Laurie Abeel, associate professor in graduate education, passed her Black Belt test in Tae Kwan Do on Saturday, April 28 at the Karate Sports Academy in Warrenton. She started as a white belt in April 2004 and three knee surgeries (with one more at the end of May) and eight years later has finally earned her black belt!
Laurie Abeel, associate professor of Graduate Education and Program Director for Advanced Licensure, is also the State Director for Destination ImagiNation (DI), a creative problem solving program for ages four through college level. She and her state board successfully ran the April 2 state tournament, which included 97 teams from around the state, with about 1,500 people attending.
Abeel will take 41 teams from Virginia to Global Finals to be held in May at the University of Tennesee in Knoxville, where more than 1,000 teams from around the country and world will present creative solutions to DI challenges. For more information about DI, go to www.idodi.org.
