Not only do Ivy League schools regularly admit top graduates from Central Academy, the teachers there impress them, too.
Sherry Brooks, who heads the academy English Department, has been selected as a recipient of the 2019 Yale Educator Award.
The award is sponsored by the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at Yale College and recognizes educators who inspire and support their students to achieve excellence.
Students entering the Yale Class of 2023 were asked to nominate outstanding educators who deeply impacted their lives. Brooks was nominated by Forrest LaPrade.
This year’s 311 nominees represent 40 states and 23 countries. Of them, only 55 teachers and 18 counselors received the award.
“I am extremely honored that Forrest nominated me,” said Brooks. “He was instrumental in helping me reformat my senior literature class last year. He is such an amazing student and person that to be nominated by him means the world to me. I have worked hard over the last 23 years to help students find their places in this world. I know they might not remember what literature I assign, but they will remember the ideas that I enforce about inclusion and acceptance. It is quite an honor to receive this recognition for teaching such amazing students year in and year out.”
“Sherry created a special class for Forrest in his senior year,” said CA Director Jessica Gogerty. “It led to the development of a new radically accelerated English pathway for our most gifted literature and composition students.”
This distinction is just the latest to decorate Brooks’ esteemed career.
She previously received the Who’s Who Among American Teachers Award twice and last spring received the Distinguished Secondary Teacher Award through Northwestern University, also as the result of nomination by one of her students, Ariana Moore. The Northwestern recognition included $5,000 for Central Academy’s English department and a $5,000 prize for Brooks.
Congratulations, Ms. Brooks. Keep sending your students onward and upward – but stay right where you are!