Honor Scholar
Charles and Joan Westmen Battey National Educator Award
The Charles and Joan Westmen Battey National Educator of the Year Award is administered by the Honor Scholar Program thanks to the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Battey. Joan Westmen Battey, a graduate of the DePauw Class of 1954, and her husband Chuck, established the Award in 2008 as a way to acknowledge, recognize and thank educators who have made a difference in the lives of DePauw's students. During the fall semester, Senior Honor Scholars are invited to
submit brief essays nominating a high school teacher who inspired them profoundly during their high school years and continues to have an impact on their intellectual curiosity. The Award entails a cash prize for the winner, as well as monies for the high school, to be spent on the winner’s recommendations. The Honor Scholar Program also prepares a plaque for the winner and for the principal so that the Award recipient may be recognized within his or her high school.
This Award has had a wonderful effect on Senior Honor Scholars, prompting them to reflect on their intellectual roots and on the road they have traveled from high school to where they are today. Students have responded enthusiastically to the invitation to submit names, and it has been a pleasure to celebrate excellence in high school education in this way.
2009 Charles and Joan Westmen Battey National Educator: Andrew Goodwin
Covenant Christian High School, Indianapolis, IN
An excerpt from Todd Schmid's (Class of 2009) nominating essay:
"Scraping frost from his car in the merciless Indiana mornings, Mr. Andy Goodwin, affectionately known by his students as “Don Andrés,” arrived at school in the dark. 7:00 A.M: my teacher of four years flipped the switch and Spanish V began, a one-on-one class he created organically just for me. Wrestling through the pages of Carlos Fuentes’ The Buried Mirror, through Chicano short stories, through the politics of Latin America, we worked to build a bridge across the linguistic Rubicon between my English-speaking world and my growing Hispanophilia."
"My Spanish education soared through Goodwin’s meticulous planning and tireless commitment to intellectual curiosity. Spanish was the language spoken in his classroom: all-immersion, all the time, with no exceptions. It was in this language that he asked us whether it was Don Quixote, or the world, that was crazy."
Pictured above: Neal Abraham, Jamie Goodwin, Andrew Goodwin, Joan Westmen Battey, Todd Schmid, and Charles Battey
Pictured Left: Todd Schmid and Andrew Goodwin
