Ed.D Student
Education Leadership/Special Education
University of Northern Iowa
from Indonesia
2018 MMEG grantee Puja is working towards her Ed.D in Education Leadership/Special Education Directors at University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, and expects to graduate mid-2019.
Sensitized by her own early difficulties in achieving literacy, Puja chose her post-graduate path motivated by the awareness of the growing number of children with disabilities in public schools, and the current inadequacies in teacher training to address the diversity in learning ability of students in inclusive classrooms.
She plans to return to one of the Indonesian university where she holds a lectureship to improve the training of student teachers so they are better able to teach, and are also more confident of their own abilities to educate those with special needs. Puja aims to promote inclusivity, and help realize the potential of each child, by enhancing the quality of education services for children with special needs through teacher preparation, research and management of public disability services.
In addition, prompted by her experiences in the US, after returning home, Puja intends to devote time and energy to improve the quality of both pre-service and in-service training for teachers. In addition to this, she also will continue to support existing local community-based women’s initiatives for early childhood education, and incorporate life-skills components such as time-management, and how to foster good mental well-being. In the past, to improve the income of local women, Puja has undertaken marketing support for their woven products.
