VANCOUVER – May 10 is graduation day for 711 students of WSU Vancouver. Each year, one undergraduate student as well as two faculty members receive a special mention during the ceremony.
The Chancellor’s Award for Student Achievement will go to David Neuhauser, 44. Despite great personal difficulty in recent years, Neuhauser is receiving his Bachelor of Arts in human development, with a 3.87 GPA.
“The human development faculty and staff supported me through so much, even when they didn’t know it,” he said. “The professors were always so approachable – they were like friends as well as teachers.”
Selected by the students of WSU Vancouver, the 2008 Student’s Award for Teaching Excellence goes to Marcelo Diversi, assistant professor of human development. Diversi teaches courses in understanding family interactions and advanced adolescent development. His research focuses on Brazilian street youth and Latino immigrants in rural America. The students selected him for his dynamic teaching style and his respect for the opinions and lifestyles of others.
Tamara Holmlund Nelson, associate professor of education, will receive the Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence, for her work on the transformation of science teacher knowledge and beliefs and how teachers translate new understanding into practice. Nelson taught secondary science and math for 13 years before completing her doctorate in curriculum and instructions with specialization in science education from the University of Washington in 2002.
More information about the 2008 WSU Vancouver commencement ceremony is available at http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/ss/commencement.htm.
