Dr. Kathleen Morin Receives Columbia Teacher's College Award

Dr. Morin, Director of Education for the Raoul Wallenberg Committee of the United States, wins award recognizing her contribution to curriculum and program development.

New York City, NY (PRWEB) December 22, 2005 -- Arthur E. Levine, President of the Columbia University Teachers College, presented Dr. Kathleen Dunlevy Morin with the College’s 2005 Distinguished Alumni Award at a gala awards dinner at Columbia University on November 15, 2005.

Citing her development of “insightful, creative, effective curricula,” Levine noted Morin’s accomplishments in a number of areas related to program and curriculum development, and cited in particular her work on the innovative character education program, A STUDY OF HEROES.

Levine said, “Your curriculum, A STUDY OF HEROES, is just one impressive example of your mastery of curriculum design and development. Developed as a living legacy to a hero of World War II, Raoul Wallenberg, A STUDY OF HEROES is grounded in the belief that a nation’s heroes reflect the values of its people. A STUDY OF HEROES cites heroes of all ages and historical periods, ethnicities and areas of accomplishment to help students distinguish between heroism and celebrity. The program has been used in a wide variety of instructional settings, including public, parochial, independent and charter schools in 48 states and abroad; boys and girls clubs; teacher centers; and adult prisons in the New Jersey Correctional System.”

Dr. Morin is the author, designer, and curriculum developer of HEROES, an academic and character education program for K-12+, conceptualized by Rachel Oestreicher Bernheim, Chairman/CEO of The Raoul Wallenberg Committee of The United States, a not-for-profit organization based in Manhattan. Morin and Bernheim speak about heroes and character education at many national and regional educational conferences each year, and have trained dozens of educators in the program’s use.

Noting Dr. Morin’s awards and accomplishments, President Levine concluded, “Kathleen Morin, we honor you for your creative leadership, and for the energy and vision that permeate all aspects of your program and curriculum development.”

Teachers College’s 90,000 graduates include leading educators, psychologists, administrators, and other professionals. Each year, the Alumni Council honors the College’s most extraordinary alumni with the Distinguished Alumni Award and the Early Career Award.

About the 2005 Distinguished Alumni Award

Four exceptional educators received the 2005 Distinguished Alumni Award. In addition to Dr. Morin, award recipients included: Professor John Fanselow, President of International Pacific College in New Zealand; Professor Robert Hilliard, Senior Professor of Media Arts, Emerson College, in Boston;, and Thomas S. Popkewitz, Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

At the Awards Dinner, President Levine presented three alumni with the College’s Early Career Award. They are: Dr. Michael E. Bitz, Founder and Director of The Comic Book Project; and Dr. Adeyinka M Akinsulure-Smith and Dr. Hawthorne E. Smith, Counseling Psychologists working with individuals who flee to New York City from Tibet and Sierra Leone.

About Dr. Kathleen Dunlevy Morin

In addition to her work with The Raoul Wallenberg Committee of The United States, Dr. Morin, who resides in Manhattan, currently serves as a consultant to The Independent Living Resource Center at the Hunter College School of Social Work. She holds a doctorate from Columbia University’s Teachers College, as well as double master’s degrees in education from Columbia University, and a third master’s degree from Smith College. Morin is a graduate of Hollins University, Roanoke, Virginia, with a major in mathematics/physics, and a second major in political science. She was an instructor at Columbia University’s Teachers College from 1977-1983; served as Associate Director of its Preservice Program, and as a Research Associate at its Institute of Philosophy and Politics of Education.

Since 1968, Morin has taught in a variety of settings, from Appalachia to Spanish Harlem. Among her programs and publications are: House Sense, a housing education program for New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development; Women Making History, a curriculum for the New York City Commission on the Status of Women; a nutrition curriculum guide for UNESCO; The Centennial History of Boys & Girls High School in Bedford-Stuyvesant for the New York City Board of Education; and Our Place, an apartment search curriculum for foster-care youth published by The South Bronx Human Development Organization, Inc. Morin developed a teenage summer program for The Friends of the Zoo, a volunteer group associated with The New York Zoological Society.

For more than two decades, Morin served as a consultant to Teachers Network, assisting educators in professional development and creation of web-based curricula for international publication. She was the consultant/coordinator for The AARP’s “Women’s History Survey: Who Is The Woman You Admire Most?” exhibited in New York City. She also served as the on-site curriculum developer /coordinator for an independent-living skills program addressing the needs of a recently homeless adult AIDS population in the South Bronx.

About The Raoul Wallenberg Committee of The United States and HEROES
   
The Raoul Wallenberg Committee of The United States is a non-profit organization, whose mission is “to perpetuate the humanitarian ideals and the nonviolent courage of Raoul Wallenberg through the national distribution of A STUDY OF HEROES, an interdisciplinary academic resource for use in grades K-12+.”

The program, conceptualized by Rachel Oestreicher Bernheim, Chairman/CEO of the Committee, written by Dr. Kathleen Dunlevy Morin, Director of Education, is in use in 48 states and three foreign countries. To date it has reached over 1,000,000 American students in public, private, and parochial schools, as well as in adult prison classrooms.

Near the end of World War II, at the request of the United States government, a 31-year old Swedish businessman, Raoul Wallenberg, volunteered to leave the safety of his peaceful homeland and travel to war-torn Budapest. His mission was to save the lives of Jews threatened by the Nazis. Through the use of protective passports of his own design, Swedish safe houses, and his influence on political authorities in many spheres, he was able to save the lives of more than 100,000 Jews in only six months. On January 17, 1945, Raoul Wallenberg was arrested by Soviet troops on unknown charges, and tragically disappeared into the Soviet gulag. His ultimate fate remains a mystery to this day. For his heroic actions, the United States named Raoul Wallenberg an Honorary Citizen of the United States on October 5, 1981. He stands alongside the Marquis de Lafayette, Sir Winston Churchill and Mother Teresa as one of only four people to receive this great honor. A STUDY OF HEROES was developed as a living monument to honor Raoul Wallenberg because of his heroic and humanitarian actions. By sharing heroes’ stories with students, and exploring the issues surrounding each student’s personal responsibility, generations to come will understand and perpetuate the principles of nonviolent heroism.

For more information, please go to: www.raoulwallenberg.org.

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