The Emeritus Research Fellowship Fund in the School of Education was established by a generous gift by Dr. Early. In addition, she recently established the Margaret and John Early Scholarship Fund in 2006 in honor of her parents.

Laura Litcofsky, SED’91
"Dean Dewey and Dean Dee have watched me grow from a shy student who attended BU with the help of scholarship funds, to a member of the SED Student Council, then a proud graduate who went on to teach pre-kindergarten in the Chelsea Public Schools, where I now help implement math curricula as a Lead Math Teacher," says Laura Litcofsky, SED'91.

"Every change has been an adventure, and each has brought renewed gratitude for the opportunities I was given at BU. The lessons I learned at SED serve me every day in my classroom in Chelsea. Student teaching in the Early Childhood Learning Lab honed my practical skills, and taught me to be conscious of everything I say and do (a useful lesson both in and out of the classroom!). I am also a member of the SED Alumni Board. That membership is very special to me, because the Board supports programs and services that directly benefit students. The SED Fund does that, too.I support the SED Fund annually. I hope you will join me."

Learn more about the SED Fund.

Susie Siegel
Susie Siegel majored in philosophy at BU and earned her Master’s degree in early childhood development from the School of Education. She has worked as a teacher in the Yick Wo Alternative Elementary School in San Francisco for the last nine years. Siegel is the union representative for her school and is known throughout the city of San Francisco for innovative teaching. Prior to her position at Yick Wo, she worked for Edison Elementary School for three years in San Francisco and the Chelsea Public Schools in Boston. She was selected for one of the six winners of the 2007 Mayor’s Teacher of the Month Award in San Francisco.

Resource: San Francisco Connect, Teacher of the Month, June 2007, Retrieved 07/29/07

Dorothy Stephens
Dorothy Stephens, who gives to the BU School of Education along with her husband Robert, described her experience with Kenyan culture in this book.

Educators today speak of the need to prepare students for a global economy. Students need to do more than satisfy a foreign language requirement or study abroad; they need to understand the different cultural frameworks within which people around the world live and work. In a world where sectarian violence persists, such cross-cultural understanding represents the best public diplomacy tool. Dorothy Stephens may be considered an accidental pioneer in international education. Her daughter Kelly was a champion of it.

Dorothy was married with three small children, the youngest of whom was Kelly, when her husband Robert was appointed Vice Consul and Cultural Affairs Officer of the U.S. Information Service in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1957. The Stephens left their home in suburban Washington and moved to a house in Muthaiga. For two years they lived in Kenya, in a world populated by Kikuya, Samburu, and other ethnic groups, foreign settlers, and diplomats like Robert Stephens. The family socialized with a variety of Asians, Africans, Americans, and English, and learned to communicate as best they could in Swahili. Two-year-old Kelly and her older sister and brother learned to eat roasted goat ribs, Indian curries, and samosas instead of macaroni and cheese and peanut-butter sandwiches. They went to a European school. This was the period of the Mau Mau uprising, which would not be a military victory but did lead ultimately to independence for Kenya in 1963.

Dorothy cared for her children, ran a household that included servants but few modern conveniences such as vacuum cleaners or prepared foods, and took on the social and diplomatic duties expected of an American Consul’s wife in Nairobi. In addition, she volunteered to teach a cooking class at the YMCA. The object of the class was not to train cooks for European households but to establish a vocational training program that would allow African girls to advance along different career paths. Some of Dorothy’s students came from very remote areas; the girls had never seen electric lights or refrigerators. In the residential program at the Y, they undertook a broad curriculum including English, first aid, nutrition, and Dorothy’s cooking class. In addition to studying the subject matter of the curriculum, they learned to mix freely with Europeans. At the end of the two-year program, the students would take exams that would qualify them for entrance into a wide variety of occupations. The underlying goal was to create an African middle class at this very critical moment in Kenya’s history.

The Stephens came to know and love Kenya, and their children were transformed from Americans into citizens of the world. Dorothy has chronicled their experience in Kwa Heri Means Goodbye: Memories of Kenya 1957-1959 (New York: iUniverse, Inc., 2006). Her book provides valuable insight into what it means to deeply understand a foreign culture and a firsthand glance at the complexities of Kenyan society. Leaving Nairobi, Dorothy writes: “We were leaving a country already plunging forward into the future.” Four years later, Kenya was independent.

The Stephens returned to America after Kenya, but later returned to Eastern Africa to spend a year in Tanzania. After such a profound experience of different cultures at such an early age, it was no surprise that their little girl, Kelly, grew up with a yearning to travel and explore. She attended Tufts University, and when she graduated, she chose to work as an educator in Indonesia. She loved the country and adventurous sports, including skiing, mountain climbing, scuba diving, and sailing. Soon Kelly felt committed to staying in Indonesia in order to improve education there. Just as Dorothy had taught a first generation of Kenyan girls at the Nairobi YMCA so they could have a chance at a career, so Dorothy’s daughter taught Indonesians with a desire to help improve the quality of education in the country.

Yet Kelly did so much more than just teach. She taught English at universities and government ministries, trained teachers, and planned, established, and supervised English-language centers throughout Indonesia. She spent the most time working at the Institute of Technology in Bandung, which became a model language center for other state and private universities in Indonesia.

In 1993, Kelly lost her life mountain climbing on Anak Krakatau. She was only thirty-seven years old.

Dorothy and Robert Stephens chose to give to BU’s School of Education because of the school’s high quality and commitment to international students. Each year, part of all of the income from the permanently endowed fund is awarded to a deserving Indonesian graduate student on the basis not only of commitment to teaching (especially in the field of English or International Education Development) but also of financial need. The first beneficiary of this scholarship was Evi Herawati (SED ’00), who received a full scholarship in 1995 to study educational planning. She aspired to return to Indonesia so she could work to establish communities and alliances within the country that will aid education more broadly than teaching in a classroom alone.

As of March 2007, twenty-four students from Indonesia have attended the School of Education. Most of these individuals returned to Indonesia to work in education after graduation. Kelly’s dream of improving education in her adopted country lives on.

Arthur Tufts, SED’61
Jean Staples , '49,'65, shared a love of education with her husband, Arthur Tufts, '61. After earning bachelor’s degrees in education, Jean and Arthur married. Then having raised their four children, James, Anne, Peter, and Thomas, the couple earned SED master’s degrees. Anne became principal of the Rockingham School for handicapped children, in Exeter, New Hampshire, and became the state’s Special Olympics director at the request of Eunice Kennedy Shriver. With Arthur, who was president of the New Hampshire senate, Jean hosted the 1970 Special Olympics New Hampshire Summer Games at Philips Exeter Academy. Soon thereafter, she was appointed assistant secretary of education for special education under President Reagan, a position she held for three years until she died.

Arthur promised Jean, their children, and himself that he would carry on Jean’s legacy—a commitment he has fulfilled. In memory of this devoted woman, the family has established a School of Education scholarship through a charitable gift annuity. The Jean Staples Tufts Scholarship is Jean’s living legacy.

Learn more about a bequest or planned gift designed to fit your circumstances.

School of Education Alumni Leadership Giving Society Members
On behalf of the entire SED community, Dean Charles Glenn would like to extend a special thank you to the donors who gave to the SED Fund at the leadership giving level between July 1, 2006 and June 30, 2007.

President’s Associates
Barbara Fox, SED’56
Marvin J. Fox, SMG’54
Randy L. Greenberg, CAS’78
Don Phillip Greenberg, CAS’78
David Hollowell, ENG’69,’72, GSM’74
Kathleen Hollowell, GRS’71, SED’77
Suzanne Saxe Rothenberg, SED’84

Dean’s Society Members
Gregory D. Ansin
Raymond L. Killian, Jr., SED’59
Saul P. Morgenstern, SED’74

1918 Society Members
Mr. and Mrs. Michael Borgia
Elisabeth Carter, SED’91
Frank DelSanto, SED’55,’59,’76
RoxAnn J. Haynes, SED’56
Susan Hartsig Lek, SED’71
Susan Moran Murphy, SED’78
Marilyn M. Vender, SED’76

Fellows Society Members
D. Thompson Challinor, SED’90
Thomas E. Culliton, Jr., DGE’53, SED’55,’58,’61
Norman Dee, SED’56,’59,’62’70
Joan Dee, SED’59,’73
Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Joseph DiSanza
Lorraine Goyette, SED’76
Caryn Levine Harris, SED’73
Jennifer M. Huntington, SED’75
Robert Andrew Jaye, SED’93,’98
Mr. and Mrs. Lakshminarayanan Krishnan
Dorothea B. Moore, SED’75
Mary Malone Sullivan, SED’67
Mr. and Mrs. Steven M. Turner
Anne M. White, SED’70
Ryan John Woods, SED’05, ‘06

Students Awarded Named Scholarships
Congratulations to the following students who have been awarded named scholarships during the 2006–2007 academic year and a special thank you to the donors and their families. Visit the financial aid section to find out more about these scholarships or contact the Office of Graduate Financial Assistance at 617-353-4328.