A class assignment – and a lot of research – has lead a graduate student to be named the U.N.’s Director of Research for Africa and to be chosen as the inaugural presenter for the College of Education’s Distinguished Graduate Student Research Colloquium.
Stephanie Pearson, a native of New York City, taught in Harlem where half of her class changed during her first year of teaching: the in-coming students were refugees from Sudan. How could she teach these students? She decided to pursue her master’s and doctoral degrees at K-State and learn new ways to reach them. That was the plan.
At the colloquium, Pearson explained a research assignment that led to a published article is how she was discovered by the U.N. Since then, she has testified many times before the U.N., had a private dinner with Hillary Clinton, and met with President Obama’s cabinet. She has also consulted with government officials in England, Russia and Iran about the educational model her research team created and how her model could be integrated into their own education and governmental systems.