Awards/Scholarships
Scholarship List
Carol Dochen Professional Development Award
Deadline: 9-8-2023
CASP Scholarship Awards are available to members who are currently working or researching in the fields of developmental education and/or learning support.
Carol Dochen served as the director of the Student Learning Assistance Center (SLAC) at Texas State University. She actively participates in state, regional, and national professional organizations for both developmental education and prelaw advising as a mentor, presenter, author, and consultant. She was awarded the Mariel M. Muir Excellence in Mentoring Award in 2019, the Texas State University System Regent’s Staff Excellence Award in 2020, and the First-Year Student Advocate Award from the National Resource Center at the First Year Experience (FYE) conference in 2020. She has been employed at TXST since 1974. Carol served as TADE Past President, 1982–1984, and served as CASP Historian.
The award winner will receive a check as well as recognition at the CASP conference and on the CASP website. The award amount varies from year to year.
CASP Best Program of the Year Award
Deadline: 9-8-2023
CASP is pleased to present an award to a distinguished Texas Best Program who is in the fields of developmental education and/or learning support. All current CASP members, may nominate any current Texas college or university program.
Gladys R. Shaw Professional Development Award
Deadline: 9-8-2023
high school sweetheart before graduation, she was unable to accept the award. That did not stop her from pursuing her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Although Shaw worked in the business world, she found her passion in developmental education, and her excellent work was honored with many recognitions including being named CLADEA Fellow. She served as TADE President and Treasurer, and was also subsequently Treasurer of both CRLA and NADE, and CASP Conference Treasurer in 2009. Shaw wrote and co-authored many books, chapters, journal articles and other publications which enriched the field of developmental education, but she also mentored many educators not only in Texas but across the country.
Developmental Educator of the Year Award
Deadline: 9-8-2023
CASP is pleased to present an award to a distinguished Texas faculty or staff member who is either currently working or researching in the fields of developmental education and/or learning support. All current TxCRLA or TxNOSS members may nominate any current TxCRLA or TxNOSS member.
Claire-Ellen Weinstein Award
Deadline: 9-8-2023
Model of Strategic Learning was extremely useful for teachers of all levels as they developed educational programs and diagnostic assessments in schools, colleges, and business/government settings. She wrote over 100 publications, including an assessment called the Learning And Study Skills Inventory (LASSI), which is used in more than 65% of the colleges and universities in the country. Her learning strategies course at the University of Texas at Austin won recognition because of its highly successful intervention and retention-to-graduation of at-risk students.
CASP Lifetime Achievement Award
Deadline: 9-8-2023
The CASP Lifetime Achievement Award is designed to recognize an individual for outstanding contributions to the field of developmental education and/or to the field of learning assistance and to TxCRLA and/or TxNOSS.
The award winner will receive a plaque as well as recognition at the CASP conference and on the CASP website.
Award winners must meet the following qualifications:
(2) The applicant must have been a member of TxCRLA and/or TxNOSS for at least ten years and have made significant contributions to either or both of the organizations.
(3) Current TxCRLA or TxNOSS Board Members are ineligible for this award.
Ann B. Faulkner Professional Development Award
Deadline: 9-8-2023
2007. The Writing/Languages Coordinator of the University of Texas Tutoring and Learning Center Virginia Heidemann used her scholarship to pursue her doctoral studies in 2006.
Previous Award Winners

Giovanna Lorenzi Pinto, M.A.
Giovanna is currently a doctoral student in the Developmental Education Program at Texas State University. She is an international student, having earned a Master of Science in Agribusiness, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Administration from Sao Paulo State University in Brazil.
Her research interests include motivational factors that affect rural students’ decisions to enter postsecondary education. She is a doctoral research assistant in a grant funded learning frameworks project and is also an instructional assistant in a first-year experience course.
Texas State University's Common Experience
The Common Experience partners with each division of Texas State University to engage the entire university community in a conversation around a single theme. This year’s theme is Systemic Thinking, which encourages events focused on helping students navigate systems that may not have been created with their best interests in mind.
During the fall and spring semesters, the program offers an array of diverse events that support student development, including film screenings, philosophy dialogues, panel discussions, exhibitions, conferences, and performances in music, theater and dance. Among these is the LBJ Distinguished Lecture Series, named for Texas State’s most famous alumnus, Lyndon Baines Johnson, 36th President of the United States. The series fulfills his 1973 promise to bring important leaders to the university to share their philosophies, perspectives, and experiences. Recent speakers of this series have been Michelle Obama, Common, Maya Angelou, Dr. Temple Grandin, and Laurie Hernandez.


Dr. Walter "Wally" Barnes
Dr. Walter Barnes—better known to many CASP attendees as Wally. From 2003–2017, he directed the Reading Center and the Developmental Reading Program at Sam Houston State University, while also teaching reading from 2007–2015 as an adjunct professor for the department of Urban Education at the University of Houston Downtown. He also served from 2019–2020 as the director of the Academic Success Center for Sam Houston State University’s Woodlands Center.
Dr. Barnes has been an active CASP member by volunteering his time and efforts serving on endless committee assignments, chairing and participating in special interest groups, reviewing conference proposals, presenting conference sessions, serving as conference site chair, and hosting special events such as hospitality room events and raffle scholarship prize giveaways for both our state and national organizations.