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College of Education and Human Development

The Gift of Education


Giving Back to Education

This past fall the College of Education and Human Development received a new scholarship for students seeking teacher certification at the middle and high school levels in language arts, math, science, and foreign languages. This new scholarship was established by Carol Fitzgerald Dodge, a longtime educator in San Antonio’s Northside Independent School District.

Born one of six children, Carol Fitzgerald was raised on a farm in Fort Dodge, Iowa. When it came time to select a career, it was an easy task. Carol’s mother was a teacher, so she knew first hand the amount of dedication needed and the rewards that she would experience.

Working her way through college, Carol attended Briar Cliff College in Sioux City, Drake University in Des Moines and Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge. She completed her bachelor’s degree with a double English major in secondary education at The University of Northwest Missouri, Maryville, Missouri. After teaching middle and high school in Rockwell City and Fort Dodge, Iowa, Carol moved to San Antonio, Texas.

While employed full-time in Northside Independent School District, she attended UTSA to earn her elementary certification, later receiving her master’s degree in curriculum and instruction with an emphasis in reading. Carol went on to teach for another 14 years.

Carol has always been interested in how a students learns, and why some find learning to be so difficult. Her interest eventually led her into workstudy programs for potential dropouts in high school, a developmental reading program in middle school and the Reading Recovery teacher program in elementary school. Carol received her reading recovery teacher leader certification from Texas Woman’s University, Denton, Texas. Upon completion of this training Carol became a curriculum specialist in SAISD, training Reading Recovery teachers through UTSA. Later she developed her own educational consultant firm and became a national presenter, training superintendents, principals, curriculum specialists and teachers throughout the U.S.

Carol and her husband R. Edward Dodge, M.D. established this scholarship in the hopes that the recipients will also give back to their community in some special way.


Stardust Donation Helps Provide Counseling to the Downtown Community

This past February the President of the Stardust Club, Dennis Diem presented UTSA’s Department of Counseling with a $10,000 donation in support of the Sarabia Community Family Life Center (SCFLC) located on the downtown campus.

This is the third consecutive year that the Stardust Club has supported the efforts of the SCFLC. The SCFLC provides individual and group counseling services free of charge to individuals and families in the downtown community. Thanks to the support of the Stardust Club the center has been able to serve over 200 clients since its inception in 2008. Citizens come to the center seeking aid in family concerns, relationship problems, job loss, grief, domestic violence, and substance abuse issues.

The SCFLC serves as on-campus training facility allowing graduate students to obtain intensive and personalized supervision by faculty, while at the same time providing much needed services to the downtown community.

“As a result of the generous support of the Stardust Club, we are able to continue our mission of improving the educational, social, and mental health of those whom we serve. Our commitment to the San Antonio community is unwavering,” says Dean Betty Merchant.

For more information on the counseling services offered downtown, contact the center office at 458-2055, or visit http://education.utsa.edu/centers/.