English teacher Ms. Jennifer Mackensen was recently awarded the Golden Apple Teaching Award.

On Jan. 24, Mr. Pituch along with Lou Baxter from Jet 24 and representatives from PennWest Edinboro surprised Ms. Mackensen during one of her classes. The organization chose her for the Golden Apple award for excellence in teaching. The student-nominated award is meant to recognize the work that teachers are doing in the classroom.

“Teaching can be a very thankless profession,” Ms. Mackensen said, “and some days you don’t really know if you’re accomplishing much, so to receive that validation is really special.”

Ms. Mackensen teaches English and Leadership classes at Prep, and many students have high opinions of her and her teaching ability. The award still was a surprise to her, however.

“I was shocked,” she said. “I had no idea it was happening, and it was pretty unbelievable actually.”

Senior Aliyah Castner, the student who nominated Ms. Mackensen, says she appreciates the hard work that she has done for her and the school.

“All great teachers should be recognized,” Ali said, “and Ms. Mackensen is the face of what teaching should be.”

Ms. Mackensen believes she was nominated because of the hard work she puts into connecting to her students so that class is more than just bland lecturing.

“I think it was a special relationship between the student and I,” she said. “I try hard to form a relationship with the student so its not just content, and I believe my particular teaching style really spoke to her over the years.”

She is very appreciative of the prestigious award and the recognition that she has received, but believes she is not the only teacher at Prep to deserve an award.

“I’m very grateful and humbled by it,” she said. “I also recognize I work with tremendous educators in this building, and there should be many more Golden Apples here. Teaching, in my book, is definitely a collaborative thing.”