On April 23rd Vaunie Graulty received the 2018 Barbara Kenefick Award for Service from Board President Susan Cole Ross
“I’m not sure that there is anyone who has made as many new learning specialists from the Berkshires and beyond feel so welcome and supported at conferences and regional meetings as our 2018 Barbara Kenefick Award for Service recipient LeVaun Graulty.
Vaunie started with NEALS at its inception attending the very first meeting and almost every meeting that followed. Becoming our secretary in 2011, she is now our first Mentor of Regional Directors. In this latest role she has, with intelligence and grace, led our regional directors in creating the close community for learning specialists that is the hallmark of NEALS. And I must add, in a personal note of gratitude, that I cannot imagine how I wrote this speech, my first in 7 years, that did not benefit from her thoughtful and impeccable editing. We can thank her friend and my co-writer Kara Ashley.
Vaunie is particularly well-versed in disability accommodations and the laws around the ADA as applied in independent schools. She joined Miss Halls School in 1981 and became the Director of the Academic Skills Center (ASC). Vaunie has guided generations of girls in developing clearer understandings of themselves as learners coached coached each in composing a personal letter to their teachers, explaining her unique traits, strengths, and needs as a learner. Such self-determination! In her own words: "I guide students to develop academic confidence, strategies and skills. Equally important is helping them to discover their best ways of learning, their cognitive strengths. We take students and their learning seriously in the ASC, but we also have a lot of fun!”
Vaunie and Barbara Kenefick worked side by side as colleagues at Miss Halls and enjoyed decades of friendship. Barbara trusted Vaunie completely as a professional and delighted in their relationship. Like Barbara, Vaunie has been a mentor, a trainer, and a pioneer in providing appropriate services for students with learning disabilities throughout her career.
So it is with a full heart, missing Barbara and appreciating her friend, that the Board hereby awards Vaunie Graulty with the 2018 Barbara Kenefick Award for Service.”
~ Susan Cole Ross