ADL's Southwest Region Receiving Applications for 2009 Walter Kase Teacher Excellence Award

Date: November 18, 2008

Every year, the Anti-Defamation League's (ADL's) Southwest Regional Office gives its Walter Kase Teacher Excellence Award to three Region IV educators who have either created or implemented a program on their campuses that promotes an understanding of and respect for diversity.

The Southwest Regional Office is already accepting applications (pdf) for the 2009 Walter Kase Teacher Excellence Award, and has set January 13, 2009 as the deadline for receiving them.

Who we are looking for:

ADL is looking for teachers, administrators and student support service staff members who have:

• Emphasized diversity by making it an integral part of the curriculum 
• challenged students to question stereotypes and examine their own prejudices as well as those of society
• Empowered students to reject hate in all its forms

Criteria:

• Applicants must be employed in a public, private or parochial school in Region IV (K-12)
• Applicants must be willing to share their teaching strategies with others
• Applicants may be either self-nominated or nominated by others
• Applicants must include two letters of recommendation, and one must be from a supervisor

Each recipient of the award will receive a $500 stipend, an engraved plague, and one full-day A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE® Institute workshop.

Past recipients of the Walter Kase Teacher Excellence Award have sponsored effective anti-bias clubs on their campuses, created a Holocaust-related  project that helped students learn about fighting hatred through the experience of creating art,  and have worked with students to create mini-museums on their campuses dedicated to showing how hatred and bigotry can permeate society.

ADL Education Director Susan Shaw says ADL's Education Committee started the award eleven years ago, to "honor educators who understand the importance of building and sustaining an inclusive school environment so that all students have an opportunity to succeed."

The award is named after Walter Kase, a Houston Holocaust survivor who has dedicated his life in recent years to speaking to students about the dangers of prejudice and bigotry and the importance of love and understanding.

The Walter Kase Teacher Excellence Awards will presented at a luncheon in May.