School of Education graduate student honorees l-r Beatrice Ruiz, Liz Harrelson Magill, and Maggie Bryant
Three School of Education (SOE) graduate students were honored with awards from the Baylor Graduate School. The Graduate School honored 14 students university wide with research, instruction, and dissertation awards.
Beatrice Ruiz, a PhD student in the Department of Educational Psychology received the Research Award for the Social Sciences. Candidates are judged by their description of their completed and ongoing research projects, participation in research events and conferences, presentations and publications, future research plans, and a letter of recommendation from a faculty mentor.
Maggie Bryant and Elizabeth (Liz) Harrelson Magill, both PhD students in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction, were honorees for their teaching. Bryant received the award for a course she taught in fall of 2023 and Magill for a course in spring of 2024. Recipients were selected based on recommendations from their supervising faculty, letters from students in the classroom, teaching philosophy statements, and their record of participation in professional teaching development.
Ruiz and faculty mentor Dr. Todd Kettler
Beatrice Ruiz
Outstanding Graduate Student Research – Social Sciences
Ruiz earned a BA in psychology from Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, and an MS in psychology from the University of Texas at San Antonio. During her PhD studies at Baylor, she has been a graduate assistant researcher and research coordinator for Baylor Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development.
Ruiz’s research focuses on creative achievement and creative education, including studies on the relationship between attention control and creative achievement. She developed a College Creative Achievement Questionnaire to capture undergraduate creative accomplishments better than the typically used measure. She has also investigated whether laboratory-based measures of creative potential can predict real-world creative achievement. Ruiz also investigates how to cultivate creativity in K-12 educational settings.
She has made multiple research presentations and received first place in the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) graduate student research competition, in the American Psychological Association (APA) Division 10 Student Research Showcase, and in Baylor’s 2-Minute Thesis competition.
“Bea Ruiz is among the most talented graduate student researchers I have ever worked with,” said faculty mentor Dr. Todd Kettler, associate professor and executive director of the Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development. “Professors at other universities have commented to me that she stands out among her graduate student peers. She’s presented her research nationally and internationally, and her expertise shines a positive light on the work we are doing at Baylor. She is an outstanding researcher, a leader, and a servant.”
Read more about Ruiz’s research.
Maggie Bryant with faculty mentor Dr. Sandra Talbert
Maggie Bryant
Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award – Social Sciences
Maggie Bryant earned a BA in English education from South Dakota State University and an MEd from Vanderbilt University in Reading Education. As a PhD student at Baylor, Bryant has taught courses in Secondary English Curriculum, English Language Arts teaching methods, Foundations in Secondary Reading and Writing, and has supervised Baylor undergraduate teaching field experiences and led the seminar course.
In her teaching evaluations, students have praised her as wise, passionate, and engaging. One student noted, “This class was fantastic! Discussions were engaging, and there were so many different perspectives. Ms. Bryant taught engaging lessons with so much practical information.”
Dr. Sandra Talbert, clinical associate professor in the SOE, said, “The care with which Maggie plans lessons to meet student interests and needs leads to highly engaging lessons. Maggie models for her students various ways to engage their students in lessons — by varying learning activities, using effective pacing, including movement during the lesson, and through ongoing relationship building.”
Read more about Bryant’s Teaching Philosophy.
Liz Harrelson Magill with Baylor Provost Dr. Nancy Brickhouse
Elizabeth (Liz) Harrelson Magill
Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award – Social Sciences
Liz Harrelson Magill earned her BA in history from California Polytechnic State University and an MA in social studies education from the University of California – Davis. As a PhD student at Baylor, she has taught undergraduate courses in social studies methods for the elementary, middle, and secondary grades. She has also supervised field teaching experiences for Baylor juniors and seniors and is the site coordinator for Midway High School, a professional development school partner for the School of Education.
Dr. Philip Nichols, associate professor in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction and Magill’s faculty advisor and dissertation chair, said he admires the breadth and depth of her expertise, the inventiveness of her teaching, and the ethic of care that animates her interactions with students and colleagues. “Liz’s teaching is guided by her belief that learning is a social process, involving the construction and extension of new knowledge across contexts,” Nichols said. “In her ‘Social Studies in Elementary Schools’ course, she strikes a masterful balance between equipping pre-service educators with a strong theoretical grounding and fostering opportunities for them to put abstract concepts into practice through projects and lesson planning.”
In their course evaluations, students noted Magill’s efforts to provide a diverse set of resources to students. “Mrs. Magill excelled as an educator by fostering relationships with her students, creating engaging lessons, and presenting content in meaningful ways,” one student wrote.
Read more about Magill’s Teaching Philosophy.
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ABOUT BAYLOR SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
For more than 100 years, the School of Education has advanced Baylor’s mission across the globe while preparing students for a range of careers focused on education, leadership, and human development. With more than 65 full-time faculty members, the school’s growing research portfolio complements its long-standing commitment to excellence in teaching and student mentoring. Baylor’s undergraduate program in teacher education has earned national distinction for innovative partnerships with local schools that provide future teachers deep clinical preparation. Likewise, the School of Education’s graduate programs have attained national recognition for their exemplary preparation of research scholars, educational leaders, innovators, and clinicians. Visit the School of Education website to learn more.
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