When Ava Berry ’25 stepped into a college classroom as an instructor, she brought lessons learned in middle and high school classrooms through Samford University’s Orlean Beeson School of Education. Now, a national award will help her build on that preparation as she researches how students can use artificial intelligence thoughtfully and creatively.
Berry, who graduated with a degree in secondary education and English, received a 2026 Love of Learning Award from the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. She plans to use the $1,000 award to purchase an iPad and scholarly books for her master’s capstone research at the University of Alabama, where she is pursuing a fully funded Master of Arts in English with a focus on composition, rhetoric and English studies.
Alongside her graduate coursework, Berry teaches three sections of advanced composition. She credits Samford’s preparation with helping her navigate that responsibility.
“I’m extremely thankful for the training I had at Samford,” Berry said. “I can see how Samford helped me prepare for teaching these classes.”
At Samford, Berry completed clinical placements at Homewood Middle School, Leeds High School, Berry Middle School and Mountain Brook High School. Those experiences helped her develop classroom management skills, plan instruction around learning standards and respond to students’ individual needs.
A 12th grade placement at Leeds proved especially relevant to teaching college freshmen.
“Most times, it’s about meeting the students where they are,” Berry said.
The instructional materials she developed at Samford have also remained useful. A 10-lesson unit plan became a resource she could draw on in graduate coursework and share with classmates entering teaching for the first time.
“I’ve been able to use my 10-lesson unit plan as an example in my grad school classes,” Berry said. “I share a lot of my materials with many in my cohort who have never taught before.”
Her clinical experiences also shaped how she understands writing instruction.
“I learned that writing is a process through the instructors in the classrooms I was in, from other teachers on the floor and being in the classroom on a day-to-day basis.”
That understanding carries into her capstone research. Through her Living Digital Postcard project, Berry addresses a gap she sees in classroom instruction: students use generative AI without enough guidance on how it can support their learning.
“I designed my project to provide the explicit instruction necessary to show students how to leverage AI to support their learning,” Berry said.
Students choose a location with personal significance, then use AI tools in Adobe Express and Firefly to create an image for a digital postcard. The challenge is making that image reflect their own memories and experiences rather than accepting the generalized version AI produces. Through guided practice, students learn to refine their prompts, evaluate the results and make revisions that preserve their creative voice. Berry’s research will examine the effectiveness of this approach.
Scheduled to complete her master’s degree in May 2027, Berry hopes to return to a secondary classroom, helping students of varied abilities and interests connect with English.
“I hope that my students will experience a new way of thinking about English and composition,” Berry said.
