NSU celebrates record number of DaVinci award winners
Published: 2017-04-04
(Tahlequah, Oklahoma) -- Northeastern State University is celebrating four DaVinci award-winning members this yearthe most any university can have in a single year.
The DaVinci Institute, Oklahomas Creativity Think Tank, selected NSU faculty members, Dr. Dilene Crockett, associate professor, and Barbara Fuller, instructor of teacher education, as DaVinci Fellows for 2017.
NSU students Steven Wolf, a Tulsa native and post-graduate completing an elementary education major, and Tabytha Russell, a Muskogee native and senior completing an early childhood education major, were named DaVinci Scholars for 2017.
This honor was celebrated on March 31 in Oklahoma City during an awards reception at the Oklahoma History Center, where 2016 DaVinci Fellows and the A+ Teacher of the Year provided interactive presentations about their activities over the past year.
A DaVinci Fellow is named for his or her innovation and creative responses to unique challenges that faculty encounter in a classroom. Positively impacting students, creatively teaching and teaching creativity are all marks of a DaVinci Fellow. Fellows each receive a $1,000 grant for ongoing work that forwards the cause of creativity.
The DaVinci Institute also recognizes promising pre-service teachers as DaVinci Scholars. Scholars are students who are preparing to teach in Oklahoma and who have demonstrated creativity, academic achievement and a commitment to teaching. Awarded students receive $1,000 in their first year of teaching.
The DaVinci institute is organized exclusively for charitable, scientific and education purposes, more specifically to serve as an Oklahoma think tank whose mission is to promote a statewide creative renaissance through lectures, workshops, professional development, research and advocacy.
Past NSU DaVinci Fellows include Dr. Elizabeth Bea Keller-Dupree (2016), Dr. John S. de Banzie (2016), Dr. Stephan Sargent (2015), Dr. Mary Swanson (2014), Dr. Linda Wilson (2010), Dr. Amy Aldridge (2009), Dr. Martha Parrott (2007) and Dr. Kippi D. Wyatt (2006).