Receiving the Presidential Award means that the passion that I bring to teaching my students and the relentless drive that I have for them to persevere and grow as mathematical thinkers is finally recognized by a national institution. It has been a privilege to teach and empower students for success through mathematics and to hear from past students who are now successful in STEM-related fields. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I would be recognized for such a prestigious honor!

Jacqueline Macharia Lancaster, MA | 7-12, Mathematics, 2023

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

Jacqueline Macharia has been a tenured mathematics teacher at Luther Burbank Middle School for the past 20 years. She taught seventh grade for five years and has been teaching Algebra 1 and mathematics courses to eighth grade students for the last 17 years. Jacqueline has a passion for helping students learn how to think mathematically through rigorous questions that apply new and past knowledge. She informally mentors other teachers at Nashoba Regional School District and is involved in reviewing the school district's mathematics curriculum as it aligns with the Massachusetts Mathematics Curriculum Framework. Jacqueline's desire to help students love and better understand mathematics has led her to run a vibrant afterschool program that has at least 50 students attending weekly. In the afterschool program, Jacqueline reteaches, remediates, and challenges students to improve their understanding of mathematical concepts and application of mathematical skills. To improve her teaching, she recently took part in professional development in Building Mathematical Thinking Classrooms and is currently implementing those strategies. Jacqueline previously collaborated with Dr. Chen from Edutron to teach more than 20 graduate-level classes. These courses were designed for teachers of mathematics to improve their content knowledge and their classroom pedagogy. Although she was an instructor in these courses, she learned a lot from the teachers. Jacqueline has a B.S. from Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya, and an M.Ed. in Middle School Education from Fitchburg University in Massachusetts, where she was awarded the Outstanding Graduate in Middle School Education in 2006. She is certified in teaching mathematics in fifth through ninth grades.

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