Academics

College of Education names student marshal for summer commencement

University Park, Pa. -- The Penn State College of Education has named Leanne E. Walter as its student marshal for summer commencement. She will lead her class at the ceremony, which will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 14, in the Bryce Jordan Center.

Walter is a secondary education, mathematics option major. She earned a 3.92 grade-point average. As a Schreyer Scholar graduating with honors, she completed the honors thesis requirement, writing about “Technology in High School Classrooms and Preparation for College Math.”

She has selected M. Kathleen Heid, her academic adviser and her thesis adviser, as her faculty marshal. Heid will escort her at commencement.

At Penn State, Walter was involved in Campus Bible Fellowship, where she served as secretary this past year. She tutored students in mathematics at the University Learning Centers and played flute in the concert band and basketball pep band. She is a member of the Golden Key International Honor Society, and she has been on the dean’s list each semester.

Walter completed her student teaching practicum at Altoona Area High School, where she taught a geometry class and a statistics and probability class to students in grades 10 to 12. She said it was a very rewarding experience.

“I think one of the best moments of the experience was, at one point near the end of my time there, one of my students told me that she earned her first ever 100 percent on a math test while I was teaching. I'm not sure if that had as much to do with me as it had to do with her, but her excitement over that achievement was well worth all the stresses and worries that go along with the student teaching experience,” Walter said.

Walter said she is honored to have been named the College of Education's student marshal.

“It came as a bit of a surprise,” she said, “but I'm thankful that the College of Education is recognizing the effort I've put into my studies here at Penn State.”

Walter is considering a number of employment options, including a possible opportunity to teach abroad in 2011.

Walter is the daughter of Jeremy and Judy Walter of State College. Her parents and older siblings all are Penn State alumni.

Credit: Penn StateCreative Commons

Last Updated November 18, 2010

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