Indiana State University Newsroom

Kathryn Bauserman, associate professor of elementary, early childhood and special education at Indiana State University, received the Community-Based Learning and Scholarship Award Thursday (April 28) during the university's annual Faculty Recognition Banquet.

The award was established in 2007 to recognize outstanding faculty who have made serving the community an integral part of their academic goals and activities through community-based learning activities and scholarship focused on community issues.

Bauserman taught in preschool and elementary classrooms for 17 years before completing her doctorate in reading and joining the faculty of Indiana State's Bayh College of Education in 2003. She is director of the Sycamore Readers, a free after-school literacy tutoring service for elementary students with services at the Vigo County Public Library and Meadows Elementary School in Terre Haute.

The program matches pre-service teacher volunteers and federal work study students. It serves 100 to 150 elementary students each semester and provides community engagement opportunities for nearly 200 Indiana State students annually. Data show that participating elementary students' reading level grows by nearly two years during one year of tutoring. Bauserman and several ISU students have made presentations and written publications about the program at the national and state levels.

"Winning this award is a deeply humbling experience," Bauserman said. "The Sycamore Readers tutoring program is a service to struggling elementary students in the community and provides experiential learning opportunities to college students who aspire to be teachers some day. This service could not be provided without all of the ISU students who participate each semester, so I accept this award on behalf of all the tutors who work diligently each day to make the tutoring program so successful. This award is validation of our work together and of our belief that we can make a difference-one person at a time."

Photo: http://isuphoto.smugmug.com/Other/Headshot-Proofs/Bauserman-Katherine/040611bausermankathy-7161/1243283070_c5rwc-L.jpg

Media contact: Dave Taylor, media relations director, Office of Communications and Marketing, Indiana State University, 812-237-3743 or dave.taylor@indstate.edu