Peru State College (PSC) recently announced that two area teachers, Danielle Gostanzik of Bellevue and Elizabeth Weber of Rock Port, Mo., have been named 2012 Boxley Scholars.
    The distinction includes a scholarship covering full tuition, fees and books for Peru State’s entire Master of Science in Education degree, 19-month online cohort program, which involves a group of students who enroll and progress through the graduate program together, creating a community in which they collaborate on projects and extend their support to one another.
    The Boxley Scholarship is designed specifically for practitioners, those already in the classroom making an impact on students every day
    The awards are made possible because of the generosity of Peru State alum Ken Boxley of Beverly Hills, Calif. Boxley is chairman of the Board of the American Asian Association, Inc., a long distance telephone company linking the continental United States with several countries in Asia.
    Weber is employed by a Statewide Voluntary Preschool Program with the Sidney (Iowa) Community School District. She previously worked for the Statewide Voluntary Preschool Program in the Hamburg (Iowa) School District where she also served as a substitute teacher.
    Weber earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Peru State in 2004 and has teaching endorsements in physical education (K-6 and 7-12), coaching and early childhood. She said she plans to use her master’s degree to become an early childhood education consultant where she can serve many children, families and school districts in the surrounding area.
    Gostanzik has taught fifth and sixth grade at Twin Ridge Elementary School in Bellevue for the past three years.
    Gostanzik earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Minnesota State University-Moorhead in 2009.