For information: Terry Gates 314-974-1752 or 567-5111 -- teachers@hoennycenter.org

NEWS RELEASE

24 May 2010

The Hoenny Center Honors Four Future Teachers

Four area high school alumni who are training to be teachers received Hoenny Center 2010 Future Educator Awards in a ceremony on May 24. Each Award included a $500 grant, a special plaque, and a framed legislative resolution commemorating the winners' accomplishments, sent by their respective state senators.

The Hoenny Center for Research and Development in Teaching, a local non-profit with a national focus, studies and supports early development of teaching skills in elementary and secondary school students.

This year's winners were Laura Henry, Dasia Mack, Tiffany McAllister, and Kiera Wilson. All graduated from St. Louis area high schools and volunteered as tutors and mentors in the years before they entered college.

Given in partnership with the Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis, the Awards recognize teaching while still in high school, progress in college teacher education courses, high overall grades in college, and support from mentors.

Laura Henry, a Webster Groves High School graduate, volunteered in their Statesmen Pre-school program. She assisted in the Academic Lab and took courses in child development while still in high school. After the completion of her Lindenwood University program, she will seek a teaching position in the area.

Dasia Mack was a cadet teacher and teacher assistant during her program at Hayti High School. While in high school, she worked with Kindergartners and 2nd graders as well as some of her peers who needed help. Also at Lindenwood University, Ms. Mack will seek a position in early childhood education.

Tiffany McAllister volunteers often as a classroom aide, but runs a daycare center for children ages one month to twelve years. She earned a student teacher certificate in the YWCA Head Start program. Currently a St. Louis Community College-Florissant Valley student in teacher education, Ms. McAllister is working toward a certificate to teach Family and Consumer Sciences at the high school level.

Kiera Wilson graduated from Riverview Gardens High School, where she was an A+ tutoring program participant. While in high school, she tutored younger students, was a teenage health consultant, a member of Future Teachers of America, and a mentor to fellow students. Ms. Wilson is currently studying to be a professional educator at Ottawa University in Kansas.

"At The Hoenny Center," said co-founder Mary E. Bickel, "we do national studies as well as in-class action research. We consult and collaborate with active teachers and are building programs to help preK-12 students' teaching skills grow. Most kids will become parents one day, and, as they say: 'Parents are a child's first and most important teachers'."

"We instituted this award," said Hoenny Center co-founder J. Terry Gates, "to shine a light on future teachers who begin their careers before college—through Missouri's great A+ tutoring program, Missouri Botanical Garden's first-rate ECO-ACT program, or in their local schools, worship centers, social organizations, and sports teams for kids."

"The nation needs dedicated new teachers every year, and people like these four future teachers learn early where the lasting rewards in teaching are: in the achievement of their students," said Sara Fabick, Hoenny Center board member and veteran Lindbergh School District teacher, who assisted in the award celebration.