Informed & Inspired

“Summer melt” is a well-established phenomenon in higher education. The term refers to the significant number of high school seniors intending to enroll in college, but who do not show up to campus the semester following high school graduation. For students from large urban school districts, that number ranges from 21 to 50 percent. In these pandemic times, however, summer melt might be the tip of the iceberg.

In the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd last spring, a group of Black faculty in the San Diego State University College of Education met virtually to share their grief, vent their frustration — and strategize what to do about it.

As she looks back over a transformational career as a professor in San Diego State University’s Department of Child and Family Development, Dr. Shulamit Ritblatt remembers one particular moment of inspiration. It was her first time teaching the course CFD 590: Children With Special Needs. There were the usual lectures, discussions and class readings, but she just couldn’t shake the notion that something was missing. 

Hundreds attend the annual San Diego Dual Language Conference as DLE launches the Virtual Center for Bilingual and Bicultural Books for Children and Young Adults.

DLE chair Dr. Margarita Machado-Casas serves on the Biden-Harris transition Education Policy Committee.

Assistant Professor Marissa Vasquez and Professor Frank Harris III in the Department of Administration, Rehabilitation and Postsecondary Education are among 12 recipients of San Diego State University's Faculty Forward Awards, recognizing their agility and dedication to student support during the COVID-19 pandemic. The honor, presented by Faculty Advancement and Student Success and the Center for Teaching and Learning, celebrates the extraordinary dedication, collaboration and innovation of faculty offering courses virtually in fall 2020.

As the semester draws to a close, the San Diego State University College of Education bids a fond farewell to three longtime members of the COE family. Dr. Marilee Bresciani Ludvik, professor of postsecondary educational leadership; Dr. Jacki Booth, lecturer and study abroad coordinator in the Department of Child and Family Development (CFD); and Sylvia Hernandez, credential analyst in the Office of Student Success (OSS); will be retiring from SDSU at the end of the year. 

Dr. Cheryl James-Ward, associate professor in the San Diego State University Department of Educational Leadership, recently published a commentary in the San Diego Union-Tribune about the crisis many schools are facing because of the COVID-19 pandemic — and the opportunity this moment presents to reimagine schools.

In a world often defined in black and white terms, Selam Gebrekristos (’07, ’13) has learned to embrace a life somewhere in the middle. 

As a lecturer in the San Diego State University Department of Child and Family Development, Carolyn Sanders teaches courses in multiple settings. But the course she calls her “passion project” typically meets in only one location: the natural canyon landscape of the SDSU Children’s Center’s backyard.