The Indiana University School of Education awarded its 31st annual Distinguished Alumni Awards on October 3rd to three alums who have made their mark on civil rights, higher education development, and unique methods of teaching, respectively. The awards honor those who hold an IU School of Education degree and have made a lasting impact through their work since leaving the School.

Senior Vice President of the NAACP, Dennis C. Hayes, BS’74, was honored with one of the awards this year. Hayes served as the interim president and CEO of the nation’s leading civil rights organization until this summer. Hayes grew up in Indianapolis. After earning his degree from the School, he earned a JD from the IU School of Law-Indianapolis and made his mark as a civil rights attorney. The NAACP hired him as a lawyer 23 years ago.

Rodney P. Kirsch, MS’82, Senior Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations at Penn State University, was awarded a Distinguished Alumni Award. While earning his master’s degree in the Higher Education and Student Affairs program, Kirsch held an assistantship with the IU Alumni Association and volunteered in the College of Arts and Sciences Development Office, positions he said directed his career in a new path. He went to Drake University, then California-Berkeley, where he directed the largest public university campaign in the country at that time, returned to Bloomington and the IU Foundation, before joining Penn State in 1996.

A teacher known for innovative methods and an effort to uncover a student’s true talents, Hazel R. Tribble is the other award recipient. Tribble, MS’75, is a teacher at the Key Learning Community in the Indianapolis Public Schools.  Key is based on the “multiple intelligences” theory, and instruction is designed to allow students to develop all of these “intelligences.”  At Key, Hazel is known for teaching through “pods,” which are special elective classes.  She encourages the students who choose these classes to look at how they learn and live and how their learning should transform the way they live in the present and the future.

You can hear from the award winners in this short video from the ceremony.