Oct. 30, 2008
UWSP project honored with diversity award
A reading program created by an English professor at the University
of Wisconsin-Stevens Point has been honored by the State Council on
Affirmative Action for its promotion of diversity.
The “Literature Circles Diversity Collaboration,” created by
Professor Barbara Dixson, won the 2008 Ann Lydecker Educational
Diversity Award. The program promotes cultural awareness and
literacy through a collaboration between students in Dixson’s
“Reading for the English Teacher” course and students at Milwaukee’s
Vincent High School and Adams-Friendship High School. The course has
been offered over the last two spring semesters, funded through a
University Personnel Development Committee Grant.
Dixson was presented with the award today at the State Capitol’s
Senate Parlor in Madison. The award is named for the late Ann
Lydecker, who died in 2004 while serving as chancellor of UW-River
Falls.
Throughout Dixson’s course, her UWSP students have e-mail
discussions and visit students at the high schools, one urban and
the other rural, to encourage reading and analysis of several novels
about race issues. Assisting with the project are two UWSP alumni
who teach at the high schools – Tony Wacker at Vincent and Erica
Ringelspaugh at Adams-Friendship.
After mentoring the high school students for several months,
Dixson’s UWSP students invite them to UWSP for a day of college
life. The high school students meet with each other and share book
discussions, lunch and a tour of campus.
Dixson says that everyone who participates in the program, from
herself and her students to the high school students and their
teachers, has grown from the experience.
“Almost universally in their end-of-program evaluations, the
students comment that they have discovered that the students of the
other group and of the other race are people just like them, with
similar problems, concerns and interests,” says Dixson. “While from
different backgrounds, the students really connect and become
friends.”
“Dr. Dixson’s program creates opportunities for students of all ages
and races to collaborate, explore complicated literary ideas and
gain the skills necessary to succeed in an increasingly diverse
world,” said UWSP Chancellor Linda Bunnell.
