David Hallowell of UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School was awarded the PWA Legacy-Barbara S. Uehling Book Grant from the UCSB Professional Women’s Association. This grant provides for $200 towards textbooks and is funded by PWA Legacy member’s dues. Hallowell was honored at the PWA Annual Conference held at the Corwin Pavilion in May.
“I hope to increase STEM achievement across diverse groups of students by understanding how spatial reasoning fits into developmental trajectories in mathematics,” Hallowell wrote in his grant application. “ If chosen, I plan to use this grant to purchase a book titled Geometry and the Imagination and to share it with my daughter, whom I encourage to pursue interests in math and science.”
The UCSB Professional Women’s Association (PWA) promotes the advancement of women at UC Santa Barbara and serves as a voice for women in the discussion of campus issues. PWA’s goals include education, acknowledging women’s contributions to UCSB, mentoring, and outreach to the campus and community. PWA offers a limited number of $200 book grants to re-entry/non-traditional students each year. The grants is awarded to current UCSB re-entry/non-traditional students who might face unique challenges in completing their degrees as they juggle being a student, parent, wage earner, community volunteer, and/or participant in co-curricular activities. UCSB defines a non-traditional student as someone who is returning to his or her education after a period of time, is married, or has dependents.
David Hallowell is currently a third-year doctoral candidate in the Department of Education with an emphasis in child and adolescent development and an interdisciplinary emphasis in cognitive science. His advisor is Dr. Yukari Okamoto. Hallowell’s current research interests include children’s thinking and domains of spatial reasoning and mathematical development. Hallowell is a proud father of two: a six-year-old daughter and a two-year-old son. Hallowell hopes to be a university professor after graduation.