OSHKOSH (NBC 26) — Over $60,000 and 50 awards were given out to educators in Oshkosh Monday night, part of the Celebrate Education event.
- Celebrate Education is an annual event with the Oshkosh Area Community Foundation giving grants and awards to Oshkosh teachers.
- Over the past 20 years– not including Monday night’s donations– the event has given over $740,000 to teachers.
- Dr. Phong Nguyen, choir director at Vel Phillips Middle School, was given an Outstanding Middle School Teacher Award.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story, edited for web)
“It's not about teaching choir, it’s teaching so much more than music,” Dr. Phong Nguyen, choir director at Vel Phillips Middle School, says. “I couldn’t ask for a better job.”
After teaching music at a college in Minnesota for several years, Dr. Nguyen took a job in the Oshkosh Area School District.
“In music we teach the young people of the future to learn how to function in society properly,” he says.
He was one of seven to be given the Outstanding Middle School Teacher Award on Monday night.
“This is actually my first ever award,” he says. “It just feels great to be recognized. It’s an assurance to go, you’re doing all the right things.”
It was part of the Celebrate Education event with the Oshkosh Area Community Foundation.
“Education is so important for the future of our community,” OACF director Bill Wyman says.
On top of awards, teachers are given grants for projects or classroom resources.
“The teachers have a lot of cool little ideas that we can support,” Wyman says.
Over the past 20 years– not including Monday night’s donations– the event has given over $740,000 to teachers.
A way to help teachers like Dr. Nguyen continue to change lives.
“You don’t do the grind of teaching for awards, you do it for your students, you do it for seeing the incredible growth of the kids in this area,” Nguyen says.
