Commuting scholar values flexibility

Sheri Hamilton joined the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the School of Education during I.U.'s first Summer Session 1996. A specialist in learning disabilities and behavioral disorders, Dr. Hamilton participated in the life of her department by guest lecturing in one of its summer course offerings, and by attending meetings and seminars. She completed an article during her stay at I.U. exploring ethnic and cultural issues surrounding Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders (AD/HD). Seeming to thrive on a packed schedule, she tackled these projects while commuting three times a week between Bloomington and West Lafayette, Indiana, a two hour trip each way.

Prior to entering the Ph.D. program at Purdue University, Dr. Hamilton earned an M.A. in educational services and research (special education) from The Ohio State University, and she served for three years as an elementary and high school teacher in both traditional and special education classrooms in the East Baton Rouge Parish Public School System in Louisiana. Last year's recipient of the Division on Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Herbert J. Prehm Student Research Award from the Council for Exceptional Children, Dr. Hamilton completed her degree this spring with a dissertation entitled "Promoting Thinking and Recall in African American High School Students with Learning Disabilities."

This fall, she will begin work as an assistant professor of Educational Psychology and Special Services at the University of Texas at El Paso. Dr. Hamilton valued her tenure as a Minority Faculty Fellow for the flexibility that she was allowed in her work here and for the connections she was able to make with other scholars in SPED and beyond. "I was glad not to be locked into working with only one person or in one area," she remarks. Dr. Hamilton leaves future fellows with one piece of advice: "take advantage of your time in Bloomington the professional opportunities, the research facilities and," she concludes over her lunch at the Snow Lion, "the restaurants."