Congratulating Sheena Boyle, left, and Maria Rosario Melendez, center, are, from left, Khalil Graham, Chi-Ann Lin, Miguel Cardona and Violet Jiménez Sims.

Sheena Boyle of Waterbury and Maria Melendez of Bridgeport were honored as the Alma Exley Scholars for 2011 at a reception on Thursday, May 19, in the Noah Webster Library, West Hartford.

Educators and supporters of the program on hand to honor them included five previous recipients of Alma Exley memorial scholarships, Miguel Cardona, Khalil Graham, Violet Jiménez Sims and Chi-Ann Lin.

Dr. Cardona, guest speaker, focused on the role of teachers of color in inspiring all of their students.

Ms. Boyle graduated near the top of her class at Wilby High School and is a student in the five-year Integrated Bachelor’s and Master’s Program at the University of Connecticut. She has a double major in English literature and English secondary education.

Ms. Boyle is an outstanding student at UConn, where her name consistently appears on the Dean’s List. She also is a student worker at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. In connection with her studies in UConn’s Neag School of Education, she has served as peer mentor, a kindergarten tutor and a mentor in the Connecticut Collegiate Awareness and Preparation Program.

Other activities at UConn have included the cheerleading squad, the Teacher Education Student Association, and the Black Student Association. She has remained active in the Waterbury community by coaching the Waterbury Knights Cheerleading squad and volunteering for the NAACP, Grace Baptist Church, and Big Brothers/Big Sisters.

She expects to receive her bachelor’s degree in May 2011 and her master’s degree in May 2012, and plans to teach in an urban school system.

Ms. Melendez received her teaching credentials in the Connecticut Alternate Route to Certification (ARC). She has been teaching Spanish at Cesar A. Battala School in Bridgeport since September.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in special education from the University of Costa Rica in 1999. In San José, she was a elementary special education teacher, serving students with severe cerebral palsy and multiple disabilities. She was also a secondary special education teacher for deaf and mentally retarded students and those with learning or behavioral difficulties.

She immigrated to the United States in 2006 and served as a volunteer teacher and a special education teacher’s assistant at Read School, Bridgeport, before entering the ARC program.

She is proficient in Costa Rican Sign Language as well as American Sign Language. She has also completed the Nonviolent Crisis Intervention Training Program, which promotes early intervention and non-physical methods for preventing or managing disruptive behavior.

Posted May 20, 2011

The honors keep piling up for Desi Nesmith, 2000 recipient of the Alma Exley Memorial Scholarship.

Most recently, Mr. Nesmith was recognized as the State of Connecticut’s top first-year school principal.

The Connecticut Association of Schools chose him as the 2010 recipient of the “William Cieslukowski Outstanding First-Year Principal Award.” Recipients are chosen for exemplary instructional and organizational leadership, a willingness to take risks and the ability to overcome adversity.

He is now in his second year at principal of America’s Choice at SAND Elementary School on Main Street in Hartford. Previously, Mr. Nesmith’s leadership was recognized when his school was the most improved elementary school in Hartford in the results of the Connecticut Mastery Test for 2009-2010.

In May 2010, Mr. Nesmith was among the alumni honored by the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut for their achievements.

In his most recent honor, Mr. Nesmith was recognized for his work in facilitating his school’s transition to the America’s Choice education design and for producing the highest gains on the Connecticut Mastery Test of any elementary school in the district. “It’s truly an honor to be recognized,” Mr. Nesmith said. “But the real credit goes to our students, their parents and to our dedicated teaching staff. I also want to thank America’s Choice for its support throughout this process.”

Established in 1998, the America’s Choice school design provides a combination of professional development, technical assistance and high-quality materials to help turn around schools that have a substantial number of students with difficulty meeting standards. Since then, more than 1,000 schools nationwide have adopted the design.

Mr. Nesmith’s implementation of the America’s Choice design in his first year as principal resulted in a 14.8 percentage point increase in his school’s Overall School Index, the highest increase among elementary schools and the second highest in the entire district.

“Mr. Nesmith wasted no time introducing himself to the community and setting higher expectations for educational success even before the official start of schools,” said Assistant Superintendent Christina Kishimoto, who oversees school redesign. “It was not long before the community was buzzing with talk about the new guy going door to door talking about the new school going into their familiar neighborhood building.”

The new principal also aligned the seventh and eighth grades with the new Journalism and Media Academy giving students a strong writing component to their curriculum. Students also participated in a four-week summer program at the Simsbury Community Farm, where they participated in science and literary classes.

“Desi’s contributions have given life, breadth and depth to the message and vision of America’s Choice at SAND,” said Jennifer Weiss, senior associate of America’s Choice in New York City. “As a first-year principal, faced with seemingly insurmountable challenges and adversity, Desi remained focused and driven curtailing air supply to all potential fires by devoting time an effort where it matters most: with students and teachers.”

A graduate of the University of Connecticut, Mr. Nesmith was a fifth grade teacher at Mayberry School in East Hartford, where he was named Teacher of the Year. He later became a Teacher in Residence in the Connecticut State Department of Education’s School Improvement Unit, and then an Intervention Resource Specialist in the Hartford Public Schools.

“If my own children were just starting elementary school, I would want Desi to be their principal,” said M. Leon McKinley, director of elementary education for Hartford Public Schools. “He’s that good for children.”

Posted October 8, 2010

Sibani Sengupta, Ph.D., a 2009 recipient of an Alma Exley Memorial Scholarship, has been chosen to receive the 2010 Outstanding Biology Teacher Award (OBTA) for Connecticut.

This prestigious award is presented to only one person in Connecticut each year by the National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT).

Dr. Sengupta received her Connecticut teaching certificate through the Alternate Route to Certification, a state program that enables professionals from other fields to teach in public schools.

She holds degrees from the University of Calcutta and a Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut, and she did research as a post-doctorate fellow at the University of Connecticut Health Center.

Dr. Sengupta is chair of the science department at Sacred Heart Academy, Hamden, Conn., where she has taught advanced-placement biology, genetics, and honors and college-prep biology and microbiology. She also runs the Human Gene Discovery Laboratory at the school.

Recipients of the Outstanding Biology Teacher Award will be honored at the NABT National Professional Development Conference in Minneapolis, Minn., on November 5.

Each OBTA recipient will receive science equipment donated by Pearson Prentice Hall Publishing Company, the sponsor of the OBTA program, and a microscope donated by Leica Microsystems, Inc.

The Connecticut Association of Biology Teachers (CTABT) will honor Dr. Sengupta at its Annual OBTA Lecture/Reception in October.

Posted June 14, 2011