Boston Public Schools students, teachers and staff recognized for academic and professional accomplishments

BOSTON – Boston Public Schools (BPS) teachers, students and staff have received numerous awards and grants in recent weeks. Below is a roundup of awards and honors throughout the district.

• President Barack Obama has named math teacher Sharon Hessney of the John D. O’Bryant School of Math & Science as a recipient of the prestigious Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. The award brings with it a $10,000 prize and all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C. next fall for an awards ceremony at the White House where the President will greet Ms. Hessney. The trip also includes several days of educational and celebratory events, including visits with members of Congress and science agency leaders.

• The Boston Red Sox introduced the Red Sox Scholars Class of 2010 in an on-field ceremony at Fenway Park prior to the Sunday, June 13th game against the Philadelphia Phillies.  The 25 new Red Sox Scholars, who will enter sixth grade in the fall, are all academically talented, financially challenged middle school students in the Boston Public Schools and join seven previous classes of Scholars.

• The 2010 Northeastern Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages awarded Dr. Yu-Lan Lin, Boston Public Schools Director for World Languages, its Annual Award for Outstanding Leadership in the Profession.

• Boston Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Carol Johnson celebrated the 2010 winners of the annual Graze N. Aznive Visual Arts Scholarships with a special luncheon. Established in 1972 in memory of a distinguished BPS visual arts teacher, the $1,000 scholarship awards are given annually to visual arts students planning to continue their study of art at a college or university. This year’s winners are:

     Sasha Bachier (Roxbury), New Mission High School, UMass Amherst
     Justice Tocker (Roslindale), Boston Latin School, MassArt
     Anica Buckson (Allston-Brighton), Boston Arts Academy, Rhode Island School of Design

• The Massachusetts Association of Teachers of Speakers of Other Languages selected Kathryn Brucker of Madison Park High School as one of their Teachers of the Year. Ms. Brucker was recognized for her efforts on behalf of English language learners.

• Eleven BPS middle school students have earned $2,400 scholarships to participate in the Boston University Academy LEAD program this summer. The students will spend five weeks taking classes in English, science and mathematics and participate in a leadership academy.

• Facing History and Ourselves has awarded two BPS Humanities teachers the Margot Stern Strom Teaching Award. Darlene Marcano of The Engineering School and Sonya Brown of Boston Arts Academy were among five educators from the New England area selected for this honor.

• The Agganis Foundation selected four BPS student athletes for Agganis Scholarships. The students will receive $1,000 for each of the four years they are in college. The BPS winners are as follows:

     Jia Lei, Excel High School, Boston College
     Yunqi Lin, Excel High School, Tufts University
     Lilian Ruiz, Boston Community Leadership Academy, Babson College
     Molly Ryan, Boston Latin School, Harvard University

• INDIA New England named Edwards Middle School assistant principal and director of instruction Amrita Sahni as its 2010 Woman of the Year on Monday June 14 at an awards banquet held at the Westin Waltham-Boston hotel in Waltham, Mass.

• The Josiah Quincy Upper School has been named an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School and will become the first BPS school to offer students the opportunity to earn an IB diploma by spending their junior and senior years studying college-level material in six two-year long courses.

• Thanks to a $22,000 grant from the Japan Foundation, BPS will create a new Advanced Work Class (AWC) Japanese Program at the Dearborn Middle School in Roxbury.