Pepperdine News and Events

Assistant Professor of Education Contributing to Academic and Local Communities

Dr. Jeanmarie Hamilton Boone, assistant professor of education at the Pepperdine University Graduate School of Education and Psychology (GSEP), recently presented at two major education conferences: the Hawaii International Conference on Education (HICE) in January, and the California Association of Bilingual Education (CABE) Conference in February. At both conferences, Hamilton Boone presented working papers on research she has done in the area of cultural competence.

"HICE provided me valuable feedback from an international perspective, and CABE provided me the local perspectives from colleagues and others in California who are interested in bilingual education issues." she said. Hamilton Boone was also recently awarded a $5,000 faculty scholarship to conduct a study examining beginning teachers' perceptions of cultural competence.

Hamilton Boone has also been actively publishing, having had an article entitled "Does Religious Behavior Predict Academic Success for English Learners?" published in the Journal of Education and Human Development in 2007, and another entitled "Standardized Tests: Unfair to English Learners" under review by the Bilingual Research Journal.

In addition, Hamilton Boone holds weekend community workshops for the literacy department at Corona Public Library so she can stay connected to those most in need. Attendees range in age, career, and literacy competence, though many are adult or English as a Second Language (ESL) students with low literacy skills. The highly interactive workshops cover issues such as basic grammar, figures of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs), punctuation and capitalization, and sentence structure.

She has also hosted workshops on job-interviewing techniques, which include topics such as what the interviewer is thinking, answering questions successfully, competency-based interviews, and resume building. Hamilton Boone even conducts mock interviews and showcases model resumes so that at the close of each workshop students leave with an end product. She then welcomes attendees to follow-up with her any time in the future if they would like additional advice on their resumes or writing.

"When I think of the work that I do with the Corona Public Library Literacy Group, I think of many English learners and others who never had a chance to educate themselves," said Hamilton Boone. "But now that their children are grown or in school full-time, these adults are endeavoring to acquire the basics. Many attend my workshops to sharpen their skills; some come to prepare for their first job interview. Some are high school upper-classmen; some are women who have been stay-at-home moms for years; and some have been laid off work and are trying to get back in the game. I work directly with each population."

Hamilton Boone's public service doesn't stop there. Last year she started a weekend tutoring program at the Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church. She assembled a group of International Baccalaureate students from Centennial High School in Corona, California committed to volunteering for several hours each week, and together they assist the underprivileged youth in Riverside, California.

"I see the tutoring we do at Allen Chapel as God's work; we minister to the academic needs of vulnerable children who might otherwise be neglected and drop out of school," Hamilton Boone explained. "Some of God's chosen preach to save souls, some minister to medical or psychological needs. We minister to the learning needs of socio-economically disadvantaged children by working to mend the deficits they experience in their classrooms."