Filed Under > Convocation

Meet Some of Our 2014 Graduates

Rebecca Chad (M.A., Clinical Psychology)
After majoring in International Relations at Syracuse University, Chad worked with nonprofits that promote reconciliation between Arabs and Jews and a two-state solution. She wrote grants and conducted outreach to the media and other constituents, but realized she wanted to directly help people – or, as she puts it, “to be the change as it's occurring.” read more...

Dana Daugherty (M.A., Counseling Psychology)
After graduating from Dartmouth, Daugherty worked in Washington, D.C. as a career counselor and career transition coordinator for Youth Build, a vocationally-oriented public charter school for students ages 16-to-24 who have previously dropped out. The school, one of 275 such institutions around the country, offers students internships, jobs and certification in construction. read more...

Brennan DuBose (M.A. in Communication and Education)
DuBose graduated from Howard University in 2011 and worked at a corporate financial firm in the Washington D.C. area. read more...

Rachel Heavner (M.A., International Educational Development - Bilingual/Bicultural Education)
Rachel Heavner became a global citizen at age five, when she entered a bilingual French/English school in Berkeley, California. After graduating from Skidmore College with a bachelor’s degree in international studies and French, Heavner accompanied her brother and her father, who had been a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone during the Vietnam War, to Africa, to help rebuild schools in post-revolutionary Tanzania. read more...

Kayla Johnson (M.A., M.Ed. in Deaf Education and Elementary Education)
As a child in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., Johnson watched her mother learn American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate with a deaf neighbor and eventually become a sign language interpreter. Johnson herself soon discovered a knack for languages and went on to learn French, Spanish and German. At the University of Florida in Gainesville, where she majored in linguistics and minored in math and in speech, language and hearing sciences, she was inspired by observing a self-contained classroom with deaf students. read more...

Carly Lagrotteria (M.A., Politics and Education)
The grandchild of Italian immigrants and the daughter of parents who “thought education was the most important thing in the world,” Carly Lagrotteria was elected to student council in fourth grade. After graduating from Shore Regional High School in West Long Branch, New Jersey, as class president and salutatorian, she arrived at George Washington University with a plan to enter politics. “At first,” she says, “I wanted to be the first woman president.” But on subsequent reflection and many hours of watching The West Wing, she decided to work behind the scenes like C.J. Cregg, President Bartlett’s press secretary. read more...

Jennifer K. Lopez (M.A., dual certification)
Like many American children of Spanish-speaking immigrants, Lopez learned at a young age to move fluidly between Spanish at home and English at school. Her father was born in Colombia and came to the U.S. at age 23, and her mother emigrated from Ecuador at the age of 15. Lopez attended her father’s graduation from Mercy College, where he studied computer science. Her mother worked at Lopez’s elementary school, keeping a close eye on her progress. read more...

Joanne Marciano and Vaughn Watson (Ed. D., Curriculum & Teaching)
Marciano and Watson stand as a new TC first: a married couple who earned their doctoral degrees in the same program, taught English at the same high school, and defended their doctoral dissertations on the same day. Along the way, they’ve been raising two children. read more...

Mai Nguyen, (M.A., Social-Organizational Psychology)
Mai Nguyen is familiar with uncertainty and change. Born in South Vietnam, she left Saigon with her family in April 30, 1975—the same day U.S. troops left in dramatic helicopter lifts and ended the Vietnam War. After a few months in Guam, the family relocated to Fort Indiantown Gap, a refugee camp in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania before settling in New York. read more...

Yasmin Nooreddin (M.A., Social-Organizational Psychology)
Nooreddin was born in Amman, Jordan. Her father was a commercial pilot, but, as she said in her TC commencement speech, her mother, a former political science major, “always made sure we knew who the Captain really was!.” read more...

Claire O’Neill (M.Ed., Anthropology & Education)
O’Neill grew up in Rhode Island and studied textile design at the Rhode Island School of Design. Today she has her own line of knitwear for women and children, and does a couple of trade shows each year – but the center of her life has long been the Montessori school in Providence that her mother founded during the 1970s. O’Neill’s twin sister serves on the board, her brother attended the school, and she herself has taught there for years. “It’s the place I love most in the world,” she says. read more...

Theodore Parker, (M.A., Private School Leadership)
Parker learned to love literature and history as a student at the Moses Brown School, a private Quaker institution in Providence, Rhode Island which he attended from kindergarten through eighth grade. Though he graduated from a public high school, he was determined to teach literature at a private school because he believed he’d have more freedom to innovate – particularly by incorporating technology into his teaching. read more...

Noor Sandhu (M.Ed., Music & Music Education)
Born in India to parents who met while working in the hotel industry, Sandhu subsequently lived and went to school in Nepal and China. As she recounted in her commencement speech, she experienced the British education system in India and Nepal, American in Beijing, and International Baccalaureate programs at the Shanghai American School. read more...

Ricco Wright (Ed.D., Mathematics Education)
Wright grew up in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Tulsa, OK, and became the first member of his family to graduate from high school. He enrolled at Langston University, an historically black institution, hoping to play basketball. When he didn’t make the team, he was initially crushed, but under the mentorship of Langston’s president, Ernest L. Holloway, he soon became immersed in his studies and involved with campus organizations. read more...

Published Monday, Jun. 2, 2014