SEA honored with Golden Gavel Award

This year’s Trine Student Golden Gavel Award, recognizing the most outstanding student organization on Trine’s campus, was presented to the Student Education Association on Saturday, Nov. 5.

The Student Education Association, one of the few professional organizations on campus, provides education students the opportunity to gain professional development and skills that are pertinent in the classroom setting.  It also allows the students to give back to the community by hosting events such as Read Across America, Outreach to Teach, and the Tunnel to Towers 5K.

Its 30 members earned 288 philanthropy hours and raised $1,200 for the Tunnel to Towers Foundation last year. 

“This award is a great way to highlight one of the few professional organizations on campus that continuously gives back to the community. I believe we were honored in this way due to our involvement not only on campus, but off it as well,” said Mikaela Gerba, SEA president. “Moreover, SEA provides its members with countless opportunities to grow networking and communication skills, as well as professional development outside of the classroom experience.”

 “As advisor of SEA, I am very proud of the leadership and professionalism that these future teachers exude,” said Ashley Overton, assistant professor in the Franks School of Education. “The Student Education Association has a desire to help the surrounding communities and schools, which is a true testament to the type of students we have here at Trine University.  The Golden Gavel Award showcased SEA's numerous accomplishments and recognized the students’ hard work ethic, which made meaningful impacts through the numerous projects and outreach opportunities. 

“The passion we see from the Student Education Association is definitely a ‘Trine Thing’ and I am absolutely honored as their advisor to play a small part in the lives of future educators.” 

“The SEA stood out to us because they are the largest organization that serves the education majors at Trine,” said Devin Gingerich, Trine Student Government president. “With this size they form a network among current students and alumni that helps advance current students into teaching positions while at Trine and once graduating from Trine. We were impressed by this network and what a valuable resource the SEA is to education majors at Trine.”

The Student Government Oversight Committee reviewed all applications and then selected two finalists. The winner was decided through a vote by the whole of Student Government.