Scholarship Update

HVLA awarded two scholarships last year to promote professional development among our members. Shana Hitt was one of the recipients and shares her experience below. 

For years my desire was to become an “official” school librarian. Although I have several years of experience working at a public, academic, and school library, I lack the credentials necessary to work in a public school as a certified Library Media Specialist. While making my list of both professional and personal goals at the close of 2012, “becoming a certified school librarian” was included. I applied for the HVLA scholarship and was thrilled, delighted, and ecstatic when I received the news that I was a winner of the award. I was so overwhelmed by the many positive emotions that hit me at once, I am sure that I used at least ten adjectives in one sentence when e-mailing my thank you note to Kerry Roeder.

Today I am even more thankful for the award because it has come at a time when I need it most. Although at this current time I am not a school librarian, I am studying for numerous exams, taking a course in school librarianship at Queens College and expecting to begin a special education course in the coming months. That is a total of two courses and six exams! After taking workshops and other courses over the years I am halfway to reaching my goal to become a certified Library Media Specialist. I would like to once again thank HVLA for helping me reach this goal.