Listen in on this very interesting podcast, where we have a different format where myself and our guest co-host Dr. Garth Tymeson (Emeritus Professor @ UW-La Crosse) had several generations of APE professionals on the podcast for a short time to discuss their experiences with the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) personnel development grant. More specifically, the purpose of this grant was to discuss the significant impacts of the longstanding OSEP personnel development grant programs on APE throughout the US, the current opportunities for higher education faculty and prospective students, and the need for more APE higher education faculty to submit OSEP grant proposals. Dr. Tymeson gathered a group for this podcast that represents 5 “generations” with OSEP ancestry and DNA, who have and will continue to impact the APE profession and countless students with disabilities' lives. These "generations" who had received OSEP funding were represented by:
Dr. Ron French (Emeritus Professor @ Texas Woman's University)
Dr. Lisa Silliman-French (Emeritus Professor @ Texas Woman's University)
Dr. Manny Felix (Professor @ Winona State University)
Dr. Brock McMullen (Assistant Professor @ UW-La Crosse)
Julia May (Current Master's Scholar @ UW-La Crosse)
If you are interested in getting your Master's in APE with OSEP grant funding, please know that there are graduate programs out there, such as UW-La Crosse, Cal State Chico, Oregon State University, Texas Woman’s University, Western Michigan University (online), and others. Programs range from one to two years and most require full-time, on-campus study. For APE higher education faculty interested in pursuing an OSEP grant, they should know that the OSEP grant program is available every year, and funding is for 5 years and this year there were two separate grant competitions for minority serving universities and others. In addition, the amount of money and the number of grants funded this year were the highest in the past several years.
