Current Students
Commencement 2009
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On May 7, 2009, the College of Education celebrated commencement as 262 students crossed the stage at the UIC Pavillion and became graduates. Commencement is an exciting time for the college community as it marks academic accomplishments as well as new beginnings. This year’s commencement speaker was Angela Valenzuela, an associate professor in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction and the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Valenzuela spoke passionately about the need for all graduates to become educators and leaders who bridge social justice and caring. Valenzuela said, "With the future of our planet at stake, the collective goal of educators should be to awaken the senses of those around us; to present social, economic, political, and ecological conditions; and how all of these relate to each other."
Every year the College of Education recognizes and honors outstanding graduating students with the Dean’s Merit Award. This year’s winners were, Camille Farrington (PhD, Policy Studies in Urban Education), Jose Melendez (MEd, Educational Studies), and Carmen Washington (BA, Elementary Education). Each of the awardees gave moving speeches that challenged their fellow graduates to continue to do work that reflects their commitment to urban education and reminded them to see graduation as a new beginning.
As a tribute to our graduates, lead vocalist Joan Collaso, background singers Jamie Sherman (Dusable High School), Razine Collaso (UIC), Kristine Henderson (UIC), and Larry Hanks on keyboards, performed "I Believe."
For a PDF version of the commencement address by Angela Valenzuela please click here.
Other links: UIC Commencement Page Webcast of 2009 ceremony
Commencement Speaker: Angela Valenzuela
Angela Valenzuela is an Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.
A Stanford University graduate, her previous teaching positions were in Sociology at Rice University in Houston, Texas (1990-98), as well as a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Houston (1998-99).
She is the author of Subtractive Schooling: U.S. Mexican Youth and the Politics of Caring, winner of both the 2000 American Educational Research Association Outstanding Book Award and the 2001 Critics' Choice Award from the American Educational Studies Association. She is also editor of a volume titled, Leaving Children Behind: How Texas-style Accountability Fails Latino Youth. She served as co-editor of the Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, as well as the Anthropology and Education Quarterly.
A recent Fulbright Scholar, Valenzuela spent her 2007-08 academic year in Mexico where she taught in the College of Law at the University of Guanajuato. She is also a Cissy McDaniel Parker Fellow.
Dr. Valenzuela has research interests in urban education from a sociological and multicultural perspective with a focus on race and ethnicity in schools, particularly at the K-12 level.
Other areas of interest include urban education reform and educational policy, immigration, human rights, and U.S.-Mexico binational relations.