Christine Vonder Haar, the coordinator of Ferris State University’s English Education
program, has been named the 2018 recipient of the Michigan Council of Teachers of English’s Charles Carpenter Fries Award.
This honor, the longest-standing award for the council, seeks to recognize outstanding English educators for their admirable dedication to the profession and distinguished career efforts toward the advancement of teaching English. Vonder Haar began her instruction at Ferris in 1986, receiving two Fulbright scholarships before advancing her career in service as a high school administrator in the St. Louis, Missouri area in 2000. She returned to Ferris, in 2005, and continues to serve the university as an English professor and English Education program coordinator.
“I am overwhelmed by the council’s recognition,” Vonder Haar said. “It is a humbling, but important reminder and affirmation that what I do every day in the classroom and on campus with Ferris’ English Education students has meaning, is lasting and will serve, in ways I may never know, the students who will be our next generation of English language arts teachers, school leaders and champions of literacy.”
Vonder Haar received the Charles Carpenter Fries Award at the MCTE’s fall conference,
held at the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center in East Lansing on Friday, Oct. 19.
The Michigan Council of Teachers of English was founded in 1924 and is the state’s
affiliate of the National Council of Teachers of English. The council provides professional
development for English language arts teachers and English Education professors throughout
Michigan.
PHOTO CAPTION: English Professor Christine Vonder Haar, the coordinator of Ferris
State University’s English Education program, received the Charles Carpenter Fries
Award from the Michigan Council of Teachers of English on Friday, Oct. 19 in East
Lansing. (Photo credit: MCTE)