Congratulations to Drs. Joanne Caniglia and Barbara Leapard for their role in the Secondary Methods Group that was recently awarded an EMU Institutional Values Award. The Secondary Methods Group is composed of 24 faculty members in three colleges and 14 departments.

This network of professional education faculty is a learning community that offers opportunities for collaboration and outreach. The group has enhanced opportunities on campus for instruction, service, cooperation among colleges and departments, and student support.

For example, the group has positively impacted instruction at EMU by mentoring new faculty in academic-service learning, field-based teaching and classroom research.

Members of the group have served as presenters at community college adviser days, created demonstrations for EMU's Family Day and served as mentors of students on grant projects, such as the U.S. Department of Education Teacher Quality Grant. Off campus, members have represented EMU at Ypsilanti and Willow Run Schools, the Science Olympiad and Natural History Day.

The group promotes cooperation by bringing together faculty to help plan and create large-scale collaborative grant projects, which the resources of one college cannot fully support.