Evan Belisle of Somers, Conn. travels to Nicaragua for education conference

HAMDEN, CT (03/05/2010)(readMedia)-- Evan Belisle of Somers, Conn. will spend his spring break from Quinnipiac University this week in Leon, Nicaragua where he will share his expertise with educators from two rural school districts.

The trip, which will be led by Cheryl Kerison, assistant professor of education, and is supported by the Albert Schweitzer Institute, gives students and professors the opportunity to participate in a week-long professional development conference for elementary and secondary school teachers in Nicaragua that is expected to attract more than 70 educators. Lin Napolitano, an adjunct professor in the School of Education, is also participating on the fifth annual trip.

"I hope the education students appreciate that the responsibility for educating children is a universal one and that they see the Nicaraguan teachers as their colleagues in fulfilling this extremely important mission," Kerison said.

The theme of this year's conference at the Alianza Americana in Leon, is "The Educator: Teacher, Learner, Leader: Using Best Practices to Increase Student Achievement."

Kerison said she will demonstrate specific strategies that the Nicaraguan teachers can use in their classrooms to increase student engagement and maximize student learning. The education students will present workshops pertaining to specific instructional strategies that teachers can use in mathematics, science and language arts.

The trip will give the Quinnipiac students the opportunity to learn how Nicaraguan teachers use minimal materials in creative educational methods.

The university contingent will provide professional development and supplies to the teachers. The Quinnipiac students have also crafted lesson plans to present in Nicaragua.

Quinnipiac is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian institution located 90 minutes north of New York City and two hours from Boston. The university enrolls 5,700 full-time undergraduate and 2,000 graduate students in 52 undergraduate and 19 graduate programs of study in its School of Business, School of Communications, School of Education, School of Health Sciences, School of Law, and College of Arts and Sciences. Quinnipiac ranks among the top 10 universities with master's programs in the Northern region in U.S. News & World Report's America's Best Colleges. The 2009 issue of U.S. News and World Report's America's Best Colleges named Quinnipiac as the top up-and-coming school with master's programs in the North. Quinnipiac also is recognized in Princeton Review's The Best 371 Colleges. For more information, please visit http://www.quinnipiac.edu.