Three Students Selected Barbara Bush Fellows

by Jenna Kujawski
May 1, 2008

Marla Rea, Renata Russo and Megan Terry were announced as the 2008-2009 Barbara Bush Fellows by The Texas Center for the Advancement of Literacy and Learning (TCALL). Each will receive $33,333 in fellowship funding made possible by the generous support of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy.

The Barbara Bush Fellowships at TCALL give Ph.D. candidates the opportunity to conduct cutting-edge research in the field of family literacy. These generous fellowships consist of a one-year award, which may be used to offset the cost of travel expenses to conferences, dissertation research, and/or tuition, fees, and maintenance while a student is enrolled at Texas A&M University. During their fellowship year, students will have the opportunity to present their work at national family literacy conferences and publish their research in peer-reviewed journals.

Rea, a doctoral student in bilingual education, is currently dean of instruction for English Language Learners for Bryan High School and has taught in public schools from Pre-K through high school. She is interested in researching how immigrant families’ access to continuing education opportunities affects their children’s success in school.

Russo, an adult education doctoral student, is following up on a year of research as a TCALL Fellow in adult literacy and is interested in the impact of the four components of a family literacy program on parents’ literacy development in obtaining their GED.

Terry, a doctoral student in school psychology and a 2007-2008 Barbara Bush Fellow, will retest and analyze the measures she created for the Home Literacy Environment Test that was administered to Head Start parents in Brazos County so that it can soundly be used by a variety of researchers and professionals to improve literacy in the home.

The fellows were formally introduced as the Barbara Bush Fellows by former First Lady Barbara Bush at the Celebration of Reading Program April 24 in Houston.

Writer: Jenna Kujawski, 979.845.7917, jkujawski@tamu.edu

Contact: Harriet Vardiman Smith, 979.862.6519, hsmith@tamu.edu