Tag Archives: Celebrity Teachers

Teachers who have become famous for achievements outside the profession of education.

The President’s Sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng: Talented Teacher and Author

Posted on by

Maya Soetoro-NgMaya Soetoro-Ng is a former high school history teacher, current university professor, and expert in comparative international education. She also happens to be the half-sister of President Barack Obama. Born in 1970 in Jakarta, Indonesia, she is the daughter of Anne Durham, Barack Obama’s mother, and Anne’s second husband, Indonesian businessman Lolo Soetoro. An accomplished educator in her own right, Maya’s work as a promoter of international relations would be amazing, even if she did not enjoy her presidential connections.

Early in her career, Maya taught history at La Pietra Hawaii School for Girls and at the Education Laboratory School, both located in Honolulu, Hawaii. She has also taught courses as an Assistant Professor at the University of Hawaii, College of Education, and between 1996 and 2000, she developed and taught curriculum at The Learning Project, an alternative public middle school located in New York City. She has also served as an Education Specialist at the East-West Center, an organization that promotes understanding between the United States, Asia, and the nations of the Pacific.

Maya published a children’s book entitled Ladder to the Moon in 2011. The book is a fantasy story about the president’s mother, cultural anthropologist Ann Dunham, and her adventures with Maya’s daughter, Suhaila. In the book, the pair help orphaned tsunami victims and, as the title suggests, climb a ladder to the moon. Maya said she first got the idea for the book when her daughter said she wanted to know about her grandmother–who she never had a chance to meet. Dunham passed away from ovarian cancer in 1995.

Maya is currently working on a book about peaceful conflict resolution aimed at high school students. She also oversaw the 2009 publication of her mother’s dissertation, entitled Surviving Against the Odds: Village Industry in Indonesia, authoring the foreword to the book and presenting it at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association.

Rich Franklin: The Multi-Talented Math Teacher

Posted on by

RichFranklinphotoIt’s no surprise that gifted and talented educators possess expertise in fields beyond the educational sphere. This is demonstrated very well by math teacher, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight Champion, mixed martial artist, businessman, and actor Richard Jay Franklin, Jr.

Rich was born on October 5, 1974, one of two sons of Richard Sr. and Valia Franklin. Although he was born in Kentucky, he was raised in Cincinati, Ohio. His parents divorced when he was only five years old, and through subsequent marriages he acquired five additional half-siblings. As a youngster, Rich attended William Henry Harrison High School. Following his graduation, he enrolled at the University of Cincinatti, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and his master’s degree in education. After college, Rich taught mathematics for four years at Oak Hills High School in Cincinatti.

lu25005-edit-199x300During his years as an educator, Rich launched a career as a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), with a goal of fighting professionally. He left the teaching profession to pursue his goal full-time. He quickly moved up the ranks, and in 2005 earned the UFC Middleweight World Title. Following this victory, Rich accepted a position as a coach on the second season of the television show The Ultimate Fighter.

In 2003, Rich launched a clothing company with several business partners. This enterprise was named American Fighter. “The American Fighter message was about finding the fighter in each of us,” Rich once explained, “Whether you are a person battling cancer, an athlete preparing for competition, or a soldier stepping into combat, we all have a fighter in us.” In 2012, Affliction Clothing expressed an interest in American Fighter. They acquired the majority of the company to take the brand to mainstream retailers where it continues to grow. “The American Fighter name had an obvious connection with military personnel and I have always felt it is my civic duty to give back to the troops,” Rich says. “I have visited military bases all over the country, both domestic and abroad. The most recent trip was to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. In 2006, I began working with the military extensively, particularly with disabled veterans.” Specifically, Rich is an avid supporter of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) organization.

Rich made his acting debut in a film called Cyborg Soldier,  where he portrayed an escaped super soldier. In 2010 he starred in Hamill, a story inspired by the life of Matt Hamill, a deaf UFC fighter. He can also be seen playing MMA Coach Billings in the 2014 comedy Mantervention.

The multi-talented Rich Franklin: a true chalkboard champion.

The Power Couple of Music: Distinguished Teachers Roland and Almita Vamos

Posted on by

VamosCollage-430x308[1]

Roland and Almita Vamos are a talented husband and wife team who are considered among the most prominent violin and viola  instructors in the entire world. Their students have become accomplished soloists, members of world-renowned chamber groups and orchestras, and laureates of many prestigious international competitions. The musical couple has been recognized at the White House seven times. Both husband and wife have been named Distinguished Teachers by the National Endowment of the Arts. They have also been honored by the American String Teachers Association (ASTA) with the Distinguished Service Award, and showcased on CBS television show Sunday Morning News.

Both Roland and Almita attended the prestigious Julliard School of Music in New York City. There Roland studied with Oscar Shumsky and William Lincer, and Almita studied with Mischa Mischakoff and Louis Persinger.

Roland and Almita are members of the faculty at the Music Institute of Chicago and at Northwestern University. Prior to teaching at Northwestern, they were on faculty at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. The talented teachers are also the co-founders of the Weathersfield Summer Music Festival in Weathersfield, Vermont. The festival, inaugurated in 1993, offers an opportunity for serious students of all ages to study intensively for six weeks in an enthusiastic and supportive atmosphere through private lessons, master classes, and performance opportunities.

Entertainment Anchor Joyce Kulhawik: She Was Once a High School English Teacher

Posted on by

imagesCAVIX9GJMany talented educators can boast of achievements in fields other than education. Such is certainly the case for Joyce Kulhawik, a Boston high school English teacher who was once the arts and entertainment anchor for WBZ-TV News in Boston, Massachusetts.

Joyce was born in 1952 in Connecticut. In 1974, she earned her bachelor’s degree in English and Secondary Education from Simmons College, a private undergraduate college for women located in Boston. One of the top two graduating seniors at Simmons, Joyce was recognized with the Crown Zellerbach Award and a full fellowship to the University of Vermont, where she completed the requirements for a double master’s degree in English and Education in 1977.

After her college graduation, Joyce taught English at Brookline High School in Brookline, Massachusetts. She was employed there from 1976 to 1978. The school itself is remarkable, having received the Gold Medal for Best High Schools from US News and World Report. Joyce also was a member of the faculty at the Boston Architectural College from 1977 to 1979. Also known a the BAC, the school is New England’s largest private college of spatial design, offering bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, and design studies. The college offers continuing education credits and certificates, and also hosts the BAC Summer Academy for high school students.

Joyce began working for WBZ-TV in 1978 as an associate producer and reporter for Evening Magazine. In 1981, she became the station’s arts and entertainment reporter, and played a key role in the public service campaign, “You Gotta Have Arts!” As part of the campaign, the former teacher hosted the station’s Emmy Award-winning You Gotta Have Arts! program, as well as three specials, the first of which received an Emmy Award in 1982. She also presented Arts Breaks, 60-second spots featuring local artists, museums, and cultural events. From 1982 to 1985, Joyce served as co-anchor of the station’s Live on 4 newscast. She also performed as a guest narrator in orchestral works, and has performed with the Boston Pops, the New England Philharmonic, the Boston Musica Viva, the Boston Civic Symphony, and the Concord Orchestra. In addition, Joyce was the co-host of the weekly nationally syndicated movie review program Hot Ticket. During the 1999–2000 television season, Joyce was a co-host on Roger Ebert & The Movies. Joyce concluded her career with the television station in 2008.

A three-time cancer survivor, Joyce testified before Congress on the 20th anniversary of the National Cancer Act. Since 1983 she has served as the Honorary Chairperson for the American Cancer Society’s Daffodil Days, the largest state-wide annual spring fundraising event. The American Cancer Society honored Joyce with its National Bronze Medal Award, and she also earned the 1994 Gilda Radner Award from the Wellness Community in Greater Boston “for engendering inspiration in cancer patients via her own valiant fight with the disease.”

In 1990, Joyce was the recipient of The Boston Theater District Award, which is presented annually to a Bostonian who has made a significant contribution to the stage, screen, or television. She also received Boston New England Emmy Award for WBZ-TV’s Outstanding Team Coverage of Ground Zero in 2001. In May, 2002, she received an Honorary Doctorate in Communications from her alma mater, Simmons College. In May, 2007, she was named one of the first inductees to the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame. In May 2010, she received the Governor’s Award, and the next year the former educator received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the14th annual Exceptional Woman Awards presented by radio station 106.7FM WMJX Boston.

Horror Fiction Writer Stephen King: He Was Once a High School Teacher

Posted on by

stephen_king[1]Most people are very familiar with the popular novels and short stories of talented horror fiction writer Stephen King, but did you know he was once a high school teacher?

Stephen was born on September 21, 1947, in Portland, Maine. His father was a merchant seaman, and his mother was a kitchen worker in a facility for the developmentally handicapped. When Stephen was only two years old, his father abandoned the family, and thereafter his mother struggled to support herself, Stephen, and Stephen’s older brother, David.

When he was young, Stephen attended Durham Elementary School, and then Lisbon Falls High School in Lisbon Falls, Maine, where he graduated in 1966. Even as a child, Stephen displayed an interest in horror fiction. He was an avid reader of EC’s horror comics, which included the stories of Tales from the Crypt.  He began writing for his own amusement, contributing articles to Dave’s Rag, a home-based newspaper his brother published with a mimeograph machine. Later he began selling stories to his classmates based on movies he had seen, though he was forced to return his profits when his teachers discovered the enterprise. The first of Stephen’s stories to be independently published was “I Was a Teenage Grave Robber,” published in a popular fanzine in 1965.

Following Stephen’s graduation from high school in 1966, he enrolled as a student at the University of Maine, Orono, declaring a major in English. During his college years, he wrote a column for the student newspaper, The Maine Campus, entitled “Steve King’s Garbage Truck,” participated in writing workshops, and took odd jobs to help meet his living expenses, including one stint at an industrial laundry.  He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student  Senate. He sold his first professional short story, “The Glass Floor,” to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967.

After graduating from the university in 1970, Stephen earned his high school teaching credential, but was unable to find a teaching position right away. To earn a living, he sold short stories to men’s magazines such as Cavalier. In 1971, Stephen was hired to teach at Hampden Academy, a public high school in Hampden, Maine. He continued to contribute short stories to magazines and worked on ideas for novels. After his novel Carrie was published, Stephen left his job as a high school teacher to write full time, but he continued his career as an educator when he was hired as a professor of creative writing at the University of Maine, Orono.

Today, Stephen King and his family live in Bangor, Maine. His wife, Tabitha King, is also a successful author. Stephen and Tabitha provide scholarships for local high school students and  contribute to many other local and national charities.