CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Jocelyn Frohwein, a professor of broadcasting and digital media at Iowa Valley Community College District, is one of three recipients of this year’s Dan Marburger Mentors in Violence Prevention Advocacy Award.

Recently, the Patricia A. Tomson Center for Violence Prevention at the University of Northern Iowa presented three Iowans with the Dan Marburger Mentors in Violence Prevention Advocacy Award. Locally, the honor went to Jocelyn Frohwein, a professor of broadcasting and digital media at Marshalltown Community College (Iowa Valley Community College District).

The award is named in honor of the late Perry High School principal who died from injuries sustained in the January 2024 school shooting.

The award is given each year to acknowledge a person or team whose advocacy of PATCVP’s Mentors in Violence Prevention Strategies program “has had a positive impact in their community and exemplifies the same unwavering passion for violence prevention as Marburger. The program trains student leaders and supportive adults to guide discussions and activities around scenarios that depict interpersonal violence and bullying, focusing on the positive role bystanders play in prevention,” according to the center.

Frohwein said about 14 years ago she started working with Laurie Rink and the local anti-bullying campaign Not In Our Town.

“Then it developed into a collaboration with work that was being done at the University of Northern Iowa under Mentors in Violence Prevention,” Frohwein noted. “Laurie Rink left the high school to go to MLA (Marshalltown Learning Academy) — we had been doing MVP work for a while at the high school, three years together — and then I started taking it over.”

At that time, Frohwein was teaching English, drama, video production and speech coaching at Marshalltown High School.

“We did trainings, including international trainings with our mentors, even in Scotland,” she said. “At the pinnacle of what I was doing at Marshalltown High School we were working on the Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) standards in the State of Iowa. I was on the MVP stat team, and I’ve been on that since its inception, and advising other MVP mentors.”

She added that Marshalltown is known for having high quality mentors.

“We had approximately 106 mentors for over 400 incoming freshmen, and our mentors basically prevented violence in the school and taught them how to be a Bobcat and really reflected what the program was all about: preventing violence before it happened,” she noted. “It was peer-led, so our mentors were teaching our mentees in the classroom during ENR (enrichment time), and we had four to five mentors for each ENR class.”

As a master trainer, she spends 20 hours a year in trainings for violence prevention and anti-bullying and anti-harassment. The “why” behind her efforts is personal.

“My goal has always been to have a safe place for people to be able to learn,” she said. “I was a product of a very violent environment…If you go back to Maslow, if we’re not creating the basic hierarchy of needs, we can’t get to the learning.”

A native of Seattle, she came to Marshalltown as a young adult and attended classes at MCC. A professor, Dr. Bob Moore, and his wife Linda, then a librarian, supported Frohwein through a difficult time in her life.

“My angels on earth are Dr. Bob and Linda, Linda Bahr and Marilee Hill-Anderson,” she said. “I’m forever grateful to them.”

Bob Moore expressed equal admiration for Frohwein.

“Over the many years I’ve been teaching, there are some students who bubble to the top. When I see them, we will jokingly exchange, ‘well you know you are my favorite student of all times.’ And the student will say, ‘well you know you’re my favorite professor of all times. So Jo falls in that category,” he said. “She was outstanding as a student…Some of the things that stand out immediately, I remember her, and I see her now, as somebody who is always bubbly, always enthusiastic, and coming up with new ideas. It seems she is constantly trying to do something that is innovative, fun, intellectual, challenging, all of those things at once.”

She earned an associate’s degree in psychology and human services from MCC. She envisioned doing pre-med at ISU, having earned a full-ride scholarship as a Carver scholar. Instead, she relocated to the Fort Dodge area, transferring to Buena Vista University, finishing out her education at its Fort Dodge campus.

“I did the satellite courses and worked full-time in the Fort Dodge school district,” she added. “I ended up getting my master’s in English as a Second Language and my master’s education license.”

Frohwein also has licensure in special education, reading endorsements, and more, and has worked at IVCCD since 2023. She now coordinates MVP implementation at Marshalltown Community College.

“I think if we approach everyone as a human and that we are all here for life and to live the best that we possibly can, and go back to the Golden Rule of treat others how you want to be treated, and maybe interject when somebody is not being treated that way, I think that goes a long way in our society,” she said.

The award also went to counselor Jolene Hays and art teacher Samantha Henriksen, both of Fort Dodge Senior High School.

“We want to congratulate these tremendous champions for their work in creating safe school climates for their students,” said Alysa Mozak, PATCVP director.

Award winners will be recognized at a private event later this spring.