Congratuations To Jayné Penn, Dean's Award for Student Excellence, @FairfieldGSEAP @FairfieldPrep @fairfeildU

Last night, I had the privilege of presenting the Educational Studies and Teacher Preparation selection for the Dean's Award for Outstanding Student to Ms. Jayné Penn, English Educator at Fairfield College Preparatory School.  The following are my remarks. I'm applauding Jayné  and her tremendous accomplishments. 

DEAN’S AWARD – ESTP

Good evening, and thank you, Dr. Hannafin. First off, I wish to congratulate all members of GSEAP’s Class of 2018 for their incredible accomplishments. I’m sure many of us in here couldn’t wait to party like it was 1999, but that was 19 years ago. Sometimes I really miss the 80s. So, Today, we should be partying like it’s 2018.

It is an absolute pleasure and honor to introduce the recipient of the 2018 Educational Studies and Teacher Preparation Dean’s Outstanding Student Award, Ms. Jayné Penn (accent on the the e, and I know this because every time I’ve typed her name I’ve had to find the accented e on my keyboard). She is an English Educator from Fairfield College Preparatory School who is graduating from the Master of Arts in Teaching and Foundations this spring. When I contacted now-retired Dr. Patricia Calderwood with the announcement that an advisee, Jayné, was selected to receive this year’s award, she replied, “It doesn’t surprise me. I told you she was a force to be reckoned with.” 

Actually, I have a vivid memory of the first time Jayné sat in Dr. Calderwood’s office discussing her future in education. “Bryan, this is Jayné. I’m sure you’ll have her in one of your classes in the next two years.” Actually, I was fortunate to have Jayné in four courses and that is why it is such an honor to be at the podium tonight introducing her to you: first for Developmental Reading in Secondary Schools, then for Teaching of Writing, followed by The Literate Learner, and completing this semester with an independent study. 

Jayné is a delight to have in class. My colleague, and now Associate Dean in GSEAP, Dr. Burrell Storms, says “Jayné Penn was an exceptional student: mature, confident and always professional. Having her in my classroom reminded me of why I chose this profession: She’s an activist, as well as an educator.”

I feel the same way. In the Fall of 2016, Jayné reflectively began seeing herself as a writer, crafting her own narrative to share with students, recognizing the value of writing processes, and focusing intently on improving the way she used writing as a way of knowing. In spring of 2017, she did a project on using sports stories and narratives to engage her students as they read Fences, and the next fall, she continued this direction, by researching empathy and looking towards supplemental materials to use with the boys in her classroom. Once again, she began to use sports stories as a vehicle to engage her kids and recognized that out-of-school athleticism offers many tools English educators can tap to bring excellence to their own classrooms.

This spring, I challenged Jayné to think big. Why? Because I think what she’s been doing at Fairfield Prep is enormous. Her undergraduate years taught her the discipline needed as she ran track at the varsity level and first began engaging as a community scholar. Now, at Prep, she works with the young men as part of a Haitian Immigrant Social Justice Project, guest speaks for their Dr. Martin Luther King Assemblies, leads diversity training workshops, proposes curriculum to her department chair, and develops all-inclusive poetry and short story units for Global Studies. 

What intrigues me most, however, is the way Jayné brings sports into the classroom to promote, cura personalis, and care for the whole person. Internalizing the mission of doing better for others, she has incorporated sports stories to build empathy by reading narratives from diverse athletes who are changing the world. In short, she is promoting integrity, self-awareness, responsibility, focus, self-esteem, a sense of humor, and community (which I often refer to as Ubuntu, the philosophy that every individual becomes who they are in relation to others). This is Literacy4Life and what my cousin, Mark Crandall promotes with youth in S. Africa and Zimbabwe.

This January, I’m proud to say, we learned that Jayné will be representing Fairfield University as she presents her research at the National Council of Teachers of English conference in Houston, Texas. Her talk, Interrogating Sports Films: Helping Students Find Agency and Voice, arrived at the confluence of studies at Fairfield University. It is work, too, that will be published later this summer, where she is sharing how she uses sports narratives to teach compassion and to build community at her school. 

I am sure that her family, like all of us in Educational Studies and Teacher Preparation, are extremely proud of Jayné. Please welcome me in congratulation Jayné Penn, our 2018 recipient.

 I continue to be amazed at the intellect, vision, and passion of this young woman. I am extremely proud to be chosen to give her the award on behalf of Educational Studies and Teacher Preparation in the Graduate School of Education and Allied Professions.