Michael E. Martinez Prize for Outstanding Research and Service: Osman Umarji

At the UCI School of Education's 2019 Doctoral Student Recognition Ceremony, Associate Professor Stephanie Reich introduced the Michael E. Martinez Prize for Outstanding Research and Service.

Text of Remarks

In 2013, the School established the Michael E. Martinez Prize for Outstanding Research and Service. This annual award commemorates the scholarly and professional achievements of the late Michael E. Martinez, Professor of Education at the University of California, Irvine, from 1992 through 2012 - "Michael E. Martinez - A Lifetime of Service."  As a scholar, Professor Martinez is remembered for his significant contributions to our understandings of cognitive processes and the malleability of intelligence, and how these understandings could be applied to student learning. He is also remembered for the kindness and collegiality that he embodied. In his honor, this award is given to a doctoral student who demonstrates superior scholarship, intellectual curiosity, and high levels of professionalism, service and collaboration with fellow students and/or faculty. 

I’d like to invite Mrs. Stephanie Martinez to come forward to present the award to this year’s honoree.

​This year’s second Michael E. Martinez Prize for Outstanding Educational Research and Service goes to Osman Umarji.

Osman is a fifth year student in Human Development in Context. He will complete his dissertation during the summer of 2019. His dissertation is focused on motivational beliefs and how these beliefs are related to academic achievement, academic choices, college major selection and occupational choice. He is particularly interested in role these beliefs play in students’ performance in and decisions about STEM subjects. His publication in the Contemporary Educational Psychology focused on patterns of math and English self-concepts as motivation for college major selection Other papers that are currently under review have examined the role of feedback in constructing math self-concepts. 

Osman is an excellent teacher and committed member of our School community. He has taken a leadership role in organizing student led seminars on different topics. Together with another student, he created and taught a new version of our undergraduate statistics course that received among the highest teacher ratings that this course has ever received. He is now teaching a different course at CSULB, which he also developed on his own. In addition, Osman served as the Graduate Student Faculty representative for ADSE for two years and volunteer in the DECADE program for several activities. 
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Mrs. Michael Martinez & Osman Umarji