Christina Brennan is a current junior at Rosemont Colege, pursuing her BS in Elementary Education with minors in Psychology and History. She has a cumulative GPA of 3.98. Christina currently works as an Extended Day Teaching Assistant at Rosemont School of the Holy Child, while simultaneously working at the Ludington Public Library in Bryn Mawr. She spent the past two summers as a counselor with ESF Summer Camps. Christina has been involved at Rosemont as a Teaching Assistant and Math Tutor, and has volunteered in the community assisting inner city elementary and high school students. In her scholarship application essay, Christina referred to the Albert Einstein quote “Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death” as the theme of her own commitment to the concept of lifelong intellectual growth. She hopes to change the current paradigm of education through the encouragement of creativity, collaboration and critical thinking amongst students.

Christina Roman attends Widener University, and will be completing her BA in Early Childhood and Elementary Education in May 2012, followed by her Masters in Special Education in May 2013. She has been on the Dean’s list every semester of college and is a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society. Christina is a Tutor with the Widener Reads program, a Big Brothers Big Sisters Mentor, as well as a Resident Assistant. She is also a Red Cross certified lifeguard and a swimming instructor. One of her references stated that she will be “an exemplary education professional.” In her essay, Christina spoke about her role model, her eighth grade teacher who exhibited the characteristics of strength, courage and determination through her battle with leukemia, and Christina is driven to be the “teacher who values greater principles of life and helps shape the lives of our nation’s future for the better.”

Steven Rufe is a junior at Gwynedd-Mercy College, pursing a BA in Elementary, Special and Early Childhood Education with a minor in Psychology. He has a 3.83 GPA and is the President of multiple campus groups, including the Sigma Phi Sigma National Mercy Honor Society, Special Education Club and Education Club. Steven has been participating in the Americorps Scholars in Service to Pennsylvania program for the past two years, and is well on his way to completing over 850 hours of community service with organizations such as Cradles to Crayons and the Lamb Foundation. Since September of 2009, he has also served as an intern with the United Nations Partnership for Global Justice in NYC. Steven is an Orientation Chairperson and Ambassador for the Gwynedd-Mercy Admissions Office, and was recently appointed to the role of National Student Committee Member for the Council for Exceptional Children in Arlington, VA. In his essay, Steven states that he will do his best “to ensure that [his] students will be global citizens who practice a life philosophy that involves thinking that ‘we the people’ means we the people of the world, not just we the people of the United States.” He plans to prepare his students to think globally, but act locally.

Danielle Solomon will complete her BA in Elementary and Special Education at Neumann University in December 2012. She has spent lots of time this past year observing children in the classroom at St. Thomas the Apostle and Chester Community Charter School, and has been volunteering since March with the Neumann Child Development Center. Danielle’s community volunteering experience has included Habitat for Humanity, Sandwiches for Survival, Recyclable Fashion Show and Best Buddies. In addition to her interest in education, she is also an artist, having painted murals throughout Cardinal Dougherty High School as well as co-authoring, illustrating and publishing a book Robot Superheroes. One of Danielle’s recommendation letters states that she “empowers herself and those around her with a positive attitude and unwavering commitment to pursue information” and that she “couples a superior sense of work ethic with a devout interest in children and teaching.” Unlike many other aspiring teachers, Danielle did NOT play school as a child. She originally entered college with the intention of pursuing business, but as she put it in her essay “the business skill and I were distant strangers.” In seeking career advice, she was asked “What would you do for free?” and she discovered that her answer is to be an educator, because she sees teaching as “living a life of service” and acknowledges that it will be her “duty to serve children into becoming young adults.”

Christina Zabas is pursuing a BFA in Jazz Dance Education at the University of the Arts and will graduate in May 2012. She is a leader on the UArts campus, having served as an Orientation Leader and Mentor to new students as well as a Community Advisor in the summer pre-college program for teens. Christina has taught ballet to children on a regular basis, and has also choreographed numerous pieces, most recently a talent show for a Girl Scout troop as well as three pieces for a special event in NYC hosted by Grammy award winning R&B/Soul singer Chrisette Michele. In her essay, Christina refers to the quote by Mark van Doren “The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery” and states that she plans, as an educator, to master the ability to teach a specific subject while enabling the student “to discover the significance behind the material learned.” Her goal is for her students to “not only learn how to dance, but also to know how great it feels to express themselves through movement.”