Category Archives: Student Research

Student Spotlight | Joanna Gaeta and Samuel Bland

The SJSU Lurie College of Education provides a range of opportunities to support students in their academic endeavors to become transformative educators, counselors, therapists, and leaders.  We spoke with our Special Education Department graduate students Joanna Gaeta and Samuel Bland, who were able to collaborate with Assistant Professor Saili Kulkarni on a research project that examines beliefs about disability and race among special education teachers of color.  Listen to Joanna and Samuel’s insights below!

SJSU Lurie College of Education Special Education Department Students Joanna Gaeta and Samuel Bland

“We are currently working on studying special education teachers of color and what their beliefs are about disability and race.  We’re trying to see how do teachers position themselves to help out our students when we see disparities – whether it’s behavioral issues or academic issues within the school setting – and then how we as the special education teachers contend with that on the education front.”

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Watch our MA in Special Education Student Research Project Presentations

Congratulations to our Lurie College graduate students in our Department of Special Education who recently presented their final research projects!

  • 3:34 – Nathaly Cisneros-Mendoza: “Perceptions of Latino/a parents when accessing services for their child with autism”
  • 11:51 – Marissa Richers: “Cerebral Palsy: The impacts on a child’s motor and social development”
  • 20:32 – Fatema Rahim: “Impact of South Asian cultural views on parents of children with special needs”
  • 29:12 – Monica Gonzalez: “The effect of a graphic organizer intervention on math word problem solving skills for English language learners with high incidence disabilities”
  • 40:26 – Elizabeth Sanchez: “The effect of culture on parent involvement in special education”
  • 50:31 – Ashley Highsmith: “The disproportionality of black students in special education”
  • 1:02:00 – Madison Henry: “Homeschooling vs public schooling: Decisions to homeschool children with special needs”
  • 1:10:01 – Dilkash Ahmed: “Teacher perceptions of assistive technology classroom implementation”

Connect with Lurie College at https://linktr.ee/sjsulurie to receive more news about academic and student life!

Attend the Lurie College MA in Special Education Research Presentations

Join us on Tuesday, May 12, from 7-8:30 on Zoom at https://sjsu.zoom.us/j/92109854969 to learn from 8 graduate students in our Department of Special Education as they present their thesis research!

  • Nathaly Cisneros-Mendoza: “Perceptions of Latino/a parents when accessing services for their child with autism”
  • Marissa Richers: “Cerebral Palsy: The impacts on a child’s motor and social development”
  • Monica Gonzalez: “The effect of a graphic organizer intervention on math word problem solving skills for English language learners with high incidence disabilities”
  • Dilkash Ahmed: “Teacher perceptions of assistive technology classroom implementation”
  • Ashley Highsmith: “The disproportionality of black students in special education”
  • Madison Henry: “Homeschooling vs public schooling: Decisions to homeschool children with special needs”
  • Elizabeth Sanchez: “The effect of culture on parent involvement in special education”
  • Fatema Rahim: “Impact of South Asian cultural views on parents of children with special needs”

MA in Special Ed Research Presentations

Watch the Faces of Learning Student Researcher Panel

During the Fall 2019 and Spring 2020 semesters, a group of SJSU undergraduate student researchers met with students across campus to get a deeper understanding of their learning experiences and then utilized photography and narrative to shine a light on those students’ learning experiences.

Watch this virtual Student Researcher Panel to learn from those who were most involved in this project and visit http://sjsu.edu/education/faces to view their student-curated exhibition.

SJSU Faces of Learning Project | Meet Project Coordinator Briettny

The Lurie College Faces of Learning Project shines a light on SJSU students’ learning experiences – huge thanks to graduate student Briettny Curtner for sharing her experience with us!  When asked about what motivated her to participate, she said, “This project was my first hands-on experience with qualitative research. It provided the opportunity for me to support students, learn a methodology, and curate authentic representation of each Spartan who shared their learning story with us.”

Visit sjsu.edu/education/faces to view the student-curated photo exhibition and RSVP to attend our student panel on Thu., Apr. 30, at 12pm.

SJSU Lurie College of Educaiton Counselor Education Department Graduate Student Briettny Curtner

– Name: Briettny Curtner
– Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
– Year and Major / Minor: Second Year, Graduate Student / Education, Counseling and Student Personnel
– Fun Fact / Hobby: I have been to 13 states!
– What motivated you to participate in this project? This project was my first hands-on experience with qualitative research. It provided the opportunity for me to support students, learn a methodology, and curate authentic representation of each Spartan who shared their learning story with us.

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Connect with Lurie College at https://linktr.ee/sjsulurie to receive more news about academic and student life.  Audio edited by Sydney Ahmadian.

SJSU Faces of Learning Project | Meet Co-Researcher Isabel

The Faces of Learning Project is an arts-based research initiative designed to elicit student voices to provide insights into learning experiences at SJSU. Huge thanks to undergraduate student Isabel Rangel Hernandez for sharing her experience with us!  When asked what one of her biggest takeaways from the project was, she said “listening to other students’ stories and learning how different their experiences were.”

Visit sjsu.edu/education/faces to view the student-curated photo exhibition and RSVP to attend our student panel on Thu., Apr. 30, at 12pm.

SJSU Faces of Learning Isabel Rangel Herhandez

– Name: Isabel Rangel Hernandez
– Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
– Year and Major / Minor: 5th year, Child and Adolescent Development with a Preparation into teaching major
– Fun Fact / Hobby: I’ve been dancing Folklorico for over 10 years.
– What motivated you to participate in this project? I learned the process of conducting qualitative research: learning how to be respectful and authentic to my friends who are also the participant and how to honor their narrative and their experience.

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Connect with Lurie College at https://linktr.ee/sjsulurie to receive more news about academic and student life.  Audio edited by Syney Ahmadian.

SJSU Faces of Learning Project | Meet Co-Researcher Edith

The Lurie College Faces of Learning Project shines a light on SJSU students’ learning experiences – huge thanks to undergraduate student Edith Urbano for sharing her experience with us!  When asked what she learned about herself during this project, she said “I really enjoyed hearing my fellow peers and other students’ stories.  As a fellow student myself, it was reassuring to know that we all go through the same struggles and experience our own little victories.”

Visit sjsu.edu/education/faces to view the student-curated photo exhibition and RSVP to attend our student panel on Thu., Apr. 30, at 12pm.

SJSU Faces of Learning Edith Urbano

– Name: Edith Urbano Ixta
– Pronouns: she/her
– Year and Major / Minor: Child and Adolescent Development major,  Sociology of Education minor
– Fun Fact / Hobby: Fun fact: I am left-handed. Hobby: I love going thrifting with my friends.
– What motivated you to participate in this project? I was motivated to be part of this project to bring the stories of students to life and put faces to the statistics that come from the school.

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Connect with Lurie College at https://linktr.ee/sjsulurie to receive more news about academic and student life.  Audio edited by Syney Ahmadian.

SJSU Faces of Learning Project | Meet Co-Researcher Alberto

The Lurie College Faces of Learning Project shines a light on SJSU students’ learning experiences – huge thanks to undergraduate student Alberto Camacho for sharing his experience with us! When asked about what motivated him to participate, he said, “I firmly believe in the power of testimonio as a form of teaching. Testimonio brings in an entirely different perspective to the classroom by creating a community; similarly this project allows for Spartans to share their experience at SJSU and through Testimonio, create an even more welcoming community here on campus. ”

Visit sjsu.edu/education/faces to view the student-curated photo exhibition and RSVP to attend our student panel on Thu., Apr. 30, at 12pm.

SJSU Faces of Learning Alberto Camacho 2

– Name: Alberto Camacho
– Pronouns: El/He/Him/His
– Year and Major / Minor: Graduating 4th year / English Major — Chicana/o Studies Minor
– Fun Fact / Hobby: I dance Folkloriko with Grupo Luna y Sol de San José. — I love to write!
– What motivated you to participate in this project? I firmly believe in the power of testimonio as a form of teaching. Testimonio brings in an entirely different perspective to the classroom by creating a community; similarly this project allows for Spartans to share their experience at SJSU and through Testimonio, create an even more welcoming community here on campus.

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Connect with Lurie College at https://linktr.ee/sjsulurie to receive more news about academic and student life.  Audio edited by Sydney Ahmadian.

SJSU Faces of Learning Project | Meet Co-Researcher Eliana

The Lurie College Faces of Learning Project shines a light on SJSU students’ learning experiences – huge thanks to undergraduate student Eliana Villafuerte for sharing her experience with us! When asked about what motivated her to participate, she said, “I really wanted to experience being in a research team. While also being part of a cause to help spread and let others around the community hear student voices.”

Visit sjsu.edu/education/faces to view the student-curated photo exhibition and RSVP to attend our student panel on Thu., Apr. 30, at 12pm.

SJSU Faces of Learning Eliana Villafuerte

– Name: Eliana Villafuerte
– Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
– Year and Major / Minor: 4th year, Linguistics major, Chicana/o Studies minor
– Fun Fact / Hobby: I love doing my makeup, and experimenting with different color eyeshadows
– What motivated you to participate in this project? I really wanted to experience being in a research team. While also being part of a cause to help spread and let others around the community hear student voices.

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Connect with Lurie College at https://linktr.ee/sjsulurie to receive more news about academic and student life.  Audio edited by Sydney Ahmadian.

Lurie College Student and Faculty Published in Multilingual Educator Journal

Congratulations to Teacher Education Department graduate student Danielle Patenaude and faculty member Eduardo Muñoz-Muñoz, whose respective articles “Classroom Translanguaging: Building Identity and Agency” and “¿Qué español debo enseñar en mi clase? Permanezcamos en silencio, escuchemos, apreciemos y aprendamos” were recently published in the spring issue of the California Association for Bilingual Education’s (CABE) Multilingual Educator.  Give the articles a read at https://bit.ly/2RU2npY.

SJSU Lurie College of Education Teacher Education Graduate Student Danielle Patenaude

SJSU Lurie College of Education Teacher Education Faculty Eduardo Munoz-Munoz

SJSU Faces of Learning Project | Meet Co-Researcher Octavio

The Lurie College Faces of Learning Project shines a light on SJSU students’ learning experiences – huge thanks to undergraduate student Octavio Martinez for sharing his experience with us! When asked about what motivated him to participate, he said, “I love getting to know people and understanding what makes them function the way they do. What at their core makes them, them. This project opens the opportunity for that.”

Visit sjsu.edu/education/faces to view the student-curated photo exhibition and RSVP to attend our student panel on Thu., Apr. 30, at 12pm.

SJSU Faces of Learning Octavio Martinez

– Name: Octavio Martinez
– Year and Major / Minor: Senior, Design Studies major, Human Systems Integration minor
– Hobby: A fun hobby that I like to partake in is Muay-Thai fighting
– What motivated you to participate in this project? I love getting to know people and understanding what makes them function the
way they do. What at their core makes them, them. This project opens the opportunity for that.

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Connect with Lurie College at https://linktr.ee/sjsulurie to receive more news about academic and student life.  Audio edited by Brian Cheung Dooley. “Upbeat party” by Scott Holmes provided royalty free by freemusicarchive.com

SJSU Faces of Learning Project | Meet Co-Researcher Dalia

The Lurie College Faces of Learning Project shines a light on SJSU students’ learning experiences – huge thanks to undergraduate student Dalia Hernandez for sharing her experience with us!  When asked what she learned from this project, she said, “What I learned from this project is how diverse everyone’s experience is.  Whether it’s because of their background or because of their major, everybody had a different experience here [at San Jose State University].”

Visit sjsu.edu/education/faces to view the student-curated photo exhibition and RSVP to attend our student panel on Thu., Apr. 30, at 12pm.

SJSU Faces of Learning Dalia Hernandez

– Name: Dalia Hernandez
– Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
– Year and Major / Minor: Senior, Behavioral Science major, Applied
Computing for Behavioral and Social Science (ACBSS) minor
– Fun Fact / Hobby: Fun fact is that I visited two new states last year which were Tennessee and New York.
– What motivated you to participate in this project? What motivated me was an eagerness to gain research experience and participate in advocating for student voices. This project gave me the chance to learn about different perspectives that each student has and gave me a chance to capture and share it.

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Connect with Lurie College at https://linktr.ee/sjsulurie to receive more news about academic and student life.  Audio edited by Brian Cheung Dooley. “Upbeat party” by Scott Holmes provided royalty free by freemusicarchive.com

Student Spotlight | Grace Shefcik

The SJSU Lurie College of Education provides a range of grants to students to support their academic endeavors to become transformative educators, counselors, therapists, and leaders.  We spoke with SJSU Lurie College of Education Communicative Disorders and Sciences student Grace Shefcik, who has been conducting research on and developed the first questionnaire that assesses non-binary individuals’ self-perception of voice and voice-related concerns for the purposes of speech-language pathology.  Listen to Grace’s insights below!

SJSU Lurie College of Education Communicative Disorders and Sciences Student Grace Shefcik

“Many trans people report a desire to modify their voice, and some receive services from a speech-language pathologist, or SLP. During this initial assessment, the SLP will typically have the client report their self-perception of voice and voice-related concerns through a questionnaire measure. There currently exist two questionnaire measures that are widely used for this, but neither of these were developed for non-binary clients, so it would be inappropriate to use them for this population. In my research, I developed and validated the first questionnaire that assesses non-binary individuals’ self-perception of voice and voice-related concerns. I wanted to pursue this research to address a gap in resources available for this population.”

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Lurie College Student Grants

Lurie College is pleased to offer several grant awards for the remainder of the Spring 2020 semester and the 2020-2021 academic year to support our students!  Awards include:

  • Student-Research Awards:  Supports students to be mentored by a faculty mentor on a student-initiated research project.  Students can receive an award of $2,000 per semester and $4,000 a year.  The deadline to apply for these awards for the 2020-2021 academic year is Thursday, April 30, 2020, at 4pm via this Google form.  Learn about research projects by Department of Special Education graduate student Monica Gonzalez and Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences student James Chow who each received a student-research award for the 2019-2020 academic year.
  • Conference Travel Grant:  Provides financial support to its students who are presenting their research at conferences.  Undergraduate, graduate, credential, and doctoral students are eligible to apply for up to one $500 grant per fiscal year (July 1 – May 31) towards expenses for registration fees, travel, lodging, and meals.  A limited amount of funding is available.  To apply for a Lurie College Student Conference Travel Grant, please download and complete this brief form (PDF).  Learn from Lurie College Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences students Ali Murueta, Liz Cagle, and Michelle Ballou, who received a conference travel grant for the 2019-2020 academic year.  If your conference has recently been shifted to a virtual environment, you should still apply for this grant.
  • Student Research Supplies Grant:  Provides financial support to our students who are in need of supplies to conduct their academic research.  Undergraduate, graduate, credential, and doctoral students are eligible to apply for up to one $200 grant per fiscal year (July 1 – May 31) towards expenses for research supplies.  A limited amount of funding is available.  To apply for a Lurie College Student Research Supplies Grant, please download and complete this brief form (PDF).
  • Hardship Grant: Lurie College has a limited amount of grant funds available to support its students who have experienced an unforeseen financial hardship that will prevent them from continuing their enrollment at Lurie College and SJSU. If you are a Lurie College undergraduate, graduate, credential, or doctoral student who has experienced this type of hardship, please complete this brief Google form so that a Lurie College advisor can contact you to discuss this option as well as other possible campus resources.

 

SJSU Lurie College of Education Financial Aid Opportunities Spring 2020

Student Spotlight | James Chow

The SJSU Lurie College of Education provides a range of grants to students to support their academic endeavors to become transformative educators, counselors, therapists, and leaders.  We spoke with SJSU Lurie College of Education Communicative Disorders and Sciences student James Chow, who received support to conduct research on alternative methods to help people with aphasia communicate with their medical providers.  Listen to James’ insights below!

SJSU Lurie College of Education Communicative Disorders and Sciences Student James Chow

“Something challenging or surprising that I’ve seen and experienced this year working with this project is just how little resources we have for adults in geriatrics with these types of communicative disorders such as like aphasia or dementia. It’s also been really neat to be able to be in the front lines in the research clinic downstairs, where these adults are experiencing the same kind of issues like, “They just took away my driver’s license, how do I combat that?” or, “I don’t know what my doctor is telling me like I want to participate in that”.   Being able to see all these real challenges that they’re having makes me want to pursue this further.”

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Student Spotlight | Luz Nicacio and Liliana Adler

The SJSU Lurie College of Education provides a range of grants to students to support their academic endeavors to become transformative educators, counselors, therapists, and leaders.  We spoke with Department of Child and Adolescent Development students Luz Nicacio and Liliana Adler, who received support to attend the Latinx Leads conference, to learn more about their experiences and how they have shaped them going forward.  Listen to Luz and Lily’s insights below!

SJSU Lurie College of Education Child and Adolescent Development Department Students Luz Nicacio and Liliana Adler

“I think it’s important that everyone knows that there’s people who grow up a lot differently than you do and have different values than you do, so it’s important to educate yourself about those kinds of values and be an open ear and an ally to people who may not look like you.”

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Student Spotlight | Monica Gonzalez

The SJSU Lurie College of Education provides a range of grants to students to support their academic endeavors to become transformative educators, counselors, therapists, and leaders.  We spoke with Department of Special Education student Monica Gonzalez, who has received a grant to pursue a special research project, to learn more about her experiences and how they have shaped her going forward.  Listen to Monica’s insights below!

SJSU Lurie College of Education Special Education Graduate Student Monica Gonzalez

“My motivation for pursuing this research project is the lack of research available on differentiated instruction for English language learners with mild-to-moderate disabilities. When I was conducting my literature review, I noticed that there was specific research on English language learners, specific research on children with autism, specific research on children who have a specific learning disability, but not a lot of research on English language learners who have autism or English language learners who have a specific learning disability.”

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Student Spotlight | Ali Murueta, Liz Cagle, and Michelle Ballou

The SJSU Lurie College of Education provides a range of grants to students to support their academic endeavors to become transformative educators, counselors, therapists, and leaders.  We spoke with Communicative Disorders and Sciences students Alexandra (Ali) Murueta, Liz Cagle, and Michelle Ballou after they attended the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Convention to learn more about their experiences and how it shaped them going forward.  Give their insights a listen below!

SJSU Lurie College of Education Ali Murueta, Michelle Ballou, Liz Cagle

From left to right: Ali Murueta, Michelle Ballou, and Liz Cagle

“I really encourage any of the students in the CDS program to apply for the ASHA convention sponsorship next year and any other student who is contemplating going for a scholarship or sponsorship just to go for it and take the plunge because it really is life changing.”

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Student Spotlight | Henry Fan

The SJSU Lurie College of Education provides a range of grants to students to support their academic endeavors to become transformative educators.  We spoke with SJSU student Henry Fan after he attended the CA STEAM Symposium to learn more about his experience and how it shaped him going forward.  Give his insights a listen below!

SJSU Student and Future Educator Henry Fan

“As an aspiring educator, I’m developing the skills of thinking about the art and science of teaching and learning and just how complex that can be” said SJSU student Henry Fan, who recently received a grant from Lurie College to attend the annual California STEAM Symposium, “and that’s been a really rewarding journey to embark on.”

Connect with Lurie College at https://linktr.ee/sjsulurie to receive more news about academic and student life!  Audio recorded and edited by Brian Cheung Dooley.  “Adventure” provided royalty free by bensound.com.

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