Cynthia Orona, a University of Arkansas assistant professor of childhood education, was one of 30 educators from across the United States to participate in a summer institute sponsored by the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators.

The Service, Teaching and Research Program, dubbed STaR, accepted representatives of 27 colleges and universities for the weeklong program in June in Park City, Utah. The educators worked in groups based on their teaching duties and research interests. They also worked together reviewing manuscripts of academic papers.

Orona was chosen as a STaR Fellow last December. The National Science Foundation funds the STaR program as an early career, one-year induction program for mathematics educators.

“Participation in the STaR Program’s summer institute provided me the opportunity to see that, although I am the only tenure-track faculty member at the University of Arkansas to teach the elementary mathematics methods course, I now have a new ‘family’ upon which I can communicate and collaborate with in the future,” Orona said. “We were all brought together with one goal of getting our careers off to the right start, and that mission has been accomplished by allowing us to create a network of fellow mathematics educators upon which we share experiences in order to learn and grow in our field.”

The institute provided an opportunity to learn about the teaching of mathematics education beyond her own classroom, Orona said, and gave her a perspective of what others are doing in their classrooms and things she may want to change. The Fellows made arrangements to keep in touch and meet again to continue work on small projects initiated during the institute.

“Having the opportunity to work with others who teach the methods courses and gather resources to help improve our courses was such a great help, and something that would have been difficult, if not impossible, to do alone as individuals,” she said.

The Fellows will meet in February in Orlando, Fla., at the association’s annual conference.

Orona joined the faculty of the College of Education and Health Professions in August 2013. She received a doctorate from Oklahoma State University and taught in public schools for more than 11 years.