Amelia Garcia, an English teacher at Nazareth Academy for the past 15 years, is one of 30 finalists for The Golden Apple Excellence in Teaching Award.
“I’m overwhelmed, excited and grateful,” Garcia said in a telephone interview. “People have been so kind.”
Garcia lives with her husband and two daughters in Chicago’s Southside Back of the Yards neighborhood, and was born in Marquette Park. She spent her teen years in the Mt. Greenwood area, where she went to middle school and then graduated from Mother McCauley High School.
The Golden Apple Awards began in 1985 and grew out of the inspiration of venture capitalist Mike Koldyke and his late wife, Pat. They happened to be watching the Academy Awards on television and the thought occurred to Koldyke that teachers were a group that should be honored.
“He said, ‘there should be teachers up there,'” Alan Mather, President of the Golden Apple Foundation, said.
The organization’s excellence in teaching award is open to teachers throughout the metropolitan area and this year drew 400 applicants.
The applicants for the 10 excellence in teaching awards — which comes with a $5,000 prize and a Spring and Summer sabbatical to Northwestern University — come from teachers nominated for the award throughout the year by members of a school’s community.
The organization then sends teams of people out to the schools to interview students, teachers, administrators, parents, and various other stakeholders in the school community.
“It is from these visits that we determine who is eligible to be a recipient of the award,” Mather said.
The teachers then write a series of essays and submit letters of recommendation from community sponsors, and the 30 finalists are chosen from the pool of applicants.
Garcia did her undergraduate work at DePaul University’s Lincoln Park Campus, where she earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Secondary Education and English; she also holds a Masters in Interdisciplinary Studies, also from DePaul.
“I really enjoyed my time at DePaul,” she said, singling out the faculty and staff for special praise.
After finishing college, Garcia worked for about a year at the Huntington Learning Center’s La Grange Park location, but then was hired as a full-time teacher at the now-closed Notre Dame High School for Girls in Chicago.
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Garcia taught English honors classes at Notre Dame before being hired at Nazareth, where she continues in the English Department, also teaching Honors English II for 10th graders.
“It’s always been a part of my experience at Nazareth,” she said, “and it’s a great course to be a part of.”
Therese Hawkins, Nazareth Principal, said in a news release that Garcia is a testament to the fact that teachers can have the highest expectations of students while creating positive, impactful relations with them.
“Ms. García’s passion for literature and her masterful skills at facilitating deep, thought-provoking discussion are second to none,” Hawkins said in the statement. “She is an admired and much loved member of the Nazareth Academy Family and we are bursting with pride at this recognition.”
Garcia also teaches Advanced Placement English and Composition, and she has been able to include in her curriculum writers from diverse backgrounds, including Sandra Cisneros, the award-winning author of The House on Mango Street and the short story collection Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories.
“I’ve always taught AP English and Composition, and at Nazareth we’ve always been able to implement diverse voices into our curriculum,” she said. “The more viewpoints we are exposed to, the more we grow. I want to show the other perspectives that are out there and have always been out there.”
Garcia noted that she was currently teaching Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities and wanted people in the community to know that there were “multiple stories out there and there is space for all of them to be read.”
In addition to her duties as a teacher, Garcia also serves on Nazareth’s Diversity Club as a moderator for the club’s Latinx Affinity Group, which seeks to raise awareness about issue facing the Latinx community.
Another critical aspect of Golden Apple’s mission is addressing what the organization’s website describes as a critical shortage in teachers.
“In the Fall of 2020, there were more than 1,900 unfilled teachers positions in Illinois, up from over 1,800 in 2019,” reads the post on the web page.
While the teacher shortage is real, there exists no worry that Garcia will abandon the profession.
“I love being in the classroom,” she said. “This is my career.”
Hank Beckman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.