2008 AALL Awards

AALL Annual Awards Description and Criteria

Gary Eyre Lifetime Achievement Award - Charlotte Steves

 Charlotte Stevens is a strong positive force in the lives of her students. She helps her students develop confidence in themselves while providing them information, skills practice, and guidance. She has worked with RioSalado College for more than five years, teaching both ELAA and GED preparation classes. Her excellent curriculum choices, adaptations, and creations have made the programs at the Maricopa Skill Center and at the Rio Salado Ann Ott Adult Learning Center solid and fully connected to state standards and to the larger initiatives of preparing students to be successful beyond attainment of a GED certificate. Lives have been dramatically changed by Charlotte ’s teaching. Her students are regularly awarded NAEHS membership and many others also enter the Adult ACE program to complete it successfully. Throughout her efforts she strives to improve her teaching techniques and to inform her work with research and data analysis, raising the bar on expectations for all of adult education in the state. She continues to develop innovative activities for her students and for her learning center. Her positive sharing of knowledge has consistently contributed to the development of colleagues and incoming teachers. 

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Lifelong Learning Advocate Award - Mary Peterson

 Mary Peterson is extremely passionate about ABE and has devoted over 20 years of her life to it. She has been not only  teaching English to students from an enormous number of countries, but also has always been very involved in many of her students’ lives trying to help them get on their feet faster by providing a lot of support and  information about possible job and training opportunities as well as ways to find  resources to improve their quality of life. She is a wealth of knowledge and a fervent advocate of adult education who has assisted many new instructors to become better teachers as well as inspired many to stay in the field even when times were not easy. Mary devoted her life to Adult Ed. She is always full of great ideas and always gets very involved in different projects. She has helped to train many new teachers, which surely affected our field in a very positive way. She is one of best instructors at our program in general and, being more specific, she IS the best when it comes to explaining many concepts of English grammar. She is very talented in that and always makes things very clear and easy to learn (or explain).   

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Educator of the Year Arturo Conception

 Arturo Concepcion  Arturo is the best teacher we have ever had!”  “Don’t you dare take away our Arturo”  These are some of the quotes that I received from students the last time I visited Arturo’s class at West Valley Career Center .  Students look to Arturo for his consistent presence and guidance in their education.  Arturo constructs study plans for each student in his classroom as soon as the students have completed their TABE Testing.  Not only does he do study plans for each student, he also makes sure that a student’s study plan is complete on the very first class day of attendance after assessments have been completed.  He has worked as late as 3:00 A.M. on a Sunday to make sure that the student plans are ready by Monday.  That’s how dedicated Arturo is to his work and to his students.  To further illustrate his dedication, Arturo has a 99% attendance.  It is a very rare day indeed that he calls in sick for work. Arturo is as dependable as clock-work.  Speaking of clocks, Arturo does not mind that at times, he is still working at 3:00 A.M. in order to finish a student’s study plan.  “I want them to have something to do right away so that they can use their brains!” That’s the reason he stated when I asked him why he stayed up so late.  At 78 years old, that is truly dedication at its best! 

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Student of the Year: Mary Gullen

 Mary Guillen. Mary began at El Rio Learning Center many years ago when she first came to the United States from Agua Prieta , Mexico .  At that time classes were held in trailers, and after a year of study, Mary left school to raise her two young boys.  She returned a little over a year ago to continue her studies, and during this year has proven herself to be an outstanding student in Pima Community College Adult Education (PCCAE), as well as an exceptional leader and community member.

Mary simply shone as a leader this past year.  She joined the Student Leadership Council the first session back at school, where she has continued her participation since.  Through her work in this group she has demonstrated a strong desire to empowering her fellow students and a commitment to strengthening the adult education field, as well as the larger Tucson community. 

Mary is deeply committed to expanding student leadership opportunities within adult education.  She put in numerous hours at the beginning of each session to bring new students into the student council through recruitment and personal encouragement.  Thanks to Mary’s insights and ideas, the leadership council has recently redesigned the recruitment process to increase teacher support and visibility of the group in the school.  Throughout the past year, Mary took very seriously her role as a “student ambassador” for adult education.  Her accomplishments in this role are numerous.  For example, she presented on student leadership at the AALL-TALC conference in April 2008, was an emcee at the program-wide PCCAE Talent Show that had over 150 people in attendance.

Volunteer of the Year: Ron Kuykendall

Ron Kuykendall.  Ron is as dedicated to seeing the El Rio students reach their goals as much as any staff member.  As a keen observer of humanity, his insight into how each individual student learns, and how the flow of the classes is going, is invaluable to the teachers he works with.  His flexibility and support of new teaching strategies is commendable.

  Ron is equally adept at working with the very high-level students as well as the students who struggle the most.  Ron’s reports to the teacher after his meeting with students are always thorough and insightful.  He lets the teacher know not only what the students are struggling with, but also has an  evaluation of why each individual is making mistakes; for example, the student may be working too quickly, remembering rules incorrectly, or getting thrown off by word problems. 


Alicia has been relentless in her efforts to continue her studies even after the hardships she has experienced. Alicia began working in the cotton fields at the young age of 13. It was the only way to pay for her school supplies. She is now 62 years old, and has not slowed down a bit. She wants to stay in school, get her GED and citizenship, and eventually get a job as a nursing assistant. Her unwavering dedication to her lifetime goals is truly remarkable. Her perseverance has been as inspiration to the student body and Adult Literacy Staff at Crane Family Literacy, as well as to her family. All of Alicia’s children have graduated from college, which is a tribute to her. Now it is Alicia’s turn to shine as the great leader and role model that she is to her family and community.

Recipients

• 1999
  
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