Class 27 Celebration
May 19, 2022
Click below to view the celebration recording.
Celebration Program and Presentation
Click below to view the celebration recording.
Celebration Program and Presentation
Leah Carper, an English teacher at Northern Guilford High School, was named the 2022 Burroughs Wellcome Fund North Carolina Teacher of the Year during an awards luncheon on Friday, April 1, 2022 at the Umstead Hotel in Cary. Carper was selected from a field of nine finalists representing the state’s eight education districts and charter schools.
She said she takes her cues from her students and what they need and tailors her approach to what works best for them.
“My classroom isn’t just my classroom; it’s theirs too,” she explains. “No matter what, I’m always willing to try something new, creative, weird, or random if I think it will effectively grab and keep the attention and imagination of my students.”
“I want nothing more than for my students to feel safe when they are in my class,” she said. “I want them to feel like if they have a question or a comment, they are safe to share it. I want them to feel safe to express if they’re struggling emotionally and need an extension on an assignment. I want them to feel like our classroom is a safe place to laugh and express themselves, because when they feel safe, they can learn.”
Carper said that if she can help her students understand what it means to be a good person, she can say she was a successful teacher.
“I teach English. We cover reading and writing skills in my class,” she said. “I have taught my students grammar, vocabulary, writing, research, rhetoric, and poetry. My students score well on their standardized tests, too.
“But when my students reach out to me years after leaving my classroom, they don’t talk about how great it is that they finally learned what a transition sentence does. They talk about how the class made them feel and about how it made them think about the world around them.”
The North Carolina Principal Fellows Program, launched in 1993, is a scholarship program that provides funding to exemplary educators who aspire to begin a career in school administration. For twenty six years, scholarship funds (in the amount of ~$3.2 million) have been awarded. The Transforming Principal Preparation Program is a competitive state grant ($4 million) which requires NC university programs to apply through a Request for Proposal process in order to receive funding. Again, this is a grant awarded to university programs and not a scholarship awarded directly to students.
To read more about about the TP3 and Principal Fellows Program consolidation, click here. You can also find more information on the Principal Preparation Program by visiting BEST NC.
The NCPFP prepared me for a successful career as a school administrator. The program made me aware of current school conditions and helped me recognize ways that I could support students and teachers with various problems in numerous settings. The NCPFP also helped me build a foundation for a doctoral program which I recently completed.
I’ve been through the NC Principal Fellows Program as a student and also have enjoyed the pleasure of being a Principal mentor for another NC Principal Fellow. Without question, the strongest, most-prepared administrative candidates seem to be produced from the North Carolina Principal Fellows Program.
Being a NC Principal Fellow did not “get” me a job; however, the experiences I had because of the program, and the constant reflection about my practice, prepared me well for my current role as a principal. UNCG and its focus upon the cultural foundations of education helped me to become a principal that questions, so that children continue to be the focus of all that I and my staff do to create a positive, worthwhile education for our children.
The indescribably rigorous and extremely relevant material and assignments I was exposed to as a NC Principal Fellow uniquely prepared and filled me with an immense level of confidence, pride and organizational skills. I find myself incredibly energized and capable of being student-oriented, supportive of my co-workers, compassionate, and understanding of parents, as well as very patient.
I am proud to be an alumni of the NC Principal Fellows professional learning community. NCPFP provided a wealth of opportunities for me to grow and learn as a school executive. Without the NC Principal Fellows Program, I would not have gained from the experience of working with a variety of school principals at different levels. The professional development and internships from the program have broadened my thinking and shaped me into a much better administrator.
If it had not been for the North Carolina Principal Fellows Program, I would not have been able to participate in the MSA program. The opportunity to develop as a professional on a full time basis was too good to pass up. The internship year provided me with learning opportunities that part-time students never experience. As a result, I entered the administrative workforce more knowledgeable and more confident.