Department Welcomes Incoming Ph.D. Class of 19

With an applicant pool of 107 and an acceptance-of-offer rate of 80%, the UC Irvine Department of Education welcomed an incoming fall 2011 class of 19 new Ph.D. in Education students.

The incoming class of 14 women and five men are pursuing their doctoral studies in one of three specialization. Six have selected the Learning, Cognition, and Development specialization, and another nine will be studying Educational Policy and Social Context. Four have chosen the Language, Literacy, and Technology specialization.

The new doctoral students arrive with a diversity of educational and professional experiences. Undergraduate majors included Anthropology, Art, Biochemistry, Child Development, Comparative Religion, Economics, English Language Education, Education, Math, Materials Science & Engineering, Psychology, Sociology, and Special Education. Undergraduate studies were completed at Beijing University of Technology; Columbia University; CSUs Long Beach, Los Angeles, and Northridge; Knox College; Mount St. Mary's College; Notre Dame University; Pusan National University (Korea); Tufts; UCs Irvine, Los Angeles, Riverside, and Santa Cruz; USC; and University of Washington.   

Twelve of the incoming students hold Master's degrees in fields such as Anthropology, Child Development, Education, Film & Television, Law, Music, Policy & Management, Psychology, Public Administration, Special Education, and Sociology. Their graduate level institutions include Brigham Young; CSUs Long Beach, San Bernardino, and San Jose; Harvard University; Lesley University; Pusan University (Korea); UC Irvine; UCLA; University of Kansas; and University of Washington. 

Incoming students have sought out employment, research, or community service opportunities in Ireland, Argentina, Mexico, Niger, Japan, Korea, Spain, and the Czech Republic. They have language competence in French, Hausa, Hebrew, Japanese, Korea, Mandarin, Russian, and Spanish.

Employment experience for members of the incoming class includes K-12 educator, college lecturer, attorney-at-law, legal assistant, researcher, marketing consultant, public relations director, events coordinator, manager, NHK Japan news producer, and industrial engineer. Their volunteer contributions encompass tutoring, training, research, and fund raising for organizations such as the Innocence Project, LA's BEST, Habitat for Humanity, Furry Friends for Juvenile Hall, Big Brothers-Big Sisters, the Community Justice Project, Amigos de la Americas, the Mexican-American Community Association, Adopt-a-Family, and Refugee Women's Alliance.

The 19 new doctoral students are part of this fall's 68-member Ph.D. in Education program.