Teacher Bound Student Awards, 2009
Teacher Bound Leadership Awards, 2009
The Jackie Jenkins Scott Leadership Award
The highest individual recognition offered by Teacher Bound is awarded for excellence in leadership as demonstrated by outstanding initiative, impact of work, and inspiration of others. This award seeks to recognize the individual who most clearly demonstrates the ability to serve and consistently acts with integrity, as seen through honesty, trustworthiness and open communication.
The recipient of the 2009 Jackie Jenkins Scott Leadership Award was Dario Hernandez.
Toussaint L’Ouverture Gentleman of Distinction Award
Toussaint L'Ouverture (1743–1803) was born into slavery on the Breda plantation in Haiti. (The Caribbean island now called Hispaniola was once called Haiti and jointly owned by Spain and France.) His father was an African of the Arada ethnic group. Unlike most enslaved Africans, L’Ouverture was permitted to study, and he learned to read and write in French while also speaking Kreyol – a mix of African dialects and French. Shortly after L’Ouverture was granted his freedom, enslaved Africans began to lead revolts demanding their freedom. L’Ouverture organized and trained Africans and mulattoes (people of mixed African and European parentage) in guerilla warfare to free themselves from European colonization and from slavery. He defeated the armies of three imperial powers – Spain, France, and Great Britain. Haiti became the second independent republic in the Western Hemisphere.
The recipient of this award acts with integrity and is courteous in speech, manner and actions. He sets a high standard of conduct for his peers and treats everyone around him in a respectful manner. He exemplifies commitment in academics and is well on his way to becoming a man of valor and distinction.
The recipient of the 2009 Toussaint L’Ouverture Gentleman of Distinction Award was David Muschetta.
Minerva Mirabal Lady of Distinction Award
María Argentina Minerva Mirabal (1926–1960) was born in Ojo de Agua, Salcedo in the Dominican Republic. (The Dominican Republic is the side of Hispaniola that was previously owned by Spain.) Mirabal became involved in the movement to end the thirty-year dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo. Mirabal earned a law degree, though she was not permitted to practice law under Trujillo’s regime. Mirabal inspired two of her three sisters to join a secret anti-Trujillo group called the Movement of the Fourteenth of June. Inside that group, their code name was "Las Mariposas” (“The Butterflies”). Despite being incarcerated and tortured on several occasions, Mirabal and her sisters persisted in their political efforts until Trujillo had them murdered in a sugar cane field. Less than a year later, he was himself assassinated, largely due to the public outcry against the Mirabal sisters’ murder.
The recipient of this award acts with integrity and is courteous in speech, manner and actions. She sets a high standard of conduct for her peers and treats everyone around her in a respectful manner. She exemplifies commitment in academics and is well on her way to becoming a woman of distinction.
The recipient of the 2009 Minerva Mirabal Lady of Distinction Award was Francovna Lapointe.
Teacher Bound Academic Awards, 2009
Jaime Escalante Excellence in Math Award
Jaime Escalante (1930-) was born in Cochabamba, Bolivia, where he taught physics and mathematics. In 1964, he began studying science and mathematics at the University of Puerto Rico. Upon moving to California, Escalante, who could not speak English and had no valid United States teaching credentials, began taking night courses at Pasadena City College to earn a degree in biology. He took a day job at a computer corporation while taking additional night courses at California State University, Los Angeles, to earn a mathematics degree. In 1974, Escalante began teaching at Garfield High School, in East Los Angeles. Disheartened by the lack of advanced math courses offered, he pushed for all students to take algebra and eventually overhauled the school’s math curriculum. In 1979, the school offered its first calculus course to five students, two of whom passed the Advanced Placement exam. By 1987, seventy-three students passed the A.P. Calculus AB exam and another twelve passed the more advanced A.P. Calculus BC exam. In 1991, Escalante left Garfield High School to begin teaching in Sacramento. He also taught calculus at East Los Angeles College.
This award recognizes outstanding achievement in the area of math. The student who receives this award has consistently put forth the effort and diligence needed to excel in math.
The recipient of the 2009 Jaime Escalante Excellence in Math Award was Omar Sanabria.
James Weldon Johnson Excellence in Critical Reading Award
James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938) was born in Jacksonville, Florida. Both his parents hailed from Nassau, Bahamas. He was educated by his mother (who was the first Black female to teach at a grammar school in Florida) and then at the Stanton School. Because there were no high schools for African Americans, Johnson left home at age sixteen to enroll at Atlanta University as a preparatory student and then as a college student, earning bachelors and masters degrees. During college, Johnson taught the children of former slaves in rural Georgia. This experience caused him to regard his academic training as a trust given him in the expectation that he would dedicate his resources to Black people. After graduation, he returned to the Stanton School as a teacher and eventually became principal, adding the ninth and tenth grades and expanding the course offerings to include algebra, literature and composition, geography, physics, geometry, history, and Spanish. Johnson was the first African American admitted to the Florida Bar since Reconstruction, served as U.S. diplomat to Venezuela and Nicaragua, and was the first African American leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Johnson published widely as a novelist, poet, and lyricist. He also taught at Fisk University, and in 1934, he became the first African-American professor at New York University.
This award recognizes outstanding achievement in the area of critican reading. The student who receives this award has consistently put forth the effort and diligence needed to excel in critical reading.
The recipient of the 2009 James Weldon Johnson Excellence in Critical Reading Award was Iris Umana.
Gabriela Mistral Excellence in Critical Writing Award
Gabriela Mistral (1889—1957) was born in Vicuña, Chile in South America. Her actual name was Lucila de María del Perpetuo Socorro Godoy Alcayaga. Raised in the small Andean village of Montegrande, she attended the primary school taught by her older sister. Mistral’s father was also a schoolteacher, but he abandoned the family before she was three years old. By age fifteen, Mistral was supporting herself and her mother, by working as a teacher's aide in the seaside town of Compañia Baja. Mistral published her first collection of poetry in 1904. From 1906 to 1921, she taught at various schools in Chile before accepting an invitation to work with Mexico’s Minister of Education to start a national education system and reform libraries and schools. Throughout her life, writing and teaching remained her focus on an international scale – working throughout Latin America, Europe, and the United States. In 1945, Mistral became the first Latin American (and fifth woman) to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. A central theme in her poems was Latin American identity as formed from a mixture of Native American and European influences.
This award recognizes outstanding achievement in the area of critical reading. The student who receives this award has consistently put forth the effort and diligence needed to excel in critical writing.
The recipient of the 2009 Gabriela Mistral Excellence in Critical Writing Award was Coretta Simmons.
Bessie Blount Excellence in Science Award
Bessie Blount Griffin (1914-) was born in Hickory, Virginia. She first attended Union Junior (Community) College, then the Panzer College of Physical Education and Hygiene in New Jersey. She also studied physical therapy in Chicago. During World War II, while working with wounded soldiers, Blount devised an apparatus to help amputees feed themselves – a feeding tube that delivered one mouthful of food at a time, controlled by biting down on the tube. The American Veterans Administration did not accept her invention, so she sold it to the French government. Blount’s work as a physical therapist led to her next invention – the disposable cardboard emesis basin. This invention was also not accepted by the American Veterans Administration, so she sold it to Belgium. In 1969, Blount went into law enforcement as a forensic scientist, and in 1977, she became the first African-American woman to train and work at Scotland Yard in England. In the 1990s, Blount put forensic science to work, studying slave papers and Civil War documents as well as verifying the authenticity of documents containing Native American-U.S. treaties.
This award recognizes outstanding achievement in the area of science. The student who receives this award has consistently put forth the effort and diligence needed to excel in science.
The recipient of the 2009 Bessie Blount Excellence in Science Award was Martin Duncan.
Dr. Carter G. Woodson Excellence in Introduction to Teaching and Learning Award
Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) was born to former slaves in New Canton, Virginia. His mother had secretly learned to read while she was enslaved, and she taught her children to read as well. His father had helped Union soldiers during the Civil War. After the war, the family moved to West Virginia, where a high school was being built for Blacks. Coming from a poor family of nine children, Woodson could not regularly attend school. At age twenty, he entered Frederick Douglass High School. He earned a Bachelors degree from Berea College in Kentucky then worked and traveled in the Philippines, Asia, Europe, and Africa, while earning a second Bachelors degree in European history through a correspondence course at the University of Chicago, where he also earned a Masters degree. In 1912, he received a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University then went on to teach high school, eventually becoming a principal. He also taught at Howard University. In 1915, Woodson published The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861 and co-founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. The purpose of the organization was to publish and fund research and writing projects about Black history. Woodson believed that racism could effectively be attacked by undoing the belief that Blacks had contributed nothing to mankind. The Journal of Negro History and Negro History Week (marked by the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln in February and later extended to Black History Month) were among his efforts. He is perhaps best known for The Miseducation of the Negro, published in 1933.
This award recognizes outstanding achievement in the area of introduction to teaching and learning. The student who receives this award has consistently put forth the effort and diligence needed to excel in introduction to teaching and learning.
The recipient of the 2009 Dr. Carter G. Woodson Excellence in Introduction to Teacher and Learning Award was Marcelino Daveiga.
Bell Hooks Excellence in Multimedia Literacy Award
Bell Hooks was born on September 25, 1952 in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Her actual name is Gloria Jean Watkins. Hooks’ father worked as a custodian, while her mother stayed home to care for the family of seven children. Hooks attended racially segregated public schools as a child then made the transition to an integrated school, where teachers and students were predominantly White. She graduated from Hopkinsville High School then went on to earn a Bachelors degree from Stanford University and a Masters degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, both in English. In 1983, after several years of teaching and writing, Hooks completed a Ph.D. in literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz, writing a dissertation on author Toni Morrison. Since 1976, Hooks has taught at various universities (including Yale and Oberlin) as a professor of English, Ethnic Studies, African and Afro-American Studies, Women’s Studies, and American Literature. She has also published more than thirty books and scholarly articles on themes that include the historical impact of sexism and racism on Black women, devaluation and marginalization of women, media roles and portrayal, politics of aesthetic / visual culture, and the education system. Hooks believes that communication and literacy (the ability to read, write, and think critically) are crucial to developing healthy communities and relationships that are not marred by race, class, or gender inequalities.
This award recognizes outstanding achievement in the area of multimedia literacy. The student who receives this award has consistently put forth the effort and diligence needed to excel in multimedia literacy.
The recipients for the 2009 Bell Hooks Excellence in Multimedia Literacy were Sasha De La Cruz and Evana Williams.
See Also: 2008 Leadership and Academic Awards
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