The 11th annual Teachers College Academic Festival concluded with finalists in the TC student poster competition sharing their research with alumni and guests. Displayed on posters lining the fourth floor of Zankel Hall, the topics this year ranged from perceptions of the Vietnam War by second-generation Vietnamese-Americans to an analysis of the relationships that pre-college musicians forge with their students.

For her study on the impact of political violence on children in Lahore, Pakistan, Zehra Kamal Alam (M.A. ’19) was named the winner of the 2019 Innovation Scholarship for Student Research award. Alam, a Fulbright scholar, is earning her degree in Counseling & Clinical Psychology and Psychology of Education. She has 19 years’ experience working through NGOs with traumatized families in Pakistan.

“A lot of my work has always been linked to social issues,” Alam says. “I don’t see psychology isolated from social inequality and gender discrimination or poverty. All of these things are linked together.”

The poster by Jonthon Coulson (Ed.D. '21) on the tension created when education runs headlong into entrenched cultural norms earned him the 2019 People's Choice Award. A doctoral student in the Curriculum Studies program, Coulson focused his research on the Bajau, a nomadic Asian seafaring population known for a “superhuman” ability to reach water depths of 70 feet by holding their breath for up to five minutes.   

TC Student Talks

The finalists included:

Veronica M. Bohorquez (M.A. '19), International & Transcultural Studies:
Measuring the Impact of Career Services for Latinx Full Time Students toward College Graduation

Joanne Choi (M.A. '20), Teaching of English:
Uncovering the Model Minority Narrative: A Case study on Asian American and Pacific Islander Students in High-Achieving Secondary Schools

John Terry Dundon (M.A. '19), Applied Linguistics:
Analyzing Conversation Practices in the Endangered Rushani Language

Emma J. Heisler-Murray (M.A. '20), Clinical Psychology:
The Survivor Experience: Memory, Identity & Self-Worth

Kevin A. Handerson (Ph.D. '22), Comparative and International Education:
Indonesia 4.0: The Fourth Industrial Revolution and Vocational Education Discourse in Indonesian Media

Jose Ibarra (M.A. '19), International & Transcultural Studies:
Analysis of Peru's Education Policy for Internally-Displaced Persons

Mercedes Lysaker (Ed.M. '19), Music & Music Education:
Addressing the Musician-Instrument Relationship in Pre-College Instrumental Music Lessons

Van Anh Tran (Ph.D '22), Social Studies Education:
Negotiating Narratives of War: A Case Study of Vietnamese Understanding of the Vietnam War