Here’s a recent photo of our family in front of the Mesa Arizona Temple. We were there for my brother Jon’s wedding in July 2008.
Home Sweet Dusty Home
9 years ago
Monday, September 29, 2008
ASU grad receives Fulbright
Arizona State University, my alma mater, just published a very nice article about my selection as a Fulbright Scholar to Cambodia.
[Original article available at http://asunews.asu.edu/20080925_fulbrightaward]
ASU grad receives Fulbright Intercountry Lecturing Award
Wayne E. Wright, a doctoral graduate of ASU’s Mary Lou Fulton College of Education, has received the Fulbright Intercountry Lecturing Award in educational leadership and administration to support the Royal University of Phnom Penh’s Master in Education program in 2009.
Wright, an associate professor in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Texas at San Antonio, has worked with Cambodian refugees in the United States since 1986, and he is proficient in the Khmer language. At UTSA, Wright was granted early tenure and promoted at the end of his fourth year. This summer, he mentored his first doctoral student through to graduation. His student’s dissertation compared literacy practices in U.S. and Chinese heritage schools.
“Wayne Wright has been on a very fast trajectory,” said Professor Terrence Wiley, director of the Division of Educational Leadership & Policy Studies in the Fulton College. “Among all the students I have worked with, he has been the most productive and prolific and has done consistently excellent work on top of it. His bilingual skills have done him well.”
The Royal University of Phnom Penh is still recovering from the devastation of civil war and genocide during which schools were decimated and teachers were systematically executed.
There were few educated people left to rebuild the country’s school systems. As a Fulbright lecturer, Wright will teach two classes and support the university’s graduate education program, which is only two years old but a milestone in the rebuilding effort. The program addresses the critical need for training education professionals in Cambodian government and nonprofit organizations.
“Up to this point you couldn’t get a master’s degree in Cambodia, so anyone who had an advanced degree in education got it somewhere outside of Cambodia,” Wright explained. However, the graduate level courses are taught in English, even though the students aren’t proficient in the language.
“Some students are struggling, so they are looking at ways to improve the instruction program for them to learn enough English to learn through English,” he said. “I’m hoping to show them that they don’t have to do it all in English. There are ways to teach and learn in their native language.”
From Volunteer to Scholar
Wright was 19 years old when he began volunteering to help Cambodian refugees in California. He said he was touched by the remarkable stories of the survivors of civil war and genocide during the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s.
“Everyone had lost at least one direct family member and I was just amazed by their resilience and their ability to come back and rebuild their lives in the United States,” he said. “They were just so grateful to anyone who made an attempt to learn about their language and history and culture. I wanted to be more involved and to go back and do whatever I could to help their country.
Wright lived and worked in Cambodia from 1993 to 1994 as a volunteer with the Cambodian American National Development Organization (CANDO), a USAID-funded project modeled after the Peace Corps. There he met his wife, Phal, who with their three children will accompany him to her home country.“My experience in Cambodia really launched me into my teaching career,” Wright said. “It solidified my interest in issues of language education and culture. I wanted a better understanding of how our schools can do a better job of understanding and working with the needs of language learning students.”
He returned to California from Cambodia to earn his master’s degree and became a bilingual elementary school teacher. His frustration with policies that made it difficult for him to meet the needs of his students ultimately led him to pursue his PhD at Arizona State University.
Wiley first met Wright as a graduate student in Long Beach, Calif., and the professor was impressed by his student’s compassion for the Cambodian people and by his award-winning thesis on the background and history of Cambodian/English bilingual education.
“Wayne was known throughout the Cambodian community there as a friend and supporter who would help them in the schools. He was a teacher, and he implemented the first Khmer bilingual education program in Long Beach. He is a very rare person in that he is so involved in both scholarship and the community.”
At ASU, Wright also received the Outstanding Dissertation award from the National Association for Bilingual Education for his study on how teachers and program coordinators were involved in the implementation of policy change. He also helped organize and served as the advisor to the university’s Cambodian student organization.
“He really is too good to be true, but it is true,” Wiley said.
Wright’s research has been published in leading academic journals including Education Policy, Language Policy, Educational Policy Analysis Archives, the Bilingual Research Journal, the Heritage Languages Journal and the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, as well professional journals including Educational Leadership. He is the founding editor of the Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement and is the book review editor for the International Multilingual Research Journal. He also serves as co-director of the Language Policy Research Unit of the Southwest Center for Educational Equity and Language Diversity and as vice president for publications of the National Association for the Education and Advancement of Cambodian, Laotian and Vietnamese Americans.
Verina Palmer Martin, verina.martin@asu.edu
Associate Editor, Mary Lou Fulton College of Education
[Original article available at http://asunews.asu.edu/20080925_fulbrightaward]
ASU grad receives Fulbright Intercountry Lecturing Award
Wayne E. Wright, a doctoral graduate of ASU’s Mary Lou Fulton College of Education, has received the Fulbright Intercountry Lecturing Award in educational leadership and administration to support the Royal University of Phnom Penh’s Master in Education program in 2009.
Wright, an associate professor in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Texas at San Antonio, has worked with Cambodian refugees in the United States since 1986, and he is proficient in the Khmer language. At UTSA, Wright was granted early tenure and promoted at the end of his fourth year. This summer, he mentored his first doctoral student through to graduation. His student’s dissertation compared literacy practices in U.S. and Chinese heritage schools.
“Wayne Wright has been on a very fast trajectory,” said Professor Terrence Wiley, director of the Division of Educational Leadership & Policy Studies in the Fulton College. “Among all the students I have worked with, he has been the most productive and prolific and has done consistently excellent work on top of it. His bilingual skills have done him well.”
The Royal University of Phnom Penh is still recovering from the devastation of civil war and genocide during which schools were decimated and teachers were systematically executed.
There were few educated people left to rebuild the country’s school systems. As a Fulbright lecturer, Wright will teach two classes and support the university’s graduate education program, which is only two years old but a milestone in the rebuilding effort. The program addresses the critical need for training education professionals in Cambodian government and nonprofit organizations.
“Up to this point you couldn’t get a master’s degree in Cambodia, so anyone who had an advanced degree in education got it somewhere outside of Cambodia,” Wright explained. However, the graduate level courses are taught in English, even though the students aren’t proficient in the language.
“Some students are struggling, so they are looking at ways to improve the instruction program for them to learn enough English to learn through English,” he said. “I’m hoping to show them that they don’t have to do it all in English. There are ways to teach and learn in their native language.”
From Volunteer to Scholar
Wright was 19 years old when he began volunteering to help Cambodian refugees in California. He said he was touched by the remarkable stories of the survivors of civil war and genocide during the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s.
“Everyone had lost at least one direct family member and I was just amazed by their resilience and their ability to come back and rebuild their lives in the United States,” he said. “They were just so grateful to anyone who made an attempt to learn about their language and history and culture. I wanted to be more involved and to go back and do whatever I could to help their country.
Wright lived and worked in Cambodia from 1993 to 1994 as a volunteer with the Cambodian American National Development Organization (CANDO), a USAID-funded project modeled after the Peace Corps. There he met his wife, Phal, who with their three children will accompany him to her home country.“My experience in Cambodia really launched me into my teaching career,” Wright said. “It solidified my interest in issues of language education and culture. I wanted a better understanding of how our schools can do a better job of understanding and working with the needs of language learning students.”
He returned to California from Cambodia to earn his master’s degree and became a bilingual elementary school teacher. His frustration with policies that made it difficult for him to meet the needs of his students ultimately led him to pursue his PhD at Arizona State University.
Wiley first met Wright as a graduate student in Long Beach, Calif., and the professor was impressed by his student’s compassion for the Cambodian people and by his award-winning thesis on the background and history of Cambodian/English bilingual education.
“Wayne was known throughout the Cambodian community there as a friend and supporter who would help them in the schools. He was a teacher, and he implemented the first Khmer bilingual education program in Long Beach. He is a very rare person in that he is so involved in both scholarship and the community.”
At ASU, Wright also received the Outstanding Dissertation award from the National Association for Bilingual Education for his study on how teachers and program coordinators were involved in the implementation of policy change. He also helped organize and served as the advisor to the university’s Cambodian student organization.
“He really is too good to be true, but it is true,” Wiley said.
Wright’s research has been published in leading academic journals including Education Policy, Language Policy, Educational Policy Analysis Archives, the Bilingual Research Journal, the Heritage Languages Journal and the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, as well professional journals including Educational Leadership. He is the founding editor of the Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement and is the book review editor for the International Multilingual Research Journal. He also serves as co-director of the Language Policy Research Unit of the Southwest Center for Educational Equity and Language Diversity and as vice president for publications of the National Association for the Education and Advancement of Cambodian, Laotian and Vietnamese Americans.
Verina Palmer Martin, verina.martin@asu.edu
Associate Editor, Mary Lou Fulton College of Education
UTSA Today Article about my Fulbright to Cambodia
UTSA Today, an on-line publication of the University of Texas, San Antonio, published an article about my selection as a Fulbright Scholar to lecture at the Royal University of Phnom Penh in the Spring 2009 semester: UTSA Today
The University of Texas at San AntonioUTSA professor selected as Fulbright Scholar
By Tim BrownleeAssistant Director of Public Affairs(July 31, 2008)--Wayne Wright, UTSA associate professor of bicultural-bilingual studies (effective fall 2008), recently was selected as a Fulbright Scholar to Cambodia for spring 2009. He will go to Cambodia through the Fulbright Intercountry Lecturing Program, which provides U.S. scholars with opportunities to enrich their professional and cultural experience outside the United States.
For more than 60 years, the federally sponsored Fulbright program has provided opportunities to study, conduct research and teach in more than 140 countries. The program awards approximately 1,450 grants annually.
"Congratulations are in order for Dr. Wayne Wright," said Charles Crane, UTSA director of international programs. "His selection as a Fulbright Scholar to Cambodia brings great credit to him, the College of Education and Human Development and UTSA."
Wright received a Fulbright lecture award in educational leadership and administration at the Royal University of Phnom Penh in Cambodia. He will teach courses in the university's new master of education program, which addresses the critical need for training education professionals in Cambodian government and nonprofit organizations. The country continues to rebuild its education system, which was devastated by genocide and civil war during the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s.
In addition to teaching graduate courses, Wright will work to enhance the research capabilities of graduate students and faculty, provide assistance in revising the educational technology curriculum and provide assistance in the development of distance education with the university's English Support Unit.
"Cambodia has made a great deal of progress rebuilding its education system, but much work remains to be done," said Wright. "I am greatly honored by the opportunity this Fulbright award has given me to return to Cambodia to contribute toward efforts to continue developing the education sector through the training of current and future educational leaders at the Royal University of Phnom Penh."
"This award is also very meaningful to my family on a personal level," Wright added. "My wife, Phal, is a native of Cambodia, and we are the parents of three Cambodian American children, Jeffrey, Michael and Catherine. We are thrilled with the opportunity for our children to live in Cambodia where they can develop relationships with their family members there, improve their very limited Khmer language skills, and make deeper connections to their Cambodian heritage and culture."
Proficient in the Khmer (Cambodian) language, Wright has worked with Cambodian refugees in the United States since 1986. He lived and worked in Cambodia from 1993 to 1994 as a volunteer with the Cambodian American National Development Organization (CANDO), a USAID-funded project modeled after the Peace Corps. Additionally, he worked in the human rights and education sectors with local indigenous non-governmental organizations and at the Institute of Economics.
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About Wayne WrightWayne E. Wright earned a Ph.D. in educational leadership and policy studies at Arizona State University. At UTSA, he is an associate professor (effective fall 2008) of bilingual studies in the College of Education and Human Development. He is chair of the Graduate Studies Committee and is the graduate adviser of record for the M.A.-Teaching English as a Second Language (MA-TESL) program.
His teaching and research focus on language and education policies, programs and instruction for language minority students. His research has been published in leading academic journals including Education Policy, Language Policy, Educational Policy Analysis Archives, the Bilingual Research Journal, the Heritage Languages Journal and the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, in addition to professional journals including Educational Leadership.
Wright is the founding editor of the Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement and is the book review editor for the International Multilingual Research Journal. He also serves as co-director of the Language Policy Research Unit of the Southwest Center for Educational Equity and Language Diversity and as vice president for publications of the National Association for the Education and Advancement of Cambodian, Laotian and Vietnamese Americans. Previously, he was a bilingual elementary school teacher and helped establish one of the first Khmer bilingual education programs in California.
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About the Fulbright programThe late Sen. J. William Fulbright founded the Fulbright Program of International Education and Cultural Exchange in 1948. Fulbright was an advocate of mutual understanding between cultures and détente long before they were in vogue. He believed that international education would provide a base for the basic understanding and contact necessary for a peaceful world.
Fulbright was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and president of the University of Arkansas at age 34. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives at age 35, and at 39 became a U.S. senator. For 16 of his 30 years in the Senate, he chaired the Foreign Relations Committee. Politically, he fought hard for peace initiatives and non-military solutions.
Approximately 6,000 new grants are awarded to individuals annually through the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Grants are given to American students, teachers and scholars to study, teach, lecture and conduct research in more than 140 countries in the world, and to foreign nationals to engage in similar activities in the United States. Individuals are selected on the basis of academic or professional qualifications, potential, and ability and willingness to share ideas and experiences with people of diverse cultures.
New Blog
I've started this blog because I can't seem to figure out my old one on Word Press. Ever since I made the static webpages the home page, I can't figure out how to get to the actual blog part. The old posts are still available and accessible through the archives however: www.wayneewright.org
I've used Blogger for course blogs, including the study abroad courses I've led to Thailand (see http://utsathailand2008.blogspot.com), and I love how easy it is to use.
I've used Blogger for course blogs, including the study abroad courses I've led to Thailand (see http://utsathailand2008.blogspot.com), and I love how easy it is to use.
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