Phi Delta Kappa Honors C&I Student David Stroupe

Emerging Leader David Stroupe beams with excitement.

David Stroupe is just plain excited. A new Ph.D. student in the Curriculum and Instruction area of the UW College of Education, Stroupe is excited about the faculty and excited about the students. And, as a transplant from Atlanta via Houston, Stroupe is excited to explore the Pacific Northwest—including his hobbies of ultimate frisbee and herpetology (studying amphibians and reptiles)—with his wife, Erin, and their two daughters, Emma and Zoe.

An advisee of College of Education faculty member Mark Windschitl, Stroupe is perfectly position to study and improve current science teaching practices.  “Dr. Windschitl and the other faculty are world-class researchers and teachers. I am excited to learn from their expertise,” Stroupe expressed. “I am also impressed by the Teacher Education Program program and the sincere desire of the College of Education to train and mentor new teachers. Finally, the other students in the College of Education are amazing. I am thrilled to learn from their experiences.”  

And Stroupe isn’t the only one who is excited. In fact, he has quite a trail of enthusiastic admirers, including Phi Delta Kappa (PDK) International, a leading association of education professionals.

Stroupe, who was the principal investigator and graduate assistant for the Supporting Urban Science and Math Educators grant at the University of Houston, was recently recognized as an Emerging Leader by PDK International, a leading association of education professionals.

A committee made up of PDK’s past Emerging Leaders selected Stroupe as one of 20 honorees from a competitive field of applicants. “The 20 members of the 2008-09 Class of Emerging Leaders embody the PDK tenets of leadership, research, and service,” said William Bushaw, PDK’s executive director. “They represent the best of the profession.”

As Stroupe told PDK, his goal is to improve science education in urban schools. “Science education must embrace all students, not just the fortunate few,” Stroupe said. “All students must have access to current educational practices, science knowledge, and technological training.”

And Stroupe speaks from experience, specifically four years of experience teaching middle school science in Houston and experience obtaining a Masters’ in science education at the University of Houston.

As Dr. Mark Windschitl, Stroupe’s advisor states, "I am excited to have a doctoral student who has firsthand professional knowledge of teaching leadership, who shares the values of equitable and rigorous education for all kids, and has a desire to become a serious scholar of these issues."

And now that Stroupe is here, at the College of Education? Time to focus on the “big picture.”

As he states, “The "big picture" in my mind is that every student, no matter where they live or what school they go to, have engaging and quality science experiences, and might consider science or math as a career. The lens of my research focuses on pre-service and in-service teachers, and how those teachers can both engage in authentic science themselves, and how they can take science into their classrooms.”

Exciting indeed.

For more information on PDK’s 2008-09 Class of Emerging Leaders, including podcast interviews with the honorees, go to www.pdkemergingleaders.org.