O Porrajmos Education Society Announces New Board Member and Technical Adviser

O Porrajmos Education Society Announces New Board Member and Technical Adviser

Susan Elizabeth Dunlap graduated from the University of California, Channel Islands in 2006 with a baccalaureate in Liberal Studies; and in 2007 with a Preliminary Multiple Subject Teaching Credential.  Through her undergraduate work, Susan created a multimedia video that focused on discrepancies in the No Child Left Behind Law regarding English Language Learners and the lack of funding and programs needed to help them meet state academic standards.  The video also focused on a family literacy project founded through CSUCI and its partnership with the Hueneme School District, in order to help students and their parents overcome the obstacles laid out by NCLB. During the course of her graduate studies, Dr. Mona Thompson, one of the projects founders, requested her to modify this project into a presentation and to co-present it at the Association of Teacher Educator’s conference in 2007. While teaching in the Pleasant Valley School District in Camarillo, California and securing her full credential, Susan taught 6th grade mathematics and science, and later 5^th grade.  In order to meet the diverse needs of her students, she employed a wide variety of techniques, including many technology-based projects to help her students meet state education standards. 

An enthusiastic consumer and supporter of technology since she was a child, Susan has been employing her lifelong hobby to help others outside of her classroom.  In 2009, Susan began working with Crisis Services of North Alabama as an advocate for domestic violence and sexual assault survivors and their children.  Using her experience as an educator and a tech-savvy individual, she has taught survivors and youth about the various ways people abuse others through the use of a wide variety of devices and programs and how to safeguard themselves in a digital world.  Some of the most intimidating factors about technology, especially to a neophyte, are the complicated terminology and the vast number of unknowns.  One of the goals of Susan’s presentations is to demystify important key terms and explain the intent and functions about various aspects of technology.  Her intent is not only to give people a strong general knowledge about how to protect oneself in the digital world, but to empower people to further educate themselves so that they can be aware of the changing trends.

Susan is proud to be accepted as the new Technology Advisor for the O Porrajmos Education Society, supporting their cause to educate and promote the rights of the Rromani people.  As she stated, “Everyone deserves to have a voice and have that voice heard.  I am a domestic violence survivor advocate and educator, but I am a human advocate first and foremost.  My experiences in my classroom have granted me the privilege to see how so many people of diverse backgrounds bring so many different and brilliant strengths.  My personal responsibility as a teacher is to make sure that each of my student’s voices are heard so that strengths have the chance to stand out.  My personal responsibility as a human is no different.”