Verónica Plata Awarded Pennypacker Prize
The Pennypacker Prize is a special way for us to recognize a teacher of great promise at Winsor. Created in 2002, the award is “given annually in the name of Henriette Pennypacker Binswanger ’52, with respect and admiration for the educational excellence of the Winsor School and the memory of an extraordinary experience.” Henriette attended Wheelock College after graduating from Winsor and went on to earn her MEd. from Harvard. A fervent advocate for women’s rights and environmental preservation, she loved classical music, dragonflies, mid-coast Maine, and was described as having a “sense of absurd humor.”
The Pennypacker Prize is awarded each year to a teacher who is in at least their third year of full-time teaching at Winsor. It’s intended to encourage the recipient’s continuing educational growth and development. This year’s winner joins impressive company: our list of past recipients includes Erin Calamari, Josh Constant, Julia Harrison, Jeremy Johnson, Denise Labieniec, Dana Martin, Kim Ramos, Ken Schopf, Lisa Stringfellow, and Maren Kelsey, to name a few.
The following award presentation—which remains a surprise until awarded!—was given by Head of School Sarah Pelmas during the faculty and staff appreciation dinner on Thursday, March 10, 2022, and announced to students after break on March 31, 2022.
Ms. Pelmas’ remarks are recapped below.
This year’s recipient inspires superlatives. When I reached out to the students to ask for a few words about our winner, here’s what came back to me: “incredible dedication to ensuring that all of her students are actively learning,” “extremely grateful to have had [her] as a teacher,” “we could not ask for a more dedicated advisor,” “compassionate and fun,” and “Her love for her students emulates our love for her classes.” Her department head simply says, “She is astounding.”
The three words that keep coming up about this teacher are: commitment, kindness, and advocacy.
Perhaps I should start with commitment, because this teacher is someone who somehow this winter managed to be fully committed to two very important things simultaneously. On the same day, actually. One Monday morning, this teacher found her department head and said, “Do you mind if—after I teach my classes, of course—I leave a little early today? I want time to get ready.” “Ready for what?” the department head asked. “I’m getting married this afternoon!” she replied. Talk about balancing commitments!
Beyond that, as a teacher, she is deeply committed to helping her students learn, and to becoming the very best teacher she can be. She is incredibly organized and she creates materials that allow students to learn independently and be supported as they review and work through their projects. She is always looking for feedback, in courses she knows well and courses she is teaching for the first time. And she asks her colleagues questions like “How can I make sure I am challenging my students?” She uses message boards, resources from all over, and is always looking for new problems (math problems, that is). Students consistently praise her for always finding new ways to make sure they understand the material, for her clarity and organization, and for making her classes incredibly fun. Says Isabella Liu ’22, “she consistently strives to create transparent, organized, unit and lesson plans that help students stay organized.” And Jessica Wei ’22 comments, “I knew I had to switch from one-semester to full-year Statistics because [her] excitement for the subject is so contagious!” Adds Tia Sheth ’22, “She will ensure that each student understands everything before we collectively move on, creating a classroom environment that is personal and connected.” Indeed, every student I spoke with said the same thing: this teacher is passionate, engaged, and utterly dedicated to her students. In class, she gets the best out of her students through carefully designed activities, gentle persuasion, and genuine caring about them as people and mathematicians.
Outside of the classroom, she is a natural problem-solver and a fierce advocate for those who might need a little help. She meets regularly with her advisees, and in fact, during COVID she met almost daily with a couple of them as they tried to make it through a very tough year. She is in tune with what they need and knows when to push them and when to go to bat for them. This is why she was such a terrific class Dean as well. She was the uber-advisor for every student, knowing them well, helping with the littlest issues all the way to creating re-entry plans for students who had needed time away from the school.
Her kindness is clear to everyone as well. She routinely greets students with “Good morning, sunshine!” and she takes the time to listen when you talk with her. She offers help to any who might need it, and she graciously receives feedback—usually that she herself has solicited. Students in SOMOS say that she “comes to each meeting with energy and a comforting kindness that makes everyone feel not only welcome but understood.” She leads them with kindness, joy, and compassion, a perfect combination for these complex times. And if we need any corroboration of her wonderfulness, her rescue dog, Chico, could tell us stories, too!
As an advisor to Winsor’s newspaper, she helped support the student editors a couple of years ago when they decided that it was time for the Winsor paper to have a Winsor name rather than a Belmont Hill name. There were discussions, and there was voting, all of which led to the paper now being called The Banner. She reads every article, gives feedback on everything, and supports the students at all times.
Angelina Li ’22 sums it up perfectly: “Having known [her] as my advisor, teacher, and Banner advisor, she has easily developed into one of the most influential adults in my Winsor experience. I receive such a great level of support and care from her, whether it’s during an individual advisory meeting, or as we bump into each other in the hallway. Everywhere she goes, [she] brings her contagious, positive energy and her admirable organization skills. As a math teacher, [she] is incredibly patient and willing to go the extra mile to help her students understand the class material. As an academic advisor, she constantly checks in on our well-being and offers up her best advice, while simultaneously giving us the independence to resolve certain issues on our own. [She] is absolutely deserving of this award, and I can’t wait to celebrate with her!”
I can think of no higher praise than what our students have to say. So I ask you to join me in congratulating and celebrating this year’s Pennypacker Prize winner, Verónica Plata.
