The Professional Counselor (TPC) founded an annual practice of selecting the article of the year for the Outstanding Scholar Award. Recently, the TPC Editorial Board committee reviewed the articles from 2012 and selected the top journal articles from the exceptional work ­— one with elite scholarly style, innovative and inventive material, and the utmost relevance in the counseling profession.

After careful consideration, the 2012 award recipient was identified and announced at the American Counseling Association conference in March. Sonya Lorelle, Stephanie Crockett, and Rebekah Byrd received the Outstanding Scholar Award for the article titled "Globalization and Counseling: Professional Issues for Counselors". This award is presented with a $500 prize, a certificate for each of the coauthors, and an announcement in the next issue of The National Certified Counselor.

The teacher education program of the School of Education and Human Services will host a visit to our campus of an accreditation team from the Teacher Education Accreditation Council on June 10th, 11th, and 12th. The School is proud that our teacher education program was the first in Michigan to be accredited by TEAC in 2007, and we are now seeking re-accreditation.

In addition to reviewing curriculum, facilities, and faculty credentials, the TEAC team will meet with students, faculty, cooperating teachers, principals, and university supervisors during the site-visit. Please be on the lookout for an invitation to attend one of these meetings. TEAC values your input and we do too.

You may also receive an invitation to submit comments through email and to respond to a brief survey about our program. We hope you will take advantage of these opportunities. As we went through the self-study process, our campus committee became even more convinced of the high quality of our program - we are sure the TEAC auditors will leave our campus as believers as well.

Our accreditation documents and other information is available online at http://www.oakland.edu/sehs/accreditation. This site will be continually updated leading up to the June 10-12 review. Please visit the site and, if you have any questions about the accreditation process, please contact Professor Bob Wiggins at 248-370-3093 or wiggins@oakland.edu.

• Leadership and life skills development
• Gender identity and inclusion
• Social justice in schools
• Leveraging social media
• Community engagement, and more

On Friday April 19, 2013, the Dean's office and several SEHS faculty members interested in organizational diversity research and teaching were invited by Dr. Chaunda L. Scott, associate professor/graduate coordinator in HRD, to attend an outstanding HRD undergraduate workforce diversity presentation. The focus of this presentation was on "Highlighting Diversity Efforts at Oakland University" and offering recommendations for SEHS and OU from the perspectives of students to further advance current diversity efforts and practices.

Jenna Motyka and Crystal Kejbou were the HRD student presenters. View their recommendations for SEHS and OU here.

On behalf of Dr. Nancy Brown, Dr. Chaunda L. Scott,  Dr. Julia Smith, Dr. Emery Petchauer, Dr. Anica Bowe and Ms. Holly Smith, we want to thank Jenna and Crystal for sharing their wonderful diversity presentation with the group.

On January 29th, approximately 80 students, teacher leaders and administrators from six south Macomb County school districts gathered at Fitzgerald High School to collectively strategize to create culturally responsive school communities where all students experience success. Bob Maxfield, Eileen Johnson, and Suzanne Klein from EL lead this ongoing project and have recently been joined by Anthony "Tuf" Francis and Emery Petchauer from TDES. Anthony's and Emery's input in the planning process and their work with the dialogue were integral in the development of action plans by each district team.

• Have student/staff interaction meetings in order to continue dialogue
• Plan and implement informal monthly ice breakers for students and teachers
• Incorporate more student and staff recognition
• Provide positive feedback to students on their efforts academically and behaviorally
• Making teachers more available to students and parents.

Teams plan to reconvene this month to further develop this remarkable and unique project, which can be replicated by other schools and school districts.

Oakland University researchers will host four Avondale High School students chosen to participate in a National Science Foundation funded grant titled Project SMaRT. The project is co-directed by Dr. Dawn Pickard, associate professor in TDES.

• Molecular mechanisms of hypertension under the direction of Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Amy Banes-Berceli
• Telescoping carbon nanotube devices under the direction of Professor of Physics George Martins
• Analysis of the mechanical bidomain model of cardiac tissue under the direction of Professor of Physics Brad Roth
• Self-assembled multiferroic-nanostructures andstudies on magnetoelectric interactions under the direction of Distinguished Professor of Physics Gopal Srinivasan
  
  

Michael Lerchenfeldt was an outstanding OU student and MEEMIC scholarship recipient, and is also a recent graduate of the SEHS Elementary Education program.  He teaches math, science, and reading enhancement classes at Iroquois Middle School in the Chippewa Valley School district. Mike was recently published in the MEA Voice Newsletter. His article is entitled, "Tackling Student Apathy", and can be found on Page 27 of the April MEA Voice newsletter.