Forty-three years later, the retired Silicon Valley computer designer, whose invention design was finally declassified in 1998, is using his engineering experience to teach children in Mount Olive about science and robotics. He also has completed the requirements for a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction at Ole Miss as a graduate fellow at the university’s Center for Mathematics and Science Education, or CMSE. He was among some 3,000 candidates for degrees at Saturday’s Commencement ceremonies.

“I didn’t originally plan on visiting Mississippi,” Holt said. “I was sitting in my driveway in Oklahoma in my motor home that I had just bought to travel the country. I’d sold my house and I had to be out in a couple of days when a friend from Mississippi called and invited me visit his nonprofit ministry, R.E.A.L. Christian Foundation. He said he would have me check out the computers in the ministries. After two weeks, I knew I should stay. I liked helping rural ministries.”

After deciding to stay in Mississippi, Holt met Tony Duckworth of Mount Olive Ministries in Mount Olive. The organization provides children and teenagers with educational opportunities to promote an interest in academics and helps prevent students from dropping out of high school.

“Ray’s attitude about his achievements inspire our kids to dream again,” Duckworth said. “They know that their dreams can become a reality.”

Holt suggested starting a robotics team in Mount Olive to spark an interest in the students, and it worked. During the first-ever statewide high school robotics competition hosted by the CMSE in February, Holt’s group, dubbed Team Purple Thunder, took first and second place in two different categories. Their robotic successes continued from there. In late April, the team competed against 128 other robotics teams from 28 countries in the FIRST World Robotics Championship in St. Louis, placing 13th out of 64 in their division. The team was ranked first among first-time competitors.

“He really inspired us to do well in the competitions,” said Mount Olive ninth-grader Whitney Schreiber. “We’re just a small town that never really gets anything, and he teaches us so much.”

Holt splits his time between Oxford, where he is completing student teaching in mathematics at Lafayette High School, and Mount Olive. Throughout the year, he has made efforts to help his students in Mount Olive expand their horizons. Besides visiting St. Louis in April, Team Purple Thunder visited the Nissan plant in Canton last November. Last March, the team toured the UM School of Engineering and the Center for Manufacturing Excellence.

“When you show students what’s possible, you can see them become excited,” Holt said. “After they saw real engineers program robots to preform tasks to build a truck, they started to realize that they’re doing same thing with our robot on a smaller scale. They realized how much they could actually do.”

Offered at UM since 2010, the Master of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction is a one-year master’s program designed to help college graduates with noneducation degrees transition into teaching at the secondary level. After hearing about Holt’s robotics program, the CMSE offered him a fellowship that included full tuition, office space at the center and access to a variety of professional development and educational materials to complete the degree.

“Seeing the struggling that the youth have in Mount Olive, I had no idea our after-school programs could grow to this,” Holt said. “Our first goal was to make sure none of our children drop out of high school, and the second one was that their GPA would be a 3.0. Now, nine out of 11 students make straight As. Two of our past students have been accepted to Ole Miss.”

Holt said he hopes his new training will help him instill confidence and ambition into more children, particularly those who have an opportunity to become first-generation college students and who may have never previously considered a career in science or engineering. He hopes that in coming years, he can help grow after-school programs in rural communities throughout the state. All 11 members of Team Purple Thunder planned to visit Holt during graduation on Saturday.

“This degree has been way too much work to say it’s just for me,” said Holt. “Working with youth is my passion. I have students who now say ‘I want to come to Ole Miss to study robotics,’ I consider that a real success.”

Roberson, who received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics education from UM in 2000, received the T.P. Vinson Memorial Educator Award. Pearson, a secondary English education major who became the university’s first black homecoming queen last fall, was honored as the 2013 recipient of the T.P. Vinson Memorial Scholarship.

“Theopolis believed that education was vitally important to improving our community,” said Jacquline Vinson, widow of Theopolis Pride Vinson, former assistant dean of the School of Education for whom the scholarship and award are named. “It pleases me that we are honoring his memory by recognizing an exceptional administrator like Mr. Roberson and a student like Ms. Pearson, who has proven that success can be achieved through perseverance.”

Established after Vinson’s death in 2003, the $1,000 scholarship is awarded annually to an outstanding African-American junior or senior education major. The scholarship was the first to be endowed in honor of an African-American faculty member at UM.

This year’s keynote speaker was Hickman M. Johnson, pastor of Farish Street Baptist Church in Jackson, who spoke on “Remembering the Man, Honoring his Legacy.”

“This scholarship was a great honor,” said Pearson, a Memphis native. “It could not have come at a better time. This award helped me be able to stay here for my final year, and it’s wonderful to be honored for work that I’m passionate about.”

Pearson was selected by the education school’s Scholarship Committee for her pre-service teaching skills and service with organizations such as the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life. She has served on the Ole Miss Relay for Life committee for the past three years.

“We selected Courtney for this award the summer before her senior year,” said Whitney Webb, assistant dean of education. “This scholarship is given for demonstrating leadership and commitment to education, and she hit it out of the park.”

The educator award, which was established in 2011, is given each year to a Mississippi educator who displays excellence in education and leadership.

“For me, it’s an honor to receive an award with Dr. Vinson’s name on it,” explained Robertson, a Ripley native. “When I met him as a professor, I just knew there was something special about him because of the way he treated people and the level of expertise he brought to the classroom. Attaching his name to mine is humbling.”

David Rock, UM education dean and Roberson’s former professor, nominated him for the award.

“Bradley is one of the most dedicated, passionate teachers I have ever known,” Rock said. ”He has genuine care for children and has a true commitment to help anyone learn. Educators such as Bradley make schools an amazing place for our children. He is also one of the brightest students I have ever taught; his mathematics skills are exceptional.”

Besides serving as assistant dean for the School of Education, Vinson was a pastor at Philadelphia M.B. Church. The scholarship fund was established by his wife and three children and accepts ongoing donations through the UM Foundation to support and recognize students of education and Mississippi teachers.

OXFORD. Miss. – Retired University of Mississippi educator Lynton Dilley has established a legacy of learning at the university with a $25,000 donation to create a new endowment to support Willie Price Lab School.

The Norman Edward and Lynton Sullivan Dilley Endowment, named after Dilley and her late husband, is the first endowment ever created for the 43-year-old pre-kindergarten school and will help cover day-to-day costs. In the coming year, the school will seek additional donations to grow the new endowment to enhance its programs.

“I knew Willie Price,” Dilley recalled during a recent visit to the school. “This is a happy place. I’m glad I have this gift to give.”

Programming at the school provides a variety of learning activities for 3- and 4-year-old students, including visiting storytellers as part of its Mystery Reader program, hands-on experiences in a vegetable learning garden, petting zoos, physical education classes and a constantly evolving curriculum designed to help children learn and gain preparedness for kindergarten.

“We’re so thankful to Mrs. Dilley for her generous support,” said Angela Rutherford, Willie Price director. “This gives us the opportunity to improve our facility and make sure we have the resources to continue offering quality education programs for our students.”

Operated by the UM School of Education, the state’s largest producer of teachers and educational leaders, the Willie Price facility will play a role in the school’s plans to establish new undergraduate and graduate curricula in early childhood education in the near future.

This is Dilley’s second donation to UM this academic year. Last August, the retired educator donated $25,000 to the university museum to create the Dilley Museum Endowment, which supports education programs for area children.

“This is about giving back,” Dilley said. “I had a great career. I was going to leave this in my will, but my sons said I should give it back now, so I can see where it goes.”

Dilley came to Oxford in 1956 with her sons and husband, Norman Edward Dilley, who was a UM education professor for two years until his sudden death in August 1958. A trained architect, she worked for an Oxford architecture firm while taking elementary education classes on campus. She began teaching sixth grade at Oxford Elementary School in 1961 while studying for a master’s degree in education.

In 1966, she joined the School of Education faculty, a position in which she influenced thousands of students and received grant monies to study education in more than 20 countries. She retired in 1991 as director of field experiences and instructor in education.

“During some of the toughest moments of my life, this community has wrapped its arms around my family and me,” Dilley said. “I’m happy to give back when so much has been given to me.”

For more information about Willie Price Lab School, go to http://education.olemiss.edu/willieprice/.

OXFORD, Miss. – Rebecca Mieliwocki, the 2012 National Teacher of the Year, will visit the University of Mississippi on Wednesday (April 17) to discuss her career in teaching and educational issues with UM students, faculty and staff during two public forums at the Jackson Avenue Center.

This is the third consecutive year the UM School of Education, the state’s largest producer of teachers and educational leaders, will host the National Teacher of the Year. A forum with education students will begin at 10 a.m., and an open forum for faculty and staff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.

“Whenever we can expose our pre-service teachers to a master educator like Rebecca Mieliwocki, it’s going to make an impression,” said David Rock, UM education dean, who began inviting the winner of the annual honor to Ole Miss in 2011. “We want to set the bar high for our students and let them know the impact a teacher can make. This gives them the opportunity to meet the best of the best and ask questions one-on-one.”

President Barack Obama named Mieliwocki, a seventh-grade English teacher at Luther Burbank Middle School in Burbank, Calif., as National Teacher of the Year in April 2012 from a pool of 54 state and territorial teachers. Since June, she has toured the country as national educational spokesperson, sharing her educational philosophy with current and aspiring educators.

“Students learn best when they have the most enthusiastic, engaged teachers possible,” Mieliwocki said. “I firmly believe that teachers must be held accountable for their students’ success, from helping them meet personal or school-wide goals to achieving on district and state assessments. Our students are our future, so we, their teachers, must do our best to inspire them.”

The daughter of two public school teachers, Mielwocki pursued careers in publishing, floral design and event planning before becoming a teacher. She holds a bachelor’s degree in speech communication from California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo and an English teaching credential from California State University at Northridge.

For more information about the National Teacher of the Year program, visit http://www.ccsso.org/ntoy.html.

Within the last 10 years, national, regional and state shortages of certified special education teachers has been reported. According to data from the U.S. Department of Education, 47 states have reported these shortages due to a growing population of students with special needs and the retirement of a large portion of special education teachers. The demand is expected to rise 5.9 percent by 2020.

“We’ve made a big step to meet the demand,” said Diane Lowry, UM special education coordinator. “The day after the program was posted online, we already had two people apply to the Ph.D. and inquiries about the online master’s.”

The online Master of Education program caters to working teachers who would like to earn a master’s degree in special education to advance their careers on their own schedule. Face-to-face time may be scheduled with instructors during each semester; however, it is not required.

Prerequisites for the program include a bachelor’s degree and professional licensure in a related field. The degree is designed to be completed in 15 months with students taking two courses per semester. Graduates will qualify for an advanced teaching license in special education.

“This degree will allow us to meet the academic and research needs of individuals who have a strong desire to improve the lives of students with disabilities,” said Susan McClelland, interim chair of teacher education. “We have faculty with diverse academic backgrounds and areas of expertise, which will strengthen the program and attract students from across the country.”

The new Doctor of Philosophy degree with an emphasis in special education will be available fall 2013. The program is designed for educators who want to teach special education instruction at the collegiate level, move into administrative K-12 roles or become specialists in their field. Those applying for admission to the doctoral program must hold a master’s degree in a related field and meet all Graduate School and School of Education requirements.

The new master’s degree marks the fifth online graduate degree offered by the UM School of Education, the state’s largest producer of teachers and educational leaders. The school also offers online master’s degrees in elementary education, literacy education and higher education as well as an educational specialist degree in play therapy.

Get more information about new graduate programs in special education.

OXFORD, Miss. – For most educators, student teaching is a sink-or-swim experience combining theory and practice. But at the University of Mississippi, pre-service teachers are using the latest technology to get a head start on this phase of training with a virtual classroom program called TeachLive.

The UM School of Education, the state’s largest producer of teachers and educational leaders, is among 19 institutions across the country chosen to pilot this training program designed by faculty at the University of Central Florida.

“For the first time, our students can actually teach a lesson, learn and gain experience before entering the classroom,” said UM education Dean David Rock. “That is not just innovative, that’s what practice teaching is all about. They can make mistakes and learn without impacting children.”

While teaching, pre-service teachers navigate a physical classroom at UM equipped with a position sensor, which move them through a classroom displayed on a monitor. They communicate with five distinct student avatars – each programmed by the TeachLive team to behave like middle school children. The avatars fall asleep, send text messages or cause other distractions. Hidden inside avatar personalities can be warning signs of underlying issues such as learning disabilities or abuse at home, allowing UM students the chance to identify these signs in their practice.

“It’s a great way to get the nerves out of your system before you actually enter a real classroom,” said Erin Simpson, a junior elementary education major from Gulfport. “If you mess up, it doesn’t affect a real child and when you learn from your mistakes, you’re that much more confident.”

The School of Education has utilized the program since fall 2012 and plans on expanding its use among undergraduates in the future, including possibly opening TeachLive classrooms at the university’s DeSoto and Tupelo regional campuses. Current junior education majors get a chance to use the virtual classroom twice a semester. Following each 30-minute session, an experienced educator evaluates the students’ lesson and leadership style.

“It gives them a chance to actually get in front of what seems like real people and interact with children,” said Larry Christman, a veteran Mississippi principal and UM adjunct professor of education. “There are five different personalities on the screen, and they are going to see these personalities when they get out in the real world.”

Remote operators at UCF can control elements of the classroom such as noise levels and avatars’ moods and responses to questions. The avatars can be unruly, insightful or shy, and are designed to give aspiring educators a chance to gain experience teaching in a variety of subject areas.

“Instead of being afraid of messing up, I’m able to see what teaching is like,” said Natalie Vermillion, a junior elementary education major from Austin, Texas. “Because if I make a mistake in an actual classroom, I’m wasting students’ time. But these students are here for us to practice, so it makes me more comfortable and able to learn from mistakes.”

For more information visit the TeachLive program.

OXFORD, Miss. – University of Mississippi educational leadership professor Ryan Niemeyer has been selected to lead the UM chapter of the Mississippi Excellence in Teaching Program, a joint venture with Mississippi State University to award full scholarships to top-performing students who want to become teachers.

The appointment marks the third major move at UM for Niemeyer, who serves as co-director of the Mississippi Teacher Corps and previously served as director of the university’s Grenada Center.

“I’m a Mississippi native and heavily invested in public education in this state,” said Niemeyer, a Lumberton native. “This is a wonderful opportunity to bring prestige to teaching. Right now, we’re moving quickly to recruit top students into our first cohort.”

Established in January with a $12.95 million grant from the Robert M. Hearin Support Foundation in Jackson, the program offers one of the most valuable scholarships in the nation and provides full tuition and a variety of other benefits. All graduates of the program make a five-year commitment to teach in a Mississippi public school after graduation.

“Dr. Niemeyer’s experience in leadership and understanding of education in our state makes him an ideal choice,” said UM education Dean David Rock. “He’s proven that he can lead dynamic programs and that he understands the importance of maintaining high standards for our programs.”

Niemeyer is recruiting students for the Ole Miss chapter of the program and collaborating with MSU leaders to establish an administrative structure for the program.

Both campuses will begin reviewing applications March 15. Ideal applicants are incoming freshmen with ACT scores of 28 and above and a high school GPA of 3.5 or above.

The program’s initial focus is to produce new English and mathematics teachers in Mississippi to help meet the demands of the state’s new Common Core standards implemented last year. Each university will accept 20 fellows – 10 in math and 10 in English – and provide full scholarships, room and board, a tablet computer, professional development opportunities and a study abroad experience worth up to $6,000.

Niemeyer received his doctorate in educational leadership from UM in 2008 and holds a master’s degree in educational administration and a bachelor’s degree in sports administration from the University of Southern Mississippi. Before coming to UM, he held K-12 leadership positions in schools around the state and served nearly 15 years in the Mississippi Army National Guard, where he achieved the rank of captain.

For more information, visit METP.

OXFORD, Miss. – More than 20 robots and their student designers are on their way to the University of Mississippi this week as part of the inaugural FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics Tournament.

Hosted by the UM Center for Mathematics and Science Education, the event will take place Saturday (March 2) at the university’s Jackson Avenue Center, with opening ceremonies beginning at 10 a.m. Two winning teams will move on to compete in the FTC World Championship in St. Louis this April against 126 teams from around the world.

“This whole competition starts as an afterschool program for students,” said Mannie Lowe, the center’s program manager and coordinator of the event. “When each team began in September, they started from square one. They got to imagine their robot and see it come together and now see how it performs against others.”

The tournament pits student teams from across Mississippi against one other in a game called Ring It Up! During the game, students pilot their robots to pick up rings from dispensers and place them in a grid to score points. All robots must be designed within set dimensions and use a Lego Mindstorm NXT robot “brain” to maneuver the device.

An average team includes 10 students ranging from seventh to 12th grade. Students work alongside mentors to design and build robots using mathematics and science concepts. Teams compete on the regional level before coming to the state competition.

But this year’s event marks more than just the first state-level robotics tournament in Mississippi, explained Lowe, who previously coordinated the state FTC tournament in Georgia. Saturday’s tournament shows a dramatic increase in awareness for the program across the state. The number of registered Mississippi teams has risen from four to 23 in just one year.

Lafayette County High School science teacher Taylor Langford has mentored his team freshmen and sophomore science students for the first time.

“There was a lot of trial and error at first,” Langford said. “We’ve been meeting once a week to get our design functional. It can take a lot of practice to get all the components working together, but I’m pleased with what we’ve accomplished.”

The Lafayette High robot is 18 inches long and 12 inches wide and uses an adjustable arm to pick up rings. The team plans to reveal its name at the tournament.

The FTC tournament is supported by the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, or FIRST, organization based in Manchester, N.H. Founded by inventor Dean Kamen, the nonprofit’s mission is to inspire an interest in mathematics and science in young people. This season, an estimated 2,500 FTC robotics teams will compete in events in the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, Russia and the Netherlands.

For more information about the tournament and the organization, visithttp://www.usfirst.org.

Former University of Mississippi middle linebacker Jonathan Cornell has gone from breaking through offensive linemen to teaching Meridian High School students about African American literature and public speaking during his first year in the Mississippi Teacher Corps. Video by Brandon Rook.

Area elementary school students, Ole Miss students and the general public can experience the map firsthand March 4-7 at the university’s Jackson Avenue Center. The map accurately illustrates oceans, seas, rivers, mountains, countries and capitals. Made of durable vinyl, it allows students to dive feet-first into geography.

“The map lets individuals interact with a geography in a much different way than on a cell phone, atlas or paper map,” said UM social studies education professor Ellen Foster. “You get to feel the scale. We often lose the concept of scale in geography. We’re talking about a map that’s going to fill a ballroom.”A trunk packed with activities for students, including oversized map keys, giant dice and flag football gear, will accompany the giant map. Foster and her students are managing the event and will facilitate group visits.

The map is part of the My Wonderful World campaign designed to help improve geographic literacy among students. The National Geographic Society introduced its first giant traveling map, of Africa, in 2006. Since then, four more maps have been unveiled, including North America, South America, Asia and the Pacific Ocean.

Before arriving at Ole Miss, the North America map will stop at the Museum of Natural Science in Jackson and at Mississippi State University during its trip across the state.

The Mississippi Geography Alliance, or MGA, donated funding to rent the giant map for four weeks through a grant from the National Geographic Education Foundation. MGA seeks to raise awareness of geographic literacy in Mississippi schools.

“Not only will children participate in the activities provided, but we can also tie in math through things like measurement and scale and science through landforms,” said senior elementary education major Emmie Angel, who is helping with the event. “The map is a wonderful, free and interactive way for the students to learn and have fun.”

To view the map, groups must register online with the Rebel Social Studies Program. The map is available between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. and can accommodate up to 45 students at once. Group scheduling will be finalized by Thursday (Feb. 14).

Schools signed up to participate include Batesville Intermediate, Della Davidson, Hickory Flat and Pontotoc elementary schools. The general public can visit the map without an appointment from 4 to 7 p.m. March 6.

“I feel like this is a great activity for our fifth-graders to see and understand the geography of our country,” said Martha McLarty, principal at Della Davidson Elementary School in Oxford. “The experience will be one that the students remember and will help them with their studies.”

To sign up for an activity time for the map, visit https://sites.google.com/site/rebelsocialstudies/.

For more information, visit the Mississippi Geographic Alliance, or http://speakupforgeography.rallycongress.com/4342/teaching-geography-is-fundamental-act/.