When it became impossible to determine a winner between the two finalists for the Judith Cary Scholarship, the Society Board of Directors accepted the Scholarship Committee’s recommendation that two scholarships be awarded. Jennifer Dotson of Hanover, Pennsylvania, and Karen Hovorka of Fairlawn, Ohio, will both receive $1,000 toward their fall classes.

Jennifer has completed her junior year at Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. In her first five semesters, she accumulated a 3.61 GPA. She serves as co-president of Kappa Delta Pi, the Education Honor Society.

Jenn has had many experiences with people who have disabilities. Each semester she has had at least one school placement, plus she volunteers in South Western School District classrooms during winter and summer breaks. However, most of her first-hand experience comes from her extracurricular activities.

For one year, she worked with a nine-year-old boy with autism on a weekly basis. She said, “I truly believe that I learned more from working with him than he could ever learn from spending time with me. It is an experience I will carry with me for the rest of my life.” This experience led to her co-authoring two books for children with autism. The books, which utilize written text as well as a pictorial communication system, have been published and will hopefully be the first of a larger series of books to help children with pervasive developmental delays learn to read.

Jenn helped develop Best Buddies/Helping Hands, a Student Directed Learning Community dedicated to working with individuals who have mental retardation. The program matches college buddies with community buddies to provide opportunities for one-to-one friendships. For three years, Jenn has gained a friendship with a 24-year-old young woman with Bipolar Disorder and severe communication delays. They get together weekly for such activities as dinner, movies, or bowling. The Best Buddy’s mother stated, “Jenn is so patient, understanding and is genuinely kind and caring. She has built a wonderful friendship with my daughter...Jenn will be a wonderful teacher in Special Education.”

In addition, Jenn has dedicated time to Special Olympics of Lancaster County, works as student coordinator at the Learning Center, is available herself to tutor college students in at least 10 courses, and tutors a fourth grader twice each week. One of her professors stated, “Her academic work is exemplary. Her personal ethics and her character are beyond reproach. Even more significantly, she has demonstrated a level of personal commitment to helping special needs individuals that goes way above and beyond ‘the call of duty.’”

Jennifer concluded, “I believe that all children can learn. Simply because a student has a disability does not mean that they can only learn less; it just means they learn differently...I honestly cannot wait to see what the future holds for me in the way of my next experiences with children who have disabilities.”

Karen Hovorka has devoted her career to service with developmentally disabled students. After teaching in Crest-view Local Schools in Ashland and in Mogadore Local Schools, she has taught at Nordonia High School in Macedonia, Ohio since 1992. She has been primarily responsible for students in grades 9 and 10. She prepares academic and life skills lessons for some of her students, monitors inclusion classes for others, and provides an opportunity for all of them to work in the student-run bookstore.

Recently, Karen spent several study sessions with an expert in the area of autism so that she could provide the best environment for one of her autistic students. She has continuously worked to improve her skills and expertise by seeking help from experts, by attending graduate school, and by attending workshops in reading, psychology, environmental studies, functional curriculum, autism, child abuse, and technology.

Now that she has children of her own — a son Justin age 5 1/2 and a daughter Kelly age 4 — Karen works on balancing work and family. She attends graduate school at the University of Akron one class at a time. In completing 21 of a needed 36 graduate hours, she has earned a 3.957 GPA. She said, “Since I started, I feel like a new, more knowledgeable and confident person. I don’t feel it has taken away from my motherhood or quality of teaching, but rather that it has made me a happier, more fulfilled individual.”

A poster hangs in Karen’s classroom which sums up her teaching philosophies — “Tell me...I forget, Show me...I remember, Involve me...I understand.” Special education should be about gaining practical life skills, confidence, and a sense of fitting in with one’s community. She said, “I do believe that my special education classroom has been the right environment for my students to practice, practice, and gain more skill level and confidence in certain fundamental life skills such as handling their money, cooking, shopping, basic writing skills (such as thank you notes and telephone messages), sight word knowledge, appropriate use of leisure, and job attitudes and behaviors.”

As much as possible, she likes to use the community to enhance her students’ experiences. They have gone on dozens of field trips including hiking, snowshoeing, cycling, tours of the local newspaper, the Great Lake Science Center, and to downtown Cleveland and Akron for travel training. She has also involved the students in five overnight, out-of-town field trips to cities such as Baltimore, Washington DC, and St. Louis.

“My career goals are simply to become better at what I am already doing. I have no interest in ever leaving the classroom for an administrative or supervisory position...I try each day to make a difference in the lives of my special needs students...I want so much for them to be as happy and fulfilled as so many of their typically developing peers are.” Surely Karen’s students must find her views and attitudes to be contagious.

Karen and Jennifer were nominated by Fallon Jentas of Hudson, Ohio, and Patricia L. Martin of Hanover, Pennsylvania respectively.