2004 Student Spotlights

Two undergraduates in Special Education, Callie K. Alfandre and Timothy Job Pead, presented with Katie Sampson, assistant clinical professor in the CPSE Department, at the annual CCBD (Utah Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders) Conference held in Salt Lake City on October 1st. The presentation was entitled “Practical Ways to Collect Data that Aligns with IDEA ‘97 and IEP  Goals.”

Two graduate students in Special Education, Karolyn King-Peery and Melanie Arp, and two undergraduate students, Mallory Thue and Jessica Goates, traveled to Minneapolis October 14-16 with Dr. Lynn K. Wilder of the Department of Counseling Psychology and Special Education (CPSE). They presented at the International Child and Adolescent Conference, sponsored by the Behavioral Institute. Both graduate students received a Graduate School Mentoring Grant. The undergraduates received support from the Mentored Undergraduate Research (MUR) trainee program in the David O. McKay School of Education. Dr. Wilder and students are part of a research team working with Karolyn King-Peery, newly hired faculty member in CPSE, parent of a child with a disability, and director of the Family Studies Center grant project.

In Phase I of this project, team members collaborate to analyze a dataset with information on 8,800 families in Utah with children with disabilities. This information will be shared with the Utah Division of Services for People with Disabilities  and eventually with the Utah legislature. In Phase II, team members and special education and school psychology graduate students work with families with children with disabilities who have challenging behavior problems. They assist parents in improving the children’s behavior at home. This work is a collaborative effort between the Department of Counseling Psychology and Special Education, the Family Studies Center, and the Utah Department of Services for People with Disabilities. The team recently wrote a paper for the Doha International Conference on Families to be submitted to the United Nations, describing the state of families worldwide that have children with disabilities.

Elizabeth Darger, an intern in School Counseling Psychology (SCP), was chosen employee of the month at her internship site in Alpine School District. To our knowledge, she is the first Counseling Psychology and Special Education intern to be honored in this way. Congratulations, Elizabeth!