Golden Apple
2018
Reggie the Regent was excited to make classroom visits to our Golden Apple winners last spring.
Excellence breeds excellence Five of Rockford University’s own received Golden Apple Recognition
R
ecently, billboards appeared around the Rockford area featuring the 2018 Golden Apple winners. The Golden Apple Foundation is a volunteerdriven organization that celebrates, inspires and supports educational excellence in the community. Since 1997, the Golden Apple Foundation has grown from honoring teachers in one school district to honoring teachers, principals and volunteers in more than 140 schools, both public and non-public, in Winnebago and Boone counties. Today, the Golden Apple Foundation continues its mission of inspiring, celebrating and supporting educational excellence in the community through four core programs: Awards & Recognition, Teacher Academy, Classroom Grants and Community Engagement. Five teachers and one principal received the Golden Apple award for their excellence in teaching, their dedication to their students and the positive impact they make in the classroom every day. If you’ve driven around the Rockford area, you’ve probably seen the billboards, but what you might not know is that four of the five teachers recognized and the principal awardee are Rockford University alumni. Of course, it really comes as no surprise that so many of the Golden Apple recipients are Rockford University graduates. Since our founding in 1847, we have been preparing education majors to be outstanding teachers. In fact, it’s safe to say that there are more than 1,200 6
teachers in the Rockford and surrounding area who have received their undergrad, graduate, or both degrees here. Since 2009, 29 alumni have been Golden Apple Award winners, two alumnae have been recognized as Illinois Teachers of the Year (2006 Jacqueline Bolger ’83 MAT, and 2008 Ruth Meissen ’98 MAT), one alumnus has been honored as 2015 North Carolina Teacher of the Year (Rockford native James Ford ’09 MAT) and one alumna, was named Wisconsin Teacher of the Year in 2014 (Anne Hasse ’96). The 2019 group of Golden Apple nominees was just announced in early November. More than 420 nominees, with an estimated 25 percent being RU alumni, will go through a comprehensive process of evaluation, narrowing the field to just 20 finalists, and then to the final five awarded in May. All deserving and all inspiring, we are immensely proud of the amazing contributions made by these dedicated educators in classrooms throughout our region. We reached out to some of our most recent Golden Apple winners to find out how their time at RU prepared them for a career in teaching and gave them the edge they needed to excel in the classroom. —As a mom of a special needs son, Rachel Huetson knew she needed to stay close to home as she pursued her degree in Education. Location and the fact that her sister, an RU graduate had a wonderful experience here, made it easy for Rachel to decide to enroll. From the minute she started classes, she knew she had made the right choice. “There is such a hometown and welcoming feel at Rockford University,” Rachel said. “The small class sizes were ideal and to this day, I meet regularly with my classmates who have become great friends.”
