Photo caption from left to right: Azure Stewart, Laura Hill-Bonnet, Vivian Rhone.

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Three students in UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School awarded Philip and Helen Green Research Fellowships