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Community Corner

Amherst Native Graduates from Wheelock College

Jean Rogers, an Amherst native, and accomplished writer with a drive for making the world a safer, happier place for children and families, graduated from Wheelock College on May 16, 2014. At Wheelock, Rogers found an institution whose mission to improve the lives of children and families aligns with her professional and personal goals.

Rogers graduated from Wheelock with a Master of Science in Educational Studies and a Certificate in Parenting Education.

 Wheelock exposed to her complex issues that impact families: “Like so many people, I was functioning in a narrow world of suburban privilege,” says Rogers. “Beginning with my very first class at Wheelock, the Media Institute in the summer of 2012, my eyes were opened to complex layers of poverty, homelessness, sexism, and racism, which, combined with multiple toxic stressors can pile up on families and create webs of despair.”

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 Rogers learned about Wheelock from Early Childhood Professor Diane Levin, who is a well-known researcher and author in the field of children, play and media. Levin and Wheelock endorsed Rogers’s book Kids Under Fire, a handbook for families to manage technology and media in children's lives in 2010. Two years later, she was accepted to Wheelock's graduate program in Educational Studies with Dr. Levin as her academic advisor and mentor.

Rogers had a life-changing experience while representing Wheelock as a Student Policy Fellow in the office of Representative Mary Keefe from Worcester at the Massachusetts State House in the spring of 2013. She participated in research and the legislative process, in which one vote can impact many children and families.

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 Through her studies, Rogers became an expert at creating timely, meaningful, developmentally appropriate parenting workshops, which she delivers at sites such as the South End Community Health Center in Boston. Additionally, she developed a curriculum for Media Literacy Education, a series of classroom magazines and online tools called Shazam!  For her senior capstone project, Rogers designed a graduate level course called Parenting in the Digital Age, which is being considered for offering at the College.

She thanks her husband, Jim, and her five children between the ages of 16 and 24, who all supported her work at Wheelock and strive to be beacons of hope themselves.

Upon graduation, Rogers seeks a position in family engagement or advocacy that will allow her to champion those without a voice. 

 

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