As a professor in the School of Education and Human Services (SEHS), Toni Walters taught graduate students in the Reading and Language Arts department for 22 years. Her teaching effectiveness has been recognized by a number of awards, including Oakland University's Teaching Excellence Award in 1997 and the Guardian Award by the National Black Child Development Institute in 2008. When past students heard that Walters was retiring in 2011, they wanted to do something that had as much impact on others as she had on them. Twenty-six OU alumni, faculty and staff came together on August 6, 2011 to recognize Walter's achievements and contributions to OU, the field of literacy and her career. At this dinner, former students raised $2,000 to create a scholarship in her honor.
The Toni S. and Kenneth Walters Endowed Literacy Scholarship, also named after Walters' late husband, Kenneth, is for undergraduate and graduate students studying literacy. Dr. Walters made a generous donation to permanently endow the award. This past spring, two students received the first Toni S. and Kenneth Walters Student Literacy Awards to assist with tuition and presentation costs at the Children’s Literature Association conference this past June.
Students studying literacy at Oakland University can apply for a Toni S. and Kenneth Walters Student Literacy Award online at oakland.edu/sehs/scholarships/walters. If you would like to learn more about helping the Walters Student Literacy Scholarship grow, please contact the School of Education and Human Services at sehs@oakland.edu.
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| Dr. Toni S. and Kenneth Walters |