COLLEGE STATION, May 13, 2010 – Mary Barter, a former chemistry teacher at Arlington Heights High School in Fort Worth, and Doris Cox, an English teacher at Winston Churchill High School in San Antonio, will be presented the Texas A&M University Inspiration Award for Exceptional Education during the institution’s commencement ceremonies Saturday (May 15).
Both presentations will be at 9 a.m. in Reed Arena, where approximately 12,000 will be in attendance, including the Aggie graduates, family members and friends.
Teachers selected to receive this unusual award – believed to be the first of its type presented by any university in Texas – are nominated by former students who are scheduled to graduate from Texas A&M.
Recipients of the award are recognized during commencement ceremonies and presented checks for $2,000. Their high schools receive $1,000 checks.
As a university known for valuing excellence, leadership and service, Texas A&M sponsors the award as a way of recognizing those values in the teachers who have inspired and challenged their students to excel, officials note.
“Mrs. Barter’s passion for chemistry and dedication to her students was legendary at Arlington Heights,” says Emily Faulk, who nominated her former teacher for the award. “She teaches the most difficult courses, but in spite of that her classes were almost always full.”
Barter says she was humbled and very excited when she heard about the award and was deeply touched that Faulk took the time to write a tribute to her.
“As a teacher, I have always prayed I would have a positive impact on the students and draw out the best in them,” Barter noted. “How I love those spontaneous ‘Ah-ha’ moments when the kids get something.”
Barter says teaching is a calling and not a job and it is a joy and privilege to work with wonderful kids.
“I love being in the classroom and I learn just as much as they do.”
Barter was forced to give up teaching this year when diagnosed with cancer. She says the outpouring of care from her students has been tremendous. “I would find letters from the kids under my doormat, flowers on my porch and invitations to go have coffee with them. I found out that I had impacted and inspired them and I can’t ask for a greater blessing.”
“Mrs. Cox showed me that learning doesn’t always come easy,” says Anna Garcia, the former student who nominated Cox for the award. “Sometimes you have to read between, beyond and below the lines.”
Having a literal mind, Garcia says she had a very hard time with poetry and literary interpretation. “Admittedly, I was a skeptic about artistic creation in general. I was under the impression that poets and artists threw rhymes onto paper, words onto pages and paint on a canvas and some of them got lucky.”
Cox taught Garcia how to find the structure in what appeared to be random and definition in the obscure. “I learned that things fit together in the end and it was not by chance. The creator always has a purpose.”
Garcia notes that as she comes to the end of her college career, she may be uncertain about the future but the lessons she learned from Cox and has carried with her through college will help her in the years to come, no matter where she is or what she is doing.
“I learned that things don’t always come easily and sometimes you have to dig; there is always structure and purpose; and most importantly, perception is not reality.”
As Inspiration Award recipients, Barter and Cox will be given the opportunity to present their former students with their Texas A&M diplomas – an honor normally retained by the university president. In the past, graduating students who receive their diplomas from their award-winning teachers say that makes a special day even better and the teachers say the best part of the award is getting to present a college diploma to one of their most memorable students.
Contact: Tura King, News & Information Services, at (979) 845-4670