Art Teacher Lauriel Adsit and Biomedical Sciences Teacher Ellie Vandiver won awards this year for their contributions to art and biomedical science education, respectively.
Adsit won the San Diego County Art Education Association (SDCAEA)’s Artissimo Choice Award, according to an email sent by the Artissimo Coordinator. The award “is given to visual art teachers who have proved themselves to be exemplary classroom instructors.”
According to Adsit, visual arts teachers in San Diego County were eligible to receive the award. Eligible teachers could come from elementary, middle, and high schools, according to the award ceremony’s brochure. Among these teachers, six were chosen, including Adsit, the first UC High teacher to win the award.
Teacher John Middleton recommended SDCAEA to award Adsit. “I nominated her,” said Middleton, “because she built the ArtsTECH program from scratch and spent ten years running the program. And, she’s won international awards and helped students build careers in arts media and entertainment.”
The Artissimo Choice Award is one of the categories of the Artissimo Awards of Excellence presented by SDCAEA and the San Diego County Office of Education, according to the brochure. The different Artissimo Awards recognized administrators and others involved in visual art education. “This is a prestigious award, especially for art educators to get acknowledged,” said Adsit. “I was very honored to be considered and recognized along with many of the administrators, college professors, and other teachers in the county.”
Adsit received the award on May 12 at an awards banquet, which was held at Marina Village, according to the brochure.
“I was just excited. Since I’m getting ready to retire, it’s very nice and prestigious to be honored this way,” said Adsit. “Not just within our district, but within the whole county, and to have some staff members who recommended me for the award–that’s very special,” she added.
Like Adsit, Vandiver won an award because of her work in a specialized program at UC High. Vandiver was named “Teacher of the Year” by Project Lead the Way (PLTW), “a national nonprofit organization that focuses on STEM education,” according to Vandiver. PLTW organized the Biomedical Sciences Program that Vandiver teaches at UC High, according to PLTW’s website (pltw.org).
Vandiver received the award in February. “Every year, I attend a state conference [for PLTW] and because it’s national, every state has a conference,” explained Vandiver. “I attended the conference in Sacramento, and every year they [PLTW members] choose a Teacher of the Year, and that’s why I won for the whole state, which is really, really cool.”
The PLTW conference honored a “Teacher of the Year” for each of its high school Biomed and engineering programs, as well as for its middle school engineering program. “They [PLTW members] choose teachers from all over the state for teaching Project Lead the Way,” explained Vandiver, who was recognized for her work for the UC High Biomed program.
Vandiver was acknowledged for her efforts in supporting PLTW classes. “I was the first one that piloted the program [at UC High],” said Vandiver. “I work with schools in the district to help them become successful with Project Lead the Way, so I think that’s kind of why I got it [the award] – I do more than just teach; I work with other teachers who teach Project Lead the Way.”
Vandiver said that she did not expect PLTW to select her for the award. “I literally cried. I had no idea [I would get the award],” said Vandiver.
According to Vandiver, students from UC High’s ArtsTECH department made a video on Ms. Vandiver that was shown at the conference. “Kids from the video tech department came over and interviewed me….[At the time] it was weird. I was like, why are they doing this; it doesn’t make sense–well, it was for the conference,” said Vandiver. “There were 300 or 400 people there. They [PLTW speakers] called my name and showed the video.” According to Senior Emily Burgos, who worked on the movie, five seniors made the feature on Vandiver.