Warner School student honored with outstanding adult student award Teaching & Curriculum The Rochester Area Colleges Continuing Education Association (RACCE) recently recognized Warner School of Education doctoral student Jennifer Maffucci with an Outstanding Adult Student award. Maffucci was among 30 adult students from several colleges across the Rochester area honored with the award at an April 10 banquet at Hilton Doubletree Hotel in Henrietta. The annual banquet celebrates the amazing adult students who endure multiple responsibilities, trials, and momentous tribulations to acquire their education. The award is given annually to part- or full-time students who exemplify a strong commitment to higher education despite the unique challenges that adult learners may face. Maffucci currently works as a full-time clinical instructor at the University of Rochester’s School of Nursing and a part-time registered nurse at the Short Stay Medical-Surgical Unit within Strong Memorial Hospital. During the past year, she completed her comprehensive exam, proposed her dissertation, collected data for her dissertation research, analyzed data, and completed a full draft of her dissertation, while successfully working and supporting her family. What makes her stand out, though, is how she balanced her teaching and career responsibilities and graduate study with extraordinary circumstances in her personal life. Maffucci’s husband has been away at training school this semester as she continues to work toward completing her dissertation, while caring for their now two-year-old daughter, Rosalee. That, and Maffucci has been preparing for and managing the next exciting stage for her family, which is a move to Chicago following graduation. Martha Mock and Nancy Ares, both faculty members in the teaching and curriculum program at the Warner School, and Kathy Rideout, dean of the School of Nursing, came together to nominate Maffucci for this honor. They say Maffucci clearly exemplifies all elements of the Rochester Area Colleges Outstanding Student Award, and believe that she will continue to be prolific in her clinical teaching career as she launches the next phase of her professional life. “Jennifer is an amazing clinical educator and researcher who is so invested in her students’ learning,” adds Mock. “She is a strong asset and advocate as an instructor in the Accelerated Baccalaureate Nursing Program. Whatever endeavor she pursues next, she is sure to be successful.” Maffucci is grateful for all the support that she has received during her graduate study. “I give my endless thanks to Dean Rideout for all the opportunities that I’ve been given at the School of Nursing,” she says, “and to the Warner School faculty, in particular Martha and Nancy, who served on my dissertation committee, for their encouragement, and to my family and friends for their support and help with Rosalee.” Maffucci holds a bachelor’s in nursing from Purdue University and a master’s in nursing in clinical nurse specialist/nurse educator from the University of Cincinnati. She will defend her dissertation, titled “Using A Reflective Practice Teaching Strategy to Identify and Develop Clinical Reasoning Skills in Accelerated Nursing Students: An Action Research Study,” in late April and will graduate in May with her EdD in teaching and curriculum.