The Park University Alumni Association has awarded it’s Torchlighter Award to Blanche Sosland, Ph.D., a Kansas City, Missouri, resident. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the ceremony was held virtually on Sept. 17.
This award is given to honor individuals who have made significant, long-standing contributions and commitment to Park University, whether alumni, faculty or friend.
A lifelong ambassador for education, Sosland spent most of her teaching career at the college and university level, including 21 years at Park, where she also served as chair of the Department of Education (now the School of Education).
Sosland is a staunch advocate for children, having taught in early childhood, middle school and Head Start classrooms. Her areas of expertise include diagnosis and remediation of ready problems in the classroom and the identification, evaluation and intervention for twice-exceptional children (those who are both gifted and learning disabled).
In 2019, she authored “Banishing Bullying Behavior: A Call to Action from Early Childhood through Senior Adulthood.” The book is an in-depth exploration of the various types of bullying: physical, verbal, emotional, cyber and electronic, and the devastating, lifelong effect they have on their victims.
