2022 Love of Learning Award Recipients

Joel Berends and Alyssa LaBerge (Fredericks) have been selected as a recipients of this year’s Love of Learning award. Each year, through a competitive process, Phi Kappa Phi distributes two hundred Love of Learning Awards, at $1,000 each, to members who have completed their bachelor’s degree, for the purpose of continuing their studies or professional development. 

Joel Berends is a doctoral student in the Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Education Department at Michigan State University. He works with secondary English interns and teaches courses on professional practice, social foundations of education, and critical literacies. Joel is also an Editorial Assistant for English Teaching: Practice & Critique  and a Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) and American Institute for Indonesian Studies (AIFIS) Fellow. Joel previously taught high school language arts and social studies in both the U.S and Indonesia.

Joel will use the funds to support presentations of his work at the The Bergamo Conference on Curriculum Theory and Classroom Practice and the National Council of Teachers of English conference.

Alyssa LaBerge, M.S., is a third-year doctoral student in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University. Alyssa is a graduate research assistant and Project Manager for the Juvenile Risk Assessment Team. Alyssa’s primary research interests are the intersection of the juvenile justice and child welfare systems and the prevention of juvenile delinquency among maltreated youth.

Alyssa will be using funds from the Phi Kappa Phi Love of Learning Award to present her research, “Child Welfare Involved Youth: Predicting Adolescent Juvenile Justice System Involvement” at a national conference.