After a three-year wait, the 2020 and 2022 classes of the National Teacher’s Hall of Fame will be enshrined in Emporia this week as the hall of fame.
Inductees began arriving Monday to Emporia with induction activities scheduled to begin Tuesday with a bus tour of Emporia. Inductees will appear on KVOE’s On Air Chat and Talk of Emporia Wednesday at 10:05 am and 11:06 am respectively before a roundtable webinar at Emporia State’s Visser Hall in the afternoon followed by a dinner and trivia challenge Wednesday evening inside of the Lyon County History Center.
Thursday’s activities include a crafts day with local children inside the Little Theatre at White Auditorium, an induction ceremony rehearsal, a meeting with the ESU Board of Trustees and the annual Emporia Municipal Band Concert at Fremont Park beginning at 7 pm. Friday will see the rededication of the Memorial to Fallen Educators at ESU beginning at 10 am.
KVOE will broadcast the rededication in its entirety on KVOE TV at KVOE.com. This all leads up to the official induction ceremony beginning at 5 pm inside the ESU Memorial Union Ballroom.
Hall of Fame Director Carol Strickland says it is almost surreal to think we have finally reached this point after COVID-19 forced multiple postponements in recent years.
This year’s induction activities also mark the 30th year anniversary of the National Teachers Hall of Fame which was founded by Emporia State University, the ESU Alumni Association, the City of Emporia, USD 253, and the Emporia Area Chamber of Commerce in 1989.
This year’s list of inductees includes:
2020 CLASS:
*Andrew Beiter, a middle school eighth-grade social studies teacher from Springville, NY.
*Thomas Knab, a K-4 visual arts teacher at Dodge Elementary School in East Amherst, NY.
*Melissa Collins, a second-grade teacher at John P. Freeman Optional School in Memphis, TN.
*Donna Gradel, a retired 10th-12th grade Environmental Science teacher from Broken Arrow High School, and current Dean of Academics and Innovation at Summit Christian Academy in Broken Arrow, OK.
*Jamil Siddiqui, a 9th to 12th-grade Mathematics teacher at East Bridgewater Junior/Senior High School in East Bridgewater, MA.
2022 CLASS:
*Sergio de Alba, a 6th-grade teacher at R.M. Miano Elementary School in Los Banos, CA.
*Robert Fenster, a 10th-12th grade Social Studies teacher at Hillsborough High in Hillsborough, NJ.
*Leila Kubesch, an 8th- 12th grade TESOL and Spanish teacher at Norwood High School in Norwood, OH.
*Kareem Neal, a 9th – 12th grade Special Education teacher at Maryvale High School in Phoenix, AZ.
*Christopher Poulos, a 9th -12th-grade Spanish teacher at Joel Barlow High School in Redding, CT.
More information can be found online at NTHF.org or on the National Teacher’s Hall of Fame Facebook page.
