Special education student wins 2018 Dr. Charles Van Riper outstanding college student award

Jan. 22, 2018

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—Megan Foreman, a special education major in the College of Education and Human Development and elementary mathematics major in the College of Arts and Sciences at Western Michigan University, has been selected to receive the 2018 Dr. Charles Van Riper Outstanding College Student Award. The award is given by the Michigan Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) to honor an extraordinary undergraduate student who is a current member of CEC. 

Foreman has shown exceptional academic and teaching ability, mature leadership skills, compassion for others, and passion for helping those with disabilities during her time at Western. Known as the “go to” person for others in the program, she is always willing to put in extra effort to help her peers. She is also an active member of the campus community, involving herself in different organizations, educational experiences and even speaking engagements. 

After excelling in her coursework and practicum at the Juvenile Detention Home in Kalamazoo, she was selected to serve as the long-term sub when her mentor teacher went out on maternity leave during the last eight weeks of school. She sets high standards for herself and teaches her students to do the same. In a letter of support a peer wrote of Foreman, “she consistently exceeds the expectations of her mentor teacher, professors, classmates, and students.” 

She served as president of Kappa Delta Pi: International Honor Society in Education in 2016-17 and is the current president of the Michigan chapter of the Student Council for Exceptional Children Student Board. In her current role, she inspires others to get involved both in the WMU chapter and state chapter of CEC. She works tirelessly to help those with disabilities and shares her joy and passion with others so that they might experience it too. 

Previously, Foreman has experience as a youth development worker with Communities in Schools, as a push-in math tutor at Loy Norrix High School and as a summer math teacher at Western Michigan University. 

She has dedicated herself to her studies, her peers, her students and her passion to help others. The College of Education and Human Development is proud to call her one of our own. 

Foreman will be presented with the Dr. Charles Van Riper Outstanding College Student Award at the 2018 Michigan Council for Exceptional Children’s Conference on Thursday, March 1, 2018 at the DeVos Place Convention Center in Grand Rapids, MI.