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September 29, 1999
SUSAN PRAEGER RECEIVES WSU PRESIDENTIAL
AWARD FOR FACULTY EXCELLENCE IN SERVICE
Susan Praeger, Ed.D., professor of nursing at Wright State University, has received Wright State University's Presidential Award for Faculty Excellence in Service. The university recognized Praeger for her service and leadership to, among others, Five Points Elementary School in Fairborn, the National Consortium of School Nurse Educators, and the Ohio Adolescent Advisory Committee.Praeger views the nursing profession and her own commitment to service as a "call and response."
"Sometimes there is literally a call for help that we respond to," says Praeger, who joined the WSU faculty in 1980 and won the Presidential Award for Teaching Excellence in 1988. "But sometimes it is us making the call, and the community meets our needs."
Fourteen years ago, Praeger, a school nurse practitioner, began volunteering at Five Points Elementary School in Fairborn. She assisted one nurse serving 1,300 students at the state's largest elementary school. Praeger applied for and received funding from the Ohio Department of Health to establish one of the first school-based health centers in Ohio. The collaboration she initiated and continues to direct provides immunization clinics, mental health services, asthma education programs and dental health programs to the underserved students and families of Five Points. It also gives Wright State students the opportunity to work in a school-based health center and experience the value of community service.
Last year, more than 25 Wright State students enrolled in Praeger's "Community Service Learning: A Camp Experience," to staff the Dayton Area Diabetes Association's Camp KO-MAN-SHE, a weeklong residential camp for children with special needs. Praeger's practice of direct care at the local level empowers individuals to make good decisions and families to make a difference in their communities.
"I'm a more fulfilled faculty member because I'm pulling together what I know in my field and putting it to use in teaching, applying it in service and testing and expanding upon it in scholarship," Praeger says.
