Azmy and Harrison Recognized as Friday Institute Graduate Fellows

Each year, the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation Executive Director selects a few graduate students to become Friday Institute Graduate Student Fellows. Fellows are nominated by Friday Institute faculty fellows and are selected for their strong record of academic achievement and service to students and educators. They must be an advanced graduate student at NC State University who is beginning his or her dissertation and has been actively engaged in work at the Friday Institute. Fellows receive $2,000 to support their research. The Hi-RISE team has been fortunate to have two recipients receive this honor over the past two years. Dr. Hollylynne Lee nominated Christina Azmy for the award in 2017 and Taylor Harrison in 2018 for their work on projects that are part of the Hi-RISE mission of promoting statistics education. Recipients of the fellowship are recognized at the annual Friday Medal ceremony.

Hollylynee Lee (center) with Christina Azmy (left) and
Taylor Harrison (right) at the 2018 Friday Medal Ceremony.

Christina Azmy received this honor in 2017 in recognition of her work with Dr. Hollylynne Lee on the ESTEEM project. With the funds received from this fellowship, Azmy traveled to the International Conference on Teaching Statistics in Kyoto, Japan in July 2018. While there she was part of two presentations: Developing E-Modules to Support Preservice Mathematics Teachers Statistical Thinking and Impacts of a Teaching Statistics MOOC on Educators’ Perspectives and Practice. She found this to be an invaluable experience where she was able to share the work done to help preservice and current statistics teachers as well as meet prominent researchers in the field of statistics education. Azmy successfully defended her dissertation proposal this past October, and is currently working on data collection and analysis for her dissertation.

Christina Azmy (left) being recognized during the
2017 Friday Medal Ceremony with adviser Hollylynne Lee.

Taylor Harrison was recognized for receiving the fellowship during the Friday Medal Ceremony held on October 29, 2018. Harrison is currently a third year PhD student and has worked on different projects as part of the HiRISE team, with most of his work focused on the ESTEEM project. This October he also published an article titled iPads in the Mathematics Classroom: Developing Criteria for Selecting Appropriate Learning Apps, which appears in the International Journal of Education in Mathematics, Science and Technology. Harrison will use the funds received from this fellowship to disseminate work done as part of the HiRISE team at a conference in Spring 2019. This semester Harrison is working on research focusing on AP Statistics Teachers as well as completing an internship in a high school mathematics classroom.

Taylor Harrison being recognized during the Friday Medal Ceremony.

The HiRISE team is very fortunate to be able to work as part of the Friday Institute which actively supports the work of not only faculty but graduate students. Harrison and Azmy are wonderful representatives of individuals that are doing their part to help educators not only in North Carolina but all over the world.