Riverside High School Alumni Hall of Fame

While at Riverside, Dennis was the RHS sports score reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer and Cleveland Press. Dennis also participated and lettered in basketball and was chosen second team all conference his junior and senior years. As a senior basketball player, Dennis set the single game scoring record at the time of thirty three points. He also set a school record for free throw percentage by shooting seventy eight percent. Dennis also contributed to the baseball program as manager for the team.
After graduating from Riverside in 1960, Dennis continued his education at Cleveland State University where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Science. Dennis then went onto get his Master’s in Education at Indiana University in 1974 and finally earning his Doctorate in Education (abd) in 1980, also from Indiana University.
Dennis has been awarded his certification as a National Supplemental Instruction (SI) Coordinator. He has had his journal article entitled “Does SI really work and what is SI anyway” published. It is the most commonly cited article on SI internationally. His articles on college retention and college learning skills in SI have been published in educational journals thirty six times. He has consulted on SI and college level learning skills in England on four occasions and in Jordan. He is frequently called upon to consult around the United States. Dennis published a book for helping college students succeed entitled, “Starting Out in College: Building learning and Study Skills. It is published by McGraw Hill.
Dennis has also designed and co-found a learning skills website to help students and faculty with study skills issues. On this site, he authored over sixty “how-to” college level skills for learning. He has trained over 100 colleges and universities in establishing and running Supplemental Instruction retention programs.
In addition to Dennis’ accomplishments, he has had time to get involved in community activities. Dennis and his family has been a sponsor to an immigrant family and also a host family to college students from different countries. He has been a mentor to a student from Jordan and an instructor for the Love of Learning Program for rising college bound high school students.
Dennis has had a consistent interest over the years in assisting high school graduates make a better transition into college level academics. In addition, he has gone far beyond helping students himself by sharing his research and knowledge with others by teaching study skills to high school and college professionals in workshops, publications, and classes.