Masonic Student and Teacher of Today awards presented – Shawnee News-Star
The Masons of Shawnee recognized the Students and Teachers of Today from Shawnee and Bethel area schools in a ceremony Sunday, April 24. Provided photo
The Masons of Shawnee recognized the Students and Teachers of Today from Shawnee and Bethel area schools in a ceremony Sunday, April 24.
The Masons gave away scholarships in the amount of $6,600.
A few students and one or more teachers from each school received this award.
Students and teachers are selected by the faculty or boards of each school to receive this award.
Alexis Effinger of Shawnee High School and Brady Gardner of Bethel High School received the Don Askins Memorial scholarship. Alexis Effinger placed 10th in the Statewide Senior Essay contest, with a total 117 High School competing in the Essay contest.
The Student and Teachers of Today awards included the following:
Students and teachers from Bethel Lower Elementary and Bethel Upper Elementary schools included Faith Velasquez, Sarah Drew, Silas Wellman, Jayden Hubler, Melissa Little, teacher and Tina Washburn, teacher.
Students and the teacher from Bethel Middle School Becci Boughner, Isaac Nowakowski and Reda Marcussen, teacher.
Students and the teacher from Bethel High School included Kassidy Depuy,, Brady Gardner, and Kim Smith, teacher.
Students and the teacher from Grove School Jaynie Ford, Jaynie Ford, Cody Jones and Amy Childers, teacher.
Student and the teacher from Horace Mann Elementary School included, Emma Bryan, Zaine Hutchins and Rebecca Miller, teacher.
Students and the teacher from Jefferson Elementary Kalila Duck, Bentley Robbins and Theresa Swadley, teacher.
Students and the teacher from North Rock Creek Elementary included Jonah Barnett and Leslynn Dodson and Lauren Szczepanski, teacher.
Students and the teacher from North Rock Creek Middle School included Trace Bell, Allyssa Powell and Allison Kidney, teacher.
Students and the teacher from North Rock Intermediate School included Michael Dickinson, Grace Hobbs and Luci Copelin, teacher.
Students and teachers from North Rock Creek High School included Aleciea Bienhoff, Joshua Robertson, Grace Lueck, teacher and Amanda MacDonald, teacher.
Students at Pleasant Grove School included Vaschti Harjo and JaKaila Hurst-Roscoe.
Students and the teacher from Sequoyah Elementary School included Grace Clemmons, Jachin Dennis and Trina Waller, teacher.
Students and the teacher from South Rock Creek included Jaxon Murray, Kiley Sartin and Sarah Barron, teacher.
Students and teacher from Shawnee Middle School Miguel Gutierrez, Abigail Wade and Kayla Hutcheson, teacher
Students and the teacher from the Shawnee Early Childhood Center included Azden Budk, Elizabeth Dockery and Brandy Swinford, teacher.
Students and the teacher from Shawnee High School included Lorelei Brem, Garrett Serner and Jeremy Burnett, teacher.
Students and the teacher from Will Rogers Elementary included Riley Chamblin, Kai Copeland and Chandra Swisher, teacher.
Several students also received Senior Essay Awards. These included a men’s and women’s division and first place winners who received $500, second place winners who received $350 and third place winners who received $200.
The winners included first place winner Brady Gardner from Bethel High School, first place winners Alexis Effinger and Brecken Self from Shawnee High School, second place winners Lorelei Brem and Fabian Pineda, Jr. from Shawnee High School and third place winner Abigail Looper and Bryce Holter from Shawnee High School.
The Student and Teacher of Today award has been around for sixty years. The idea first came to bear in 1959 through the Grand Lodge Education Committee, led by Brother Ferman Phillips, and it was designed to be a program of support for public schools in conjunction with American Education Week.
The Senior Essay Contest was established in 1966 to provide graduating students an opportunity to engage in meaningful discussion on current events. This contest is open to any senior currently enrolled in an Oklahoma Public School. Shawnee area 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners in the Men’s and Women’s Division will receive a certificate and a cash prize. State winners also receive cash prizes, and the winners may spend the funds as they wish.
Each year the Grand Lodge Education Committee spends a great deal of time perusing topics to choose one they believe will challenge seniors to think about the impacts of culture on our everyday lives.
The lodge also presents the Don Askins Memorial Scholarship Awards. Askins was the secretary of the lodge for many years and was an English teacher in the Shawnee School system.
Oklahoma Masons are also a major supporter of the Oklahoma State Teacher of the Year Program and underwrite the costs of the State Superintendent’s Awards for Arts Excellence – a program in which the most outstanding students in instrumental music, voice, drama, writing, dance, painting and sculpting are recognized.