Teacher recognized nationally, wins presidential award

“In July, I get this note from the White House, which alone was like this moment of [surrealism], because I get this email, and at the top of it it’s ‘Executive Branch of the Federal Government,’” math teacher Gregory Sand said when he was first informed that he had won the Presidential Award for math and science teachers. The Presidential Award is given out to exceptional math and science teachers nationwide every two years, and it is a “pretty rigorous process.”

This honor allowed for Sand to travel to Washington, D.C. for a three day conference, which included a ceremony where he was officially ‘crowned’ the winner from the state of Nebraska.

The process of winning this award began after being nominated by math department head Brent Larson, and after being nominated, he had to go through an extensive verification. Requirements that Sand had to meet included having a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution, teaching 7^th grade through 12^th grade math and teaching at least half-time in a school. After the submission of the application, a committee from the state graded it with an intricate rubric, and a minimum score had to be achieved.

Sand was one of three state finalists. The three state finalists were sent on to the National Science Foundation where the lengthy process was completed again without any notes from the state.

Sand had made the Presidential Award a goal of his. He had been aware of the award for at least ten years, and he wanted an award like this that featured people judging his work and his accomplishments thus far.

“There’s a lot of cool awards I’ve been fortunate enough to win, but they’ve all been through letters or nominations by students… So, there’s a real satisfaction and a real joy to be able to say, ‘Yes, I won this thing that I applied for,’” Sand said.

However, even though this had been a goal of his, Sand was not expecting to win. One of the three finalists was the Neb. teacher of the year in 2003, and Sand knew that the process that went into receiving this award was even more rigorous than that of the Presidential Award, so Sand assumed, ‘”There’s just no question that she should win.’” The other finalist was a teacher from Lincoln High, and even though Sand did not personally know her, he knew of her and knew of how highly people thought of her.

Noting this, Sand felt proud enough to have made it in the top three, and did not expect his accomplishment to exceed a state finalist, but was “floored” when he did, in fact, win.

Amidst writing his comprehensive exams for his students, Sand received the email from the White House. After he received the email, it was right back to finishing up his exams; Sand had no time to enjoy this prestigious honor, and he was restrained from telling anyone besides his immediate family.

“It was like, ‘I really want to be excited about this, but [the email said] to not tell anybody but my immediate family,’ okay, so I tell my wife, and then it’s just go back to work,” Sand said.

The worst part of this was that Sand had so much work that he still had looming over his head. One of the biggest things that Sand was looking forward to going on this three day trip was “the time to stop and enjoy [winning this award].”

After completing requirements prior to flying to Washington, D.C., such as completing a background check to receive the money that came with winning the award, Sand was ready for the trip. He was ready to become a part of “a really cool club” of great teachers that Sand had “sort of sneaked” his was way into and convinced everyone that he belonged.

Registration was on a Wednesday, and from here Sand’s schedule was packed. Recipients got to enjoy walking around and exploring the National Zoo on the day of registration, and had free time later in the week to walk around the city, but mainly days were filled with ceremonies, dinners and sessions. Sand said it was very regimented, but no one complained.

Before the trip, Sand had looked forward to getting a chance to converse with all the recipients from the other states.

“You know that once you get a lot of like minds together for a short period of time it is really enjoyable…” Sand said.

He was not disappointed. Sand, alongside all of the other people that attended, did policy work during the three days away.

“We really had a chance to talk with people who set policy… Their view is, ‘How do we prepare the next generation of workers, and what are the things we need.’ The discussion wasn’t at the classroom level. It was like how do we set policies at the federal level that empower the teachers at the classroom level… It was really an intense three days’ worth of work,” Sand said.

The only downfall of the trip was that President Barack Obama was in Laos an extra day, so they were not able to meet the president and take a quick picture with him. Sand was a bit upset, since he was very excited prior to the trip about meeting the president, but he did get to hear from the Secretary of Energy, and his assistant who was the first female executive for Google.

“You learn quickly that everyone who is in one of those positions is the coolest person you’ve ever met,” Sand said.

From this trip, not only did Sand create great relationships with both math and science teachers, adding that there was no ‘average’ person in the room, but more, he realized how great Central is doing compared to other high schools across the country.

Sand sometimes found out by talking to other teachers from other states that it is a struggle for them to offer a more advanced class than geometry at their school. So, Central, and more Omaha Public Schools, are doing respectively well.

“As a state and as a district, we are doing a great job. I said to a number of people that we are very critical. We should be critical… but at the same time… half of U.S. high schools don’t offer calculus… A third of high schools don’t offer pre-calculus and a quarter of high schools don’t even offer advanced algebra or algebra ¾… The fact that Omaha Central has an immensely diverse population… and we’re meeting all those needs… the fact that we can offer them is tremendous,” Sand said.

Sand plans on continuing to teach at Central, and later meddling in the college scene, but knows now he is held to an even higher standard than he was held at before.