Finch will graduate with a bachelor\u2019s degree in special education intervention specialist during Saturday\u2019s 2023 Spring Commencement.<\/p>\n
Dr. Dawn Sandt, an associate professor in the Department of Teacher Education, said she expects wonderful things from her former student as a teacher.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have the greatest confidence that Alec will make a positive impact on the youth he will be teaching,\u201d Sandt said. \u201cHe not only has the aptitude for being a teacher educator, but he also has the attitude.<\/p>\n
I have no doubt that he will also be a leader in his place of employment. He is a problem-solver who is diligent about treating people with patience and respect. It has been an honor to work with Alec during his UToledo career.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finch\u2019s journey as a UToledo student hasn\u2019t been easy. One of his bigger challenges is with reading and writing.<\/p>\n
![\"Headshot](\"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Alec-Finch-STORY.jpg\")
Finch<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cWhat I have done is learned to accept the fact that I struggle with reading and to find ways to navigate around it to still be successful,\u201d he said. \u201cWith writing, I have come very close to overcoming it, but I still often rely on tools such as Grammarly. I am a much better writer now than I ever have been; it came with a lot of practice.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s those personal struggles that have made him more empathetic to the struggles of others, particularly students with special needs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know how many of them feel,\u201d Finch said. \u201cThere are certain things that I do not understand, but I know the feeling behind them. I struggle primarily with reading, so I understand how many students feel.\u201d<\/p>\n
And now as he approaches graduation, he said his journey at UToledo has made him more confident, particularly as a teacher working with younger students.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have obviously become much more knowledgeable on special education and everything that is involved in the field. Most importantly, I feel that I could teach an English class if it was required of me, which I would never have thought possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Alec Finch graduates with a degree in special education intervention specialist during Saturday\u2019s spring commencement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":878,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,69,53,1,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80159"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/878"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80159"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80162,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80159\/revisions\/80162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Graduation](\"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Graduation-Cap_blue-500x500-e1586882554282.png\")