The upper school held its annual Academic Awards ceremony Wednesday, June 6. In addition to award announcements, Headmaster Benedict presented the first recipients of The Barbara and Michael Cleary Chair for Educational Excellence. This restricted endowment supports the improvements of education at The Miami Valley School by annually providing a stipend for a teacher to participate in transformational professional development. The goal of the program is to fund a summer experience that will significantly benefit the teacher and his or her students. In addition, the experience is to serve as a learning tool for other members of the MVS faculty.
Faculty recipients of The Barbara and Michael Cleary Chair for Educational Excellence and their proposals:
Kellie Carter – Proposed an ecological, biological, and conservation study of big cats through Miami University’s and Cincinnati Zoo’s Dragonfly program before embarking on an expedition to Etosha National Park and field studies at the Cheetah Conservation Fund Headquarters in Nambia, Africa.
Deb Spiegel – Proposed working with the Wallace-Kettering Neuroscience Institute here in Dayton and the Human Performance Laboratory at the University of Chicago to study how the brain learns and how to develop new instructional techniques for our students, with an emphasis on emerging technologies for education.
Matt LaMotte – Proposed a historical retrace through the battlefields and historical sites of western Europe, including: Churchill’s bunker, the beaches of Normandy, Belgium’s Waterloo battlefield, WWII sites in Bonn, Frankfurt and Munich, and museums in Prague.
Below is a complete list of the 2012 Academic Award winners:
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
Award for Excellence: Daisy Brown
Love of Literature: Katherine Wood
Betsy M. Hughes Creative Writing Award: Audrey Lane
FINE ARTS DEPARTMENT
Excellence in Music: Lauren Yu
Visual Art: Mitch Centers
Ted Truslow Book Award for the Performing Arts: Claire Staley
WORLD LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT
Excellence in Language and Love of Culture: Corri Johnson
Dedication to learning: Robbie Weinstein
MATHEMATICS DEPARTMENT
Maria Ferraro Excellence in Mathematics: Lauren Shaver
Love of Mathematics: Alex Smith
SCIENCE DEPARTMENT
Excellence in Science: Arianna Yanes
Love of Science: Stephanie Choo
SOCIAL SCIENCE DEPARTMENT
Excellence in Social Science: Bo Wang
Frances E. Inbody Love of History: Atalie Gartzka
ADDITIONAL AWARDS:
Sewanee Award for Excellence in Writing – Marla Guggenheimer
Middlebury College Book Award – Heidi Yarger
Haverford College Book Award for Community Awareness & Social Advocacy – Ari Vandersluis
Renneselaer Polytechnic Institute Award – James Ullett
Sharyn D. Jackson Spirit Award – Daisy Brown
Shelley Lazar Community Service Award – Claire Winch
Brereton Family Award of Distinction – Leah Griffith
Chinese Learning Bridge Award – Ishan Paranjpe
The Parents Association: Making an Impact Award – Cora Ceipek and Katherine Brown
For pictures of the event, please visit The Miami Valley School’s Facebook page.