Education majors awarded SCIRA scholarships

Two Furman students were recently selected as recipients of scholarships from the South Carolina State Council of the International Reading Association.

McKinsey Payne ’15

Elementary education major McKinsey Payne ’15 was selected as the recipient of the SCIRA Florence Nelson Scholarship, a $1,000 award to an outstanding senior pursuing a career in education.

“McKinsey is a goal driven, hardworking and dedicated future teacher,” said education professor Katie Stover, Ph.D., who recommended Payne for the scholarship. “She strives to constantly grow and develop her knowledge of pedagogy of literacy instruction.”

Lyndsey Grimmett, a Furman graduate student pursuing her master’s degree in literacy, has been awarded the SCIRA Mary A. Kelley scholarship, $1,000 for a graduate student with two years of successful teaching experience. She is a first grade teacher at Legacy Charter School’s Elementary Campus in Greenville.

Furman graduate student Lyndsey Grimmett

Using a variety of approaches to teach writing has led to outstanding results in Grimmett’s classroom, said Stover, who also coordinates Furman’s Graduate Program in Literacy Education. “Ms. Grimmett has observed great progress with her first graders’ word recognition and motivation to engage in writing,” Stover said. “Many of her students now say that writing is their favorite subject!”

Payne and Grimmett will be presented with their awards at the SCIRA conference in Myrtle Beach in February.