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Five W&L Students Honored as Virginia Teachers of Promise Clay Chadwick ’22, Demmanuel Gonzalez ’21, Caleb Peña ’21, Carolina Rubio Regalado ’22 and Pamela Steimel ’22 were recognized in March by the Virginia Teachers of Promise Institute.

wd1jphzergnzfhbrxc62-600x400 Five W&L Students Honored as Virginia Teachers of PromiseThe institute was established to identify and recognize the best prospective teachers from college and university schools of education across Virginia.

The Virginia Teachers of Promise Institute recently recognized five Washington and Lee University students as Virginia Teachers of Promise. The institute was established to identify and recognize the best prospective teachers from college and university schools of education across Virginia.

The students are Clay Chadwick ’22, Demmanuel Gonzalez ’21, Caleb Peña ’21, Carolina Rubio Regalado ’22 and Pamela Steimel ’22.

“We were excited to have the opportunity to recognize five incredible future educators,” said Haley Sigler, director of education studies at W&L. “The Virginia Teachers of Promise Institute is a great celebration of the teaching profession and offers our students the chance to connect with award-winning teachers from all over the country. We can’t wait to follow the careers of these future teachers and observe the impact they will have for years to come.”

Chadwick was a mentee at the Teachers of Promise conference in March.

“I was exposed to a myriad of expert educators and administrators,” Chadwick said. “Even though the event had to be virtual, the opportunity for learning and acquiring tools for future teaching positions was abundant. As well as listening to and asking questions during presentations, we were grouped with other recognized students from different universities all over Virginia. It was incredibly refreshing to discuss and hear from teachers and future teachers from my home state.”

The conference had 26 sessions, and Steimel found the workshops to be helpful for her career aspirations.

“I was honored to be selected as a Teacher of Promise,” Steimel said. “As an aspiring career teacher, it was so good to be able to attend a teaching conference while I am still in school and begin to build a network of teachers who are all committed to the same thing. There were so many opportunities to learn from others, especially teachers who have been in the field for more than 20 years.”

According to its website, the institute has honored more than 3,000 Teachers of Promise from more than three dozen colleges, universities and high schools.

“The overall experience from the conference was enriching in that it provided me the chance to reframe and renew my appreciation for teaching and all the nuances of taking on the burden of educating future generations of students,” Chadwick said.

If you know a W&L student who has done great, accolade-worthy things, tell us about them! Nominate them for an accolade.