Graduate Updates

Graduates, check in!

We want to fill this page with updated information and photos of you, your students, or other things you are doing that you wish to share with the Millsaps Community.  Please send us a brief paragraph and any available photos so we can put your story on our website! 

Please send your info to Dr. Schimmel (schimcs@millsaps.edu) or Dr. Vaughn (vaughmt@millsaps.edu) and we will forward the updates on to the Web Team. 

We want to hear from you!

• Kenneth Griswold, class of 2002, is teaching in the Tupelo Middle School Gifted program. He won several teaching awards last year that we want to share. They are as follows: 2007 Lawndale Elementary Teacher of the Year; Runner-up Tupelo Public School District Teacher of the Year; 2007 local Wal-Mart Teacher of the Year; A 2007 Teacher of Distinction by the CREATE foundation. Ken continues to serve on the executive board of the Mississippi Association for Gifted Children. He is also working with colleagues and administration in Tupelo Public Schools to revise and reform curriculum in the gifted program. They conducted a pilot program this summer that integrated the humanities and science around a big idea or meta-concept, perspectives, and a representative topic, sound. In the humanities seminar, which Ken led, they did an intensive poetry reading and writing workshop, exploring how poets view and understand the world and use and explore sound to craft meaning. In the science seminar, they explored the phenomenon of sound from the perspective of a scientist, using the inquiry method to speculate, test ideas, and draw conclusions about the physics of sound. Ken is planning to return to graduate school to earn a Ph.D. or Ed.D. in the next two years. He interested in curriculum, particularly in interdisciplinary curriculum within the humanities and social sciences.
• Mary Laurens (Montgomery) Seely returned to teaching at Vanderbilt Hospital. Click here to read the news article.
• Ramsey Wise ('06 grad, Secondary Licensure in English) is teaching 12th grade English and AP Literature and Composition at Lanier High School, where she also conducted her field research and student teaching while at Millsaps. She was recently selected to represent Mississippi at the National Council Teachers of English Annual Convention in NYC November 15-25.  The award is for NCTE Leadership Development. Click here to read the press release. 
• Tom Rinaldi ('06 grad, Secondary Licensure in Biology) now lives in St. Petersburg, Fla.  He attends Stetson University College of Law studying biodiversity law and policy. 
• Hannah McKnight (06 grad, Secondary Licensure in Biology) also lives in St. Petersburg, Florida.  She is working for Sarasota Bay Explorers as a marine biologist.  She takes tour groups out on boat and kayak tours and teaches them about the marine life and vegetation in the area.
• Shay Steckler, (06 grad, Elementary Licensure and Secondary in French) completed a year of teaching overseas after graduation. She has returned to her hometown of New Orleans, where she presently teaches.