On Tuesday, December 13th, the faculty and staff of the School of Education hosted a Christmas dinner party for the Education students. The evening gave students a times to relax and take a break from studying before finals. Good fellowship and food, a sense of community and a change of pace was felt at Hilltop. Following the dinner, the Childhood Education peer mentors, Abby Frank, Sara Suranyi, and Rebecca Wahler, hosted a Christmas cookie decorating party for all students. A good time was had by all.

The December Graduate Brunch was held on Monday, December 12, 2011 in the Hudson Room on the Rockland Campus. President Scales prayed a blessing over the graduates and encouraged them to always be themselves, using their strengths to make a difference in the world.

Pictured above: Dr. Frank Tuzi, Chair of the TESOL Department and Professor Sue Bucci, Chair of the Childhood Education Department. Student teachers, Ryan McDermott, Deidra Padgett, Emily Drake, Mariah Howe, Colleen Gilfoy, Cynthia Crawford, Sarah Welch, and Rebecca Cypher Collins. (Gretchen Tobias- not pictured)

Dr. Christine Buel, Assistant Professor of Education, successfully defended her dissertation and was awarded the Ed.D. from North Central University. Congratulations, Dr. Buel!

Dr. Frank Tuzi, chair of the TESOL department, current president of CELEA announces that the Christian English Language Teaching Conference will be held on January 27-29th, 2012 in Hong Kong at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The conference, which is hosted by the Christian English Language Educators Association focuses on giving participants an opportunity to explore how their Christian faith informs, impacts, or infuses into teaching, research, classroom practices, advocacy, and SLA.

  Please visit http://celtconference.org/goals.html and http://www.celea.net for more information.

Dr. Frank Tuzi, Chair of the TESOL Department, will co-chair the Christians in English Language Teaching (CELT 2012 - http://www.celea.net/CELT-2012-Phila) conference on Wednesday, March 28, 2012 at Greater Exodus Baptist Church in  Philadelphia. The plenary speaker will be Dr. Michael Pasquale, a professor at Cornerstone University. The conference will run from approximately 9 am to 3 pm, which is the perfect time for attendees who will also attend TESOL 2012. The TESOL 2012 convention center is a few minutes away and the first plenary begins at 5:30 pm.