Dr. Mary Vetere

Dr. Vetere is such an inspiring, upstanding and sincere professional. She is a warm-hearted, positive and a very well respected individual. She is the department chair and a professor who teaches six credits. She teaches both Field Based Child Development and Family Community Partnership class. These are blocked together along with an ELL course.

When she was asked what she is most proud about regarding those courses she stated “We were recognized by the state in the development of the Diversity block so I am proud of the work that we put it in.” She also shared that how she really liked that the students who are at the sophomore level are placed in three diverse settings which include New Castle Head Start, Pittsburgh Head Start (linguistically diverse as well) and lastly Mohawk which is a rural area that is socioeconomic diverse. She explained what she enjoyed by saying “the first day they dress so professional and so excited and they go in and experience the joy of 3 and 4 year olds and to me that is my piece of heaven. Then, all of a sudden they say, I wanted to be a teacher because I like children but it’s so much more. It is the experience of witnessing that “ah-ha” moment.” Vetere loved seeing the student’s growth from the beginning of the semester to the end of the semester and how they begin to use teacher vocabulary or academic language. 

She continued by stating “they start thinking less about themselves and more about their students.” Vetere shared that in tandem with field is the family class where the students develop a family engagement plan. This is one of the projects that the students complete in the class which allows the student to understand how they would engage the family with the education of the child. For this project, the students are given a fictitious school district and then from that they create a plan with activities that go to the families so that they can work with them at home as well as what activities will bring the families into the school. This project also enlightens the families as to the value of how and why family engagement is necessary for the academic achievement of their child. At first the students struggle, but then they begin Head Start where they are able to connect with the teachers and families. The students are able to connect what they learn at school to what they see in practice. 

Dr. Vetere said that some of the best success stories is when she goes into a school district in which she is supervising and she hears a voice say “Dr. Vetere, is that you?” She explained that when she turns around to see who said that she sees that it is one of her former students. She said “that is when I can see success, especially when they sit down and talk to me about what it’s like to be a teacher and what they learned.” She used to do a lot with puppetry in the classroom and at times the former students reports that she uses puppetry in her teaching as well and being an advocate for family engagement in their classroom. She is able to see and hear about all the things that the student learned from the ELEC program and how it is implemented into their own classroom. 

Some of Dr. Vetere’s interests include NCIS, Steeler football, and ballroom dancing with her husband as well as beginning tango. Her and her husband travel and spend time with their five grandchildren. She said “that’s the best job ever.” When she was asked what she most appreciated about SRU she explained that SRU is like her family from the students to the faculty to her fellow chairpersons and how they are always there for support and friendship. She really shared how much she appreciated individuals at SRU truly care about her as a person and she loves the family atmosphere. Dr. Vetere’s background allowed her to grow her career and began teaching workshops which led her to find great satisfaction working with adult learners. She explained that at the college level she is able to connect her love for people along with education while being challenged in a positive way by the students who are always teaching her new things. Dr. Vetere expressed how much teachers have to handle now such as high stake testing, money etc. and can cause teachers to get weighed down. She stated that if she could have one superpower it would be to impress upon her students to always teach from the heart.