Rebecca Molidor, a Frisco resident and doctoral student in TWU’s College of Professional Education, will receive one of four prestigious scholarships given by Texas Woman’s University at the Ninth Annual Virginia Chandler Dykes Leadership Award Luncheon presented by Bank of Texas and Texas Woman’s University, Feb. 17, at noon, at The Belo Mansion and Pavilion. Molidor’s scholarship is sponsored by Geraldine 'Tincy' Miller.

Rebecca Molidor’s passion for teaching can be seen throughout her 25-year career as a public school teacher in Collin County, where her focus has been on supporting individuals who struggle with disabilities, especially those who struggle to read. Now completing her 20 th year in the Frisco I.S.D., Molidor has also worked in Plano, Allen, and Lewisville as a speech-language pathologist. In 1985 she served as the director of the adult literacy program in Frisco. From 2008-09, she served as an adjunct professor at TWU, and at present she works as an educational diagnostician and speech language pathologist with pre-school children in the Frisco I.S.D.

As a doctoral candidate with a 3.95 GPA in the Department of Special Education at Texas Woman’s University, Molidor is working on the analysis of her dissertation in hopes of completing this process by August 2011. A native of Pilot Point, Molidor received her bachelor’s degree in Speech Pathology from North Texas State University and then went on to receive her master’s. It was then she knew she wanted to continue on and work toward her Ph.D.

"It is my goal to help college students, especially those with disabilities, be prepared for careers in public education," added Molidor. "I’ve always analyzed the reasons peers in my classes did not understand the instruction that came easily to me. My career has focused on how brains learn and how to assist individuals who struggle to learn. I’ve worked with individuals with disabilities ages 2 to 30, and these experiences have helped me understand the importance of effective special education instruction at all stages of development."

Molidor has been married for 32 years and has six children, ages 13 to 26. Working full time and raising a family while pursing a Ph.D. has been challenging for Molidor, but TWU’s program has provided her with the flexibility to maintain her job while pursuing her education as TWU does not require students to work on degrees full-time and discontinue employment.

"I don’t think I would have pursued my Ph.D. if I hadn’t received encouragement from the special education faculty members at TWU," added Molidor. As an older returning student, I could not stop working to pursue my education. The faculty members were nurturing rather than threatening and I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to continue my education at TWU as well as to receive the Virginia Chandler Dykes scholarship which will help me complete my dissertation."

In addition to working at a university to help prepare future educators for their careers, Molidor also has dreams of becoming a published author.

Molidor is a member of the Council for Exceptional Children, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Texas Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and National Student Speech-Language-Hearing Association, where she served as national vice president from 1980-81. She has also participated in numerous community service activities.

TWU’s Ninth Annual Virginia Chandler Dykes Leadership Award Luncheon, Feb. 17, at the Belo Mansion and Pavilion, will honor Joel Allison, president and CEO, Baylor Health Care System, as the 2011 recipient of the Virginia Chandler Dykes Leadership Award. For more information, contact Sharon Venable, Community Relations, Texas Woman’s University, 940-898-3851, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or visit http://www.twu.edu/vcd. Seats are $150.

The College Authority opened a Frisco office in January providing a new resource to local families facing the challenges of paying for college.

Founded in 1999 by Bryan Ward, a nationally noted college planning specialist, The College Authority specializes in eliminating the stress of college selection and the financial aid process. Based in Austin, Texas, the company has helped families save tens of thousands of dollars on a four year college education.

The process starts with a free class that explains how colleges operate and what they are looking for in prospective students, and provides families a practical guide they can use to become educated shoppers. Subsequent one-on-one consultations help families put a custom plan in place that will effectively maximize financial aid opportunities and reduce out-of-pocket college expenses. Services include use of a proprietary college-matching tool and completion of all required college financial forms.

Free college planning education seminars are now being offered and families are encouraged to register as soon as possible to begin the process at the beginning of the new semester. To register online for upcoming seminars, please visit www.collegeauthority.com/seminars.

For more information please e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call 214-722-6434.

Frisco ISD Middle Schools announce that many FISD students qualified for either
state or grand recognition in the annual DUKE Talent Identification Program
sponsored by Duke University, which is designed to identify students who excel
academically. The State recognized students do as well or better than half the high
school students who take the ACT or SAT tests and the Grand recognized students
perform at 90 percent or better than their high school counterparts. Some students
also qualified for the Academy enrichment program.

FISD middle schools reported these results:

Clark Middle School:

Qualifying for State Recognition were: Aarushi Aggarwal, Youlim Kim, Eliana Klein,
Apoorva Suryadevara.

Fowler Middle School:

Qualifying for Grand Recognition were: Kate Gallagher, Dugan Goyal, Alberta Lin, and
Vik Shirvaikar. State Recognition went to Grand winners and also to Amber Ackerly,
Carlos Arroyo, Avinash Baskaran, John Blasinggame, Yue Chu, Matthew Couch, Jessica
Cui, Titus Deng, Zach Ford, Chris Jones, Sneha Kannan, Rebecca Lee, Allison Legare,
Janet Li, Vania Liu, Sharanya Moyan, Srija Nalla, Shayla Nebeker, Shannon Pan,
Nicole Rodriguez, Trent Sandland, Luisa Santiago, Divin Sarthak, Sindhu
Senthilkumar, Lei Shen, Keerthana Sivakumar,James Woods,Yan Xu ,Huixi Yu,James Yun
and Jiamin Zhou.

Griffin Middle School:

Qualifying for State Recognition were: McKenna Blair, Taylor Brom, Karen Doviken,
Jolie Guz  Ananya Mallisetti, Jeremy Meyers, Sarah Moore, Morgan Myers, Morgan
Riffe, Cody Strynadka , Jacob Tran, and Cassandra Underly.

Pioneer Heritage Middle School:

Qualifying for State recognition were: Mackenzie Bland, Allyson Calandro, Sydney
Cole, Parker Conley, Sheana Costner, Allan Hu, James Hwang, Andrew Inoue, Amy Lin,
Sloane Moore, Lauren Phillips, Varun Prasad, Oluseye Raymond, Austin Schneider, Lucy
Swan, Joshua Taylor, Kendall Walls, Avery Wertz, Anthony Ye. Students qualifying for
the Academy were MacKenzie Bland, Allyson Calandro, Sydney Cole, Parker Conley,
James Carly, Amy Lin, Samantha Manning, Sloane Moore, Matthew Quejada, Austin
Schneider, Lucy Swan, Joshua Taylor, Avery Wentz.

Roach Middle School:

The following Roach Middle School students qualified for honors with the Duke TIP
2010 Talent Search: Riddhesh Chhatbar qualified for Academy, Devon Fisher qualified
for Center, State Recognition and Grand Recognition, Anton Gridnev qualified for
Academy and State Recognition, Connor Schurig qualified for State Recognition,
Philomena Utsler qualified for Academy and State Recognition, Zeshan Wang qualified
for Center and State Recognition, Clara Zee qualified for Academy and State
Recognition.

Scoggins Middle School:

The following Scoggins Middle School students took part in the Duke TIP and received
a ranking of State Recognition: Makenzie Bradley, Minyoung Chung, Janice Han,
Samantha Heldman, Ryan Holt, Andrew Huang, Colton James, Erin McGee, Destiny Murphy,
Catherine Parish, Claire Rosenbluth, Kylie Wu, and Seokin Yeh.

Stafford Middle School:

Stafford had 30 students participate in the Duke Talent Search. Eight students
received State Recognition Status. The students to receive State Recognition
include: Anabel Adu, Kajal Dayal , Hailey Deres, Katherine Finegan, Kennedy Hughes,
Kyle Khang, Carlos Uccles, and Ryan Willis.

Staley Middle School:

Staley Middle School would like to congratulate and recognize the thirteen students
that participated in the Duke University Talent Search. TheywereRobert Bennett,
Jason Buono, Eryn Butler, Shifra David, Gabriella Deleski, Emma Dibble, Courtney
Erbes, Dagny Franke, Joel Franke, Kaitlin Hambright, Kameron Karanough, Austin Poll,
and Maria Ramirez. Courtney Erbes, Kameron Karanough, and Maria Ramirez not only
participated butqualified for Academy, and Erbes and. Karanough also earned State
Recognition.

Wester Middle School:

Wester announces that Sarah Al-Shalash, Monica Bello, Dillon Crawford, Seth Harbin,
Eric Hill, Bill Kim, Rashmi Movva, and Ashley Rauch qualified for State Recognition

FISD instructor Jennifer Gibson recently administered the National Financial
Challenge to her CTE classes, and 12 of those students scored in the 20th percentile
nationwide.  Of the 76,000 students who participated nationwide, 10 Career and
Technical Education Center students will receive national recognition for their
financial literacy. Two Frisco High School students will also be recognized.

The students include CTE students Joshua Fischer, Mirtha Garnica, Parker Kim, Joel
Lomax, Chase Porter, Lindsey Ripa, Relvin Samal, Connor Smotherman, Justin Stroud,
and Westin Todd. The Frisco High School students are Jordan Allen Lauren Kenny.