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	Last updated 6.15.05

2006-2007 Grantee Awards

The William G. Carr Award
Suzanne Strauss, 12th Grade English Teacher
North Hampton High School
North Hampton, MA

To incorporate Russian and Ukrainian literature into her world literature classes, Ms. Strauss traveled to Odessa, Ukraine, to establish an international exchange program. While visiting an Odessa high school, she taught a short course on American woman authors and discussed feminism with the Ukrainian students to develop their English-speaking skills. In conjunction with the Odessa teachers, Ms. Strauss examined Russian literature to expand her own teaching of the texts. After her trip, she implemented an internet exchange between Ukrainian and U.S. students organized around a common writing theme.

The William G. Carr Award honors a grantee whose professional development activities advance international understanding through acquisition of knowledge in subjects such as history, geography, social sciences, literature, and language or area studies. This award was created as a tribute to the former executive secretary of the NEA for his distinguished service to the association in the United States and abroad.

The Hilda Maehling Award
James Everett, 8th Grade Teacher
Nooksack Valley Middle School
Everson, WA
Partner: Tim Scott

Using hand-held computers, Mr. Everett and Mr. Scott piloted a program that provided their colleagues with immediate formative and summative assessments. Through this program, middle-school teachers were able to use assessment data to identify active learning behaviors and create student-specific learning goals to meet the instructional needs and levels of every student in the classroom. Mr. Everett and Mr. Scott shared the results of their pilot with other colleagues throughout the district. In February of 2005, Mr. Everett expanded the pilot program to enable the vocational and social studies teachers at his new teaching assignment in Nooksack Valley High School to use their existing professional development structure to examine assessment strategies and incorporate the hand-held computer assessments into their instruction.


The Hilda Maehling Award honors a grantee whose professional development activities have significantly enhanced the academic skills of additional faculty or staff members in the school or institution. The award is named for the first NEA assistant executive secretary for professional development for her efforts to enhance the prestige of the profession and to encourage participation in the NEA.

The Christa McAuliffe Award
Arlene Costello
Program for Academically Gifted Students
Pensacola, FL

With more than three decades of experience as an educator and education leader, Ms. Costello exemplifies the power of using technology to revolutionize teaching and learning. A past president of the Escambia Education Association in Pensacola, Florida, she served as one of The NEA Foundation's five 1993-94 Christa McAuliffe Educators. In this role, she helped the foundation explore multicultural education and how technology can best be used to meet the needs of the diverse student population in today's schools.

In the early 1990s, Ms. Costello created a pilot gifted and talented program for under-represented students in her school district. For more than a decade, Ms. Costello has been an outstanding spokesperson for the foundation, making presentations and spreading the word about the foundation and its work among education employees in her home city, state, and beyond. She is an effective advocate on behalf of public education, and has served in a number of leadership positions, including National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education advisor.

The Don Rollie Award
Adam Kirsch, 9th to 12th Grade Science Teacher
Crescent Valley High School
Corvallis, OR
Partners: Tim Chambers, David Hackleman

In collaboration with the Botany and Plant Pathology Department at Oregon State University, high school students in science classes developed a plan to use fuel cell technology to convert excess landfill gas to electrical energy. Students analyzed the levels of excess gas that a local landfill was producing and established bacteria culturing techniques to organically reform the gas. Based on their research, students investigated whether high temperature fuel cells are suitable for converting the excess gas to electricity. Students presented their findings and proposed plan to a nonprofit power cooperative and community members.


The Don Rollie Award honors an individual or team of The NEA Foundation's grant recipients whose innovation improves student learning. The award was created to honor a long-time staff member of the National Education Association (NEA) and a friend of The NEA Foundation. It is made possible with the generous support from the Horace Mann Advisory Board.

Click here to see the 2005 recipients

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