The Presidential Award means that the time I have spent as an educator has been meaningful and has positively impacted my students and colleagues. This award serves to validate my hard work and dedication over the past 16 years. I hope it inspires my fellow teachers to continue their pursuit of excellence in mathematics teaching.

Samantha Wester Fort Benning, GA | DoDEA | K-6, Mathematics, 2022

The official biography below was current at the time of the award.

Samantha Wester has been an educator for 18 years and has spent the last 12 years at McBride Elementary School, a Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) school. For the last four years, she has held the position of Mathematics Instructional Support Teacher and works with kindergarten through fifth grade students. Previously she taught fourth and fifth grades at McBride. Before working at McBride, she taught one year of fourth grade at Millennia Elementary School and five years at Garner Elementary School teaching fifth grade. During her teaching career, she has served as Mathematics Teacher Leader, Focused Collaboration Chairperson, Opening/Safety Committee team member, Scheduling Committee, teacher trainer for Project Based Learning, Mathematics Department Teacher Leader, grade chair, mentor teacher, Positive Behavior Support Foundations team member as well as Thinking Maps Teacher Trainer. Samantha was the Math Competition Club sponsor for McBride Elementary for several years where she taught groups of fourth and fifth grade students to challenge themselves and compete against other schools mathematically. In 2019, she led a team of female students to third place in an all-girls mathematics competition. Samantha has a B.S., cum laude, in elementary education from Ball State University, and an M.A. in educational leadership from the University of South Florida. She is currently working towards a specialist degree in curriculum and instruction from Liberty University.

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