Academic High Schools Awards Celebration
Posing with Family Child Care Providers Chapter Chair Tammie Miller (second from left) are Community Champion Award winners (from left) Luvenia Graham, Shante Parrish, Marvina Pinckney, Nathaly Minaya, Immaculate M. Scott, Ana Cruz and Vice Chair Melissa Reed.
Heroes, change agents, fierce organizers, advocates, motivators, troubleshooters, trusted advisers and leaders. These are some of the words used to describe the 16 UFT members and five schools honored at the UFT’s 2022 Academic High Schools Awards Celebration.
“You all are rock stars and I know you don’t do it for the accolades,” UFT Vice President for High Schools Janella Hinds told the honorees gathered in Shanker Hall at UFT headquarters in Manhattan on April 8. “I know that you do this work for your young people, for your school communities.”
UFT President Michael Mulgrew commended the honorees for their commitment, passion for their craft and resilience in the face of COVID-19 challenges.
“We kept doing our jobs, no matter what was thrown at us,” he said. “But every single person in this room is a hero to the City of New York, and I thank you,”
Michael Hubbs, a global history teacher at New Dorp HS on Staten Island, was one of seven educators to receive an Excellence in Education award. He said the award was special because a former student who is now his co-teacher nominated him.
Many students go to Hubbs for advice, post-secondary planning, perspective and friendly chats, Hinds said. “His students really, really love him,” she said. “He goes out of his way to coordinate student activities like an in-house carnival, gingerbread-house competition and multiple fundraisers for several causes.”
At Ralph R. McKee Career and Technical Education HS on Staten Island, fourth-year special education teacher Alyssa Morganti was nominated for an Excellence in Education award because she is always willing to help colleagues and students, said teacher David Sarno, the school’s student activities coordinator. She started the Newspaper Club and is the National Honor Society and National Technical Honor Society adviser.
Beyond that, Sarno said, Morganti facilitates lab classrooms for educators to share best practices and learn from one another. “We don’t have a Teacher Center in our school. Alyssa’s room is our Teacher Center,” he said.
Muneerah Young (second from left), a teacher at the Thurgood Marshall Academy for Learning and Social Change in Harlem, celebrates her Outstanding Union Activist award with family and friends.
