Laura Schachtner | News Co-Editor

Buena Vista University (BVU) is known for encouraging its students to take leadership roles and use their voice to make changes for what they believe in. One student has recently taken advantage of this freedom.

Sophomore Mikaela Fiedler recently started a petition to add Special Education (SPED) and Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) to the list of concentrations offered to elementary education students.

“I chose to start this petition because I couldn’t fit SPED into my four-year plan without taking the risk of not graduating on time,” Fiedler said.

Currently, the Elementary Education Major requires 66 credit hours, in addition to 33 hours of support work and 12 hours of a concentration in a variety of subjects. Students can also choose to pursue an endorsement in reading, SPED, or TESL, which requires an additional 24-35 credit hours. Assistant Professor of Education, Karin Strohmeyer further explains the purpose behind the petition.

“Her focus is really trying to make special education and TESL endorsements more visible to students so that they’re aware those programs are out there and that they’re available and that they’re achievable,” Strohmeyer said.

Endorsements require more hours than concentrations. If SPED and TESL were offered as concentrations, students wouldn’t need to use up as many credit hours to gain a basic understanding of this knowledge that they will inevitably need to use in the classroom. Should a student decide to pursue an endorsement, they would already be 12 hours closer to finishing the endorsement because of the concentration. Dean of Education Paul Theobald elaborates on how this will benefit students.

“Even without the endorsement, having focused a little bit in these areas or one of these areas would give them a leg up over someone that they’re competing for a job with who doesn’t have that kind of exposure,” Theobald said.

Associate Professor of Education Katya Koubek explains what education alumni think about Fiedler’s proposition.

“Some of the alums have been stressing that it would have been nice to have more preparation in how to deal with students who are linguistically and culturally diverse or who come with exceptionalities,” Koubek said. “Our students need to be aware of how to deal with diversity – how to embrace it, and if they don’t have enough preparation, then it’s very difficult to teach.”

The School of Education met last week and discussed the pros and cons of Fiedler’s proposition. No decision has been made yet as to whether or not to pursue it further. Fiedler has gathered 240 signatures so far.

Photo by Makensie Brown