At the time William VanEmburg was recognized in spring 2016, his bio and background information for why he received the Coppler Award were as follows:
“William is a junior at
IUP, pursuing a double major in both early childhood/special education and
disability services.
“His nominator, an undergraduate classmate at IUP, wrote that
William is ‘extremely passionate and devoted to raising awareness for many
different causes related to disability.’ Some of the reasons for which William was
nominated for this year’s award include the following:
“As a freshman, William joined IUP’s chapter of
Best Buddies, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating one-to-one
friendship, job opportunities, and leadership development for individuals with
intellectual and developmental disabilities. During his freshman year, he served
in the position of membership coordinator. In his sophomore year, he was elected
to president. Now, as a junior, he is serving in his second year as president of
IUP’s Best Buddies.
“This year, William helped run ‘Spread the Word
to End the Word,’ a Best Buddies initiative aimed at stopping the cultural use
of the negative word ‘retarded.’ He sold t-shirts and developed an interactive
event called ‘Lend a Hand in Stopping the R Word.”
“Notably, William is collaborating presently with
another undergraduate IUP student on applying for a grant through the Emerging
Student Leader Grant Award. With this grant, they would propose to develop a student-run
Disability Awareness Resource Center within on-campus housing. The goal of this
proposed center would be to serve as a multifunctional space to be utilized by
students who have disabilities and/or are interested in disability issues. The
space would house informational resources, and would ideally serve as a
stimulus to further advance disability awareness within the IUP community.
“William was also part of an undergraduate
research team last year that focused on how having a peer mentoring program at
the college level might benefit students with autism. With his team, William
presented on this project at the 2015 IUP Undergraduates Scholar Forum, and won
first place for Outstanding Presentation. William and his team then went on to
present at the Council for Exceptional Children statewide conference in
Pennsylvania, and then again nationally at the CEC Teacher Education Division
conference in Arizona. William and his team are continuing their research
efforts this semester, as they’re working on a case study and attempting to
have their work published.
“This semester, William transitioned from serving
as president of Alpha Phi Omega (a service fraternity) in order to take on an
opportunity with Community Living and Learning as a relief worker. This entails
working at a variety of group homes for individuals with disabilities. He
assists these individuals with their daily living skills, encourages them to be
independent, and, most importantly, acts as an advocate for them.
“William also regularly participates in Admitted
Student Days at IUP, where he shares his experiences and promotes both
the early childhood/special education and the disability services majors.
“For all of these reasons, William has been named the sixth
annual recipient of the Ray Coppler Disability Awareness Award, for the
2015–16 academic year. He has demonstrated exemplary contributions to
disability education, awareness, and inclusiveness at IUP and the greater
community.”