The Mary Frances Early College of Education’s Fall 2026 Insider was sent out to all faculty and staff via email yesterday. Insider is our digital newsletter that highlights faculty research, community projects, experiential learning, and stories on alumni, donors, students, and more.
Explore our stories:
To view more stories, please visit the Insider webpage.
Show off your MFECOE pride with new limited-edition apparel from the Mary Frances Early College of Education!
Our baseball tees and embroidered quarter-zips and crewneck sweatshirts make perfect gifts for soon-to-be graduates, current College of Education students, alumni, friends, parents, and more.
Grab your favorite styles for a limited time before our store closes on Friday, Nov. 20 at midnight.
We’re calling on you, EduDawgs. This Beat Week, let’s show Ole Miss what we can do when alumni, students, fans, and friends all show up to help our students facing financial emergencies.
Make a gift to the Mary Frances Early College of Education Emergency Support Fund any time this week to help our students and help the Bulldogs beat Ole Miss twice. Every gift over $5 counts, and the school with the most gifts wins!
As part of the development of our new strategic plan, we are updating our mission and vision, and we need your input via this survey.
This is the same survey that was distributed prior to the fall meeting in August, so if you completed it then, you do not need to complete it again. We are sharing the link again in an effort to broaden participation. Your responses will help us define the themes in the message development process.
It’s that time of year when the Mary Frances Early College of Education rallies to support the Lady Bulldogs Basketball team!
The UGA Athletic Association provided the College with four tickets to each home game during the regular season. Please use the Google sheet to sign up for tickets. Note: There is a line for each ticket per game. If you would like all four tickets, please add your name to each line so that others know you plan to use all four tickets.
A cell phone number is required to transfer the tickets. If you are not comfortable sharing your cell phone number on the spreadsheet, please email it to coedean@uga.edu with the email subject line “Women’s Basketball.”
Please take a moment to share your feedback on the QuestionPro survey platform. Researchers across the College have reported a range of challenges since its implementation as a replacement for Qualtrics, including concerns about data loss, limited survey design functionality, and difficulties obtaining timely technical support from the vendor.
To better understand the scope and impact of these issues, we invite you to provide your feedback. Your input will help the College work with EITS to identify concerns, advocate for researchers’ needs, and explore potential solutions. This survey is anonymous, and all results will be reported only in aggregate form.
The College is working to renew our emergency preparedness efforts by building a broader network of faculty, staff, and students who can help support safety and communication needs across our facilities. This brief survey will help us better understand current awareness, comfort levels, and interest in participating in preparedness activities or training opportunities. Your feedback will help guide future planning, and completing the survey does not commit you to any specific role.
Please take a few minutes to share your perspectives. Thank you for helping us build a safer and more resilient college community.
The UGA Office of Service-Learning is now accepting nominations for the 2027 Service-Learning Teaching Excellence and Service-Learning Research Excellence Awards. Full-time UGA faculty members in any career track are eligible to apply.
The Service-Learning Teaching Excellence Award recognizes UGA faculty for excellence in developing, implementing, and sustaining academic service-learning opportunities for UGA students in domestic or international settings. The Service-Learning Research Excellence Award recognizes UGA faculty for excellence in research related to or resulting from academic service-learning.
Nominations by deans and department heads, faculty colleagues, or self-nominations will be accepted. Award winners receive a $2,500 faculty development grant and will be honored at the annual Faculty Recognition Banquet during UGA Honors Week.
Questions regarding the nomination process? Contact Shannon O. Brooks, director of the UGA Office of Service-Learning, at 706-542-0535 or shannon.brooks@uga.edu.
- Application deadline: Tuesday, Nov 24 at 1 p.m. (Munich, Germany)
The UGA Office of Global Engagement (OGE) is pleased to partner with the Bavarian Research Alliance (BayFOR) to offer the BayFOR-UGA Seed Grant for FY27. The purpose of this program is to encourage the development of sustainable international research collaborations among investigators at UGA and investigators at any state university or ecclesiastical university within the Free State of Bavaria.
The partnership involves two steps:
- UGA faculty interested in this opportunity must first identify and collaborate with colleagues in Bavaria to apply for BayIntAn funding. Applications must be submitted through BayFOR’s OASys online application portal.
- UGA researchers who are listed as collaborators on a BayIntAn proposal selected for funding may then apply for matching supplemental support through OGE. All supplemental funding decisions are made at UGA’s discretion. BayFOR specifically notes that UGA researchers involved in successful BayIntAn proposals may apply for additional complementary funding from UGA. All funds must be fully expended no later than June 23, 2027.
BayIntAn 2027 projects may be implemented from January 1-July 31, 2027. For questions about UGA supplemental funding, please contact Harper Davison or visit the OGE website.
Communicating Research Value to Non-Technical Audiences
- Date: Friday, Nov. 13
- Time: 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
- Location: Delta Innovation Hub (register today)
Learn how to articulate the value of your research in ways that resonate with industry partners and other external audiences. This session will provide practical strategies for translating complex research into compelling, easy-to-understand narratives, leveraging LinkedIn to expand your visibility and connections, and communicating research strengths, opportunities, and impact to potential collaborators. Light refreshments including sandwiches, lemonade, tea, and water will be provided.
Presenters:
- Adam Milewski, John & Barbara Dowd Professor of Hydrogeology, Geology department head, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences
- Jamie Lewis, assistant director of digital marketing, Division of Marketing & Communications
- Chloe Calvert Hicks, senior social media content strategist, Division of Marketing & Communications
- Brandon Ward, public relations specialist, Office of Research
AI Education for Future Scientists: A Framework and Curriculum for Science-Track Middle School Classes
- Date: Thursday, Nov. 5
- Time: Noon-1 p.m.
- Location: Aderhold Hall Room 125; online via Zoom (register today)
Please join us for the AI4STEM Distinguished Speaker Series, “AI Education for Future Scientists: A Framework and Curriculum for Science-Track Middle School Classes,” which will be presented by Giora Alexandron, Yael Shwartz, Hagit Gabbay, and Ronit Halstuch from the Weizmann Institute of Science.
In this talk, the speakers will present their AI Education for Future Scientists project, which combines research and development in curriculum design and teacher professional development to bring advanced AI education into science-enhanced middle school classes. The curriculum has been piloted in approximately 60 science-track and gifted-student classes, reaching more than 1,500 students, and is aligned with the OECD and European Commission’s AI Literacy Framework.
This event is hosted by the AI4STEM Education Center in the Mary Frances Early College of Education.
Thank you to everyone who made our Halloween festivities an absolute blast! We had a fantastic turnout, brilliant costumes, and a highly competitive lineup of nine chili and nine dessert entries. A huge shout-out to the Staff Representative Group Events Committee for their incredible hard work and planning to bring this all together.
The afternoon absolutely stole the show with our trick-or-treating festivities. All six floors of Aderhold were decked out in spectacular, spooky decorations, and we welcomed 40 wonderful kids who filled our halls with laughter and energy. The kids absolutely loved it, and so did we—it was a massive highlight of the day!
Please join us in celebrating our talented culinary winners:
Chili Cook-Off
- First place: Lloyd Rieber—Hat Trick Chili #3 (WEIT)
- Second place: Jessica Smith—Ultimate Crack Chicken Chili #6 (KINS)
- Third place: Amanda Nix—No Beans Chili #1 (Office of Clinical Practice)
Dessert Bake-Off
- First place: Patricia Evans—Honey Bun Cake #7 (Building Services)
- Second place: Danielle Mitchell—Red Velvet Brownies #8 (CSSE)
- Third place: Sheila Banks—Mummy Apple Dip #1 (CSSE)
Congratulations again to our winners, and start brainstorming your recipes and trick-or-treat decor for next year!
The Abigail Reddic Student Teaching Emergency Fund was created to provide a safety net for current Mary Frances Early College of Education student teachers in their time of need. As you communicate with student teachers, please share this information with them. This funding is only available to students during their student teaching semester who need emergency funding to assist with expenses.
Please visit the fund webpage to learn more and apply. Funds are available in the fall and spring.
Have questions? Please contact Rebekah Seabolt, associate director of stewardship.
Rebekah Brown is excited to join the Mary Frances Early College of Education as a graduate program administrator in the Department of Workforce Education and Instructional Technology.
Rebekah is a proud UGA alumna with a bachelor’s degree in human development and family science. She brings over 11 years of experience in administrative support, customer service, and daily operations. She enjoys helping others, building relationships, and keeping things organized.
Outside of work, Rebekah enjoys spending time with family and friends, especially her niece! She also loves shopping, reading, puzzles, and cheering on the Dawgs.
Please join us in giving Rebekah a warm welcome to the College!
Best wishes to the following individuals who departed the College during the month of October:
- Lori Robbins, business manager, Business Office
- Jennifer Shaikun, program coordinator, OLLI@UGA
The gender balance among the top scorers on Advanced Placement exams tends to track the gender balance among students taking those tests, according to a new study led by the University of Georgia.
That gender gap is currently quite wide.
Across more than two decades of exam data, the researchers found participation in AP tests were often split along gender lines. Girls dominated the languages, humanities, and arts, while boys took more STEM (or science, technology, engineering, and math) subjects.
In many subjects, the more evenly split the AP test takers were, the narrower the gender gaps among students earning top scores became, the study found.
“Gender stereotypes about ability, like persistent beliefs that boys are naturally better at mathematics, physics, computing or similar STEM courses, or that girls are better at arts, can influence both students’ choices on which class to take and how well they do in that class,” said Kadir Bahar, corresponding author of the study and an associate professor in the Mary Frances Early College of Education. “Students are more likely to enter and persist in a field when they feel that people like them belong in it.”
Read the full story in UGA Today.
McArdle named 2026-27 Service-Learning Fellow
Danielle McArdle, a lecturer in the Department of Kinesiology, was named to the 22nd cohort of Service-Learning Fellows.
The program, housed in the UGA Office of Service-Learning, enables faculty to develop service-learning projects in a course and pair students with community organizations across the state. McArdle seeks to redesign KINS 4820: Social Aspects of Sport into KINS 4820S, adding a community-engaged component to a course that examines how class, race, gender, access, and representation shape opportunities in sport.
Read the full story on the UGA Office of Service-Learning website.
Sport management students place third in U.S. Soccer case study competition
Sport management students William Christenbury, Lyla Richards, and Nicholas LaMadrid earned third place at the 2026 U.S. Soccer Federation Case Study Competition, sponsored by the Coca-Cola Foundation.
Their proposal looked ahead to the 2027 Women’s World Cup with an integrated marketing strategy spanning grassroots participation, commercial partnerships, social media and fan engagement, and community-based activations.
Throughout the competition, the team applied concepts from the classroom to a real-world industry challenge, presented their ideas to sport professionals, received feedback, and built meaningful industry connections.We are proud of the creativity, professionalism, and curiosity the students demonstrated throughout the competition and how they represented the University of Georgia.
A sincere thank you to U.S. Soccer for providing this opportunity and to Blade Clarke and Zach Stone for their continued investment in future sport professionals.