"My most rewarding long-term experience as an educator happens every year I watch first-graders embark on a journey to become confident readers," says Minerva Van Arsdale, who teaches first grade at Velma Linford Elementary School in Laramie. Mrs. Van Arsdale, who is currently enrolled in her school district's Reading Recovery Literacy program, has authored papers and presentations on reading-related topics for the Wyoming State Reading Council and for the International Reading Association Conference held in San Antonio in 1991. In 1995, she contributed "Mrs. Van's Story: An Exploration of the Meaning Changes in a Teacher's Professional Life" to the Forty-fourth Yearbook of the National Reading Conference. In addition to creating the first- and fourth-grade Peer Tutoring program, Mrs. Van Arsdale also chairs her school's Site Base Council and Friday Night Live, a fifth- and sixth-grade all-night reading incentive program.
1969 Southwestern College, B.A.
