Ader, Gundling Earn 2026 SU Outstanding Graduate Student Award
By SU Public Relations
SALISBURY, MD---Hailey Ader and Maxwell Gundling have received the 2026 糖心视频 Outstanding Graduate Student Award.
Hailey Ader
Graduating this semester with an M.S. in mathematics education, Ader, of Califon, NJ, has served as a graduate assistant at SU’s May Literacy Center, working with its director, Dr. Brian Flores, on research regarding the impact of using artificial intelligence in lesson planning, with a focus on teaching literacy. She expanded on that research in her forthcoming manuscript The Impact of an Upper-Level Literacy Course on Pre-Service Teachers’ Pedagogical and Content Knowledge.
For the manuscript, she developed a research project centered on SU’s Elementary Education (ELED) 410: Literacy Assessment and Intervention course in connection with the University’s winter study abroad experience in Costa Rica. Through the study, they analyzed the effectiveness of the class to improve students’ literacy content knowledge and how it adjust their teaching pedagogy in comparison to students who took the same course during their study abroad experience.
Both projects (AI and content knowledge) have been selected for presentation at a nationally peer-reviewed roundtable session at the Literacy Research Association’s annual conference.
In addition, Ader implemented newly designed lesson plans to help education students practice teaching literacy while also meeting the needs of students struggling with comprehensive-based lessons. She also co-taught multiple sections of ELED 410, providing feedback to undergraduate students in preparation for their classroom teaching.
Beyond the classroom, Ader gave back to the community during her time as an SU graduate student, helping to promote and maintain the May Literacy Center’s tutoring program while also fostering connections between local schools, parents, and students, and organizing workshops to help parents advocate for their students in the classroom and learn more about literacy concepts.
She also was a semifinalist for this year’s prestigious Fulbright Student Award. She earned her B.A. in early childhood education from SU in 2024.
“In every aspect of her work — research, teaching, leadership, and service — Hailey embodies the highest ideals of graduate education at 糖心视频,” said Flores, SU associate professor of early and elementary education, her co-nominator along with Dr. Jennifer Bergner, professor of Mathematical Sciences.
Maxwell Gundling
Also graduating this semester, with an M.S. in geographic information systems (GIS) management, Gundling, of Rockville, MD, has served as a graduate assistant for two classes in SU’s Geography and Geosciences Department. During his time as an SU student, he has made seven scholarly presentations, including several with SU faculty.
His primary graduate research project, The Fractured Metropolis: Gentrification, Exclusion, and Spatial Inequality in the Washington-Baltimore Corridor, won the American Association Geographers Council Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Papers in the Middle Atlantic Division.
The project came about due to his desire to merge historical preservation and geographic thinking with modern spatial science. Using GIS as a tool for social inquiry, he analyzed shifting demographics and economic pressures in the region from 2009-2024, focusing on Montgomery County, MD, where he grew up. The results helped identify self-reinforcing inequality within the state and provided recommendations for how to break that cycle.
Furthering his work to bridge the past and present, Gundling led the development of a spatial data infrastructure for the John Lyon Collection of land records from the 17th through 19th centuries at SU’s Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History and Culture. Digitizing the records into modern GIS software, he hopes his work will make those records more easily accessible for current and future generations.
This work extended from his background in anthropology, through which he developed interests in material culture and spatial patterns of human activity. He volunteered with the Lost Towns Project, participating in archaeological fieldwork at historical sites in Anne Arundel County, MD. Through that initiative, he performed a variety of tasks, from analyzing the distribution of historical finds to cleaning artifacts in a laboratory.
Looking beyond his time at SU, Gundling plans to pursue a Ph.D. at Rutgers University, where he has been accepted into the geography program. He earned his B.A. in interdisciplinary studies, with a concentration in anthropology, from SU in 2024.
“Max has excellent potential to serve as a valuable bridge between qualitative and quantitative geographers, an irreplaceable asset to our field,” said his nominator, Dr. Wataru Morioka, SU assistant professor of geography and geosciences.
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