Middle school English teacher Susan Allgood of Toccoa, Georgia, has garnered a 2023 Smart Maher National citizenship Education Teacher Award from the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Photo credit: Veterans of Foreign Wars

As role models for young people, teachers often emphasize the qualities of patriotism and good citizenship in their young students. One teacher who does this exceptionally well is Susan Allgood, a middle school teacher from Toccoa, Georgia. She has been recognized by the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) for her excellence in efforts to ensure  her students understand duty to country while honoring the service and memory of America’s veterans. The organization has honored her with a 2023 Smart Maher National Citizenship Education Teacher Award.

Susan teaches seventh and eighth grade English/Language Arts at Stephens County Middle School in Toccoa. She was selected for the honor because she encouraged not only the students in her classroom, but also every student on her campus to participate in the VFW’s annual Patriot’s Pen essay contest. To inspire the young authors, she shared novels and biographies about veterans, the military, and our nation’s history into her curriculum.

In addition to sharing the stories of veterans and promoting the essay contest, the honored teacher organized field trips to New York City to visit the memorial built at Ground Zero. She teaches lessons about the devastation and aftermath of Sept. 11. And she encourages her students to recognize that they can make a difference in the world around them.

It makes perfect sense that Susan would emphasize the role of veterans in her curriculum. She has two sons who are on active duty in the military. Because of this, she understands firsthand how important it is to connect the military and veterans with young people.

To learn more about Susan Allgood and the prestigious award she has won, click on the following link to the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

High school English teacher Craig Rowe of Truckee, California, has been named one of his state’s finalists for 2023 Teacher of the Year. Photo credit: Truckee High School

Many exceptional educators have been recognized for their work in the classroom this year. One of these is Craig Rowe, a high school English teacher from Placer County, California. He has been named one of nine finalists for California’s 2023 Teacher of the Year.

Craig teaches at Truckee High School in the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District. He also serves as the Model United Nations Advisor for his school. The honored educator says he is passionate about diversity students having an equal chance to attend the college of their dreams. To facilitate this, he formed La Fuerza Latina, a small college prep admissions program for his Truckee High students. The goal of the program is to raise the collegiate bar for students from multi-ethnic backgrounds, and to provide the kind of high-caliber admissions preparation paid consultants provide. In this way, Craig says, diversity students have the opportunity to compete at the highest level nationally, to earn scholarships, and to reach their potential.

Craig has his own childhood experiences to thank for his passion to help disadvantaged students. As a young man, he says, he never saw himself becoming a teacher. The son of a Hispanic mother and a White father, neither of whom attended college, Craig remembers school as a place fraught with racial tension and frequent fights. As a young man, he recalls fellow students speaking negatively about his ethnic heritage, which caused him a great deal of shame and anger. “This was before multiculturalism was a thing,” Craig remembers. “School was definitely not a respite.”

Despite his inauspicious performance in high school academics, Craig went on to earn his Bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Washington. He earned his Master’s degree in Dramatic Literature from the University of California, Santa Barbara. And he completed the requirements for his Ph.D. in Performance Studies from University of California, Berkeley. While there, he garnered a Regents Fellowship. In addition, Craig worked in a Chicana writing program at Stanford University.

“I want every student to know that regardless of their social or ethnic status, if they are hard-working and diligent, they can compete at the very highest level nationally,” asserts Craig. “My intent is simply to supplement our outstanding counseling support system, so our students have equal advantages for being placed in highly competitive colleges and universities as well as earn scholarships,” he concludes.