Milken Center announces 2010 award recipients

The Lowell Milken Center has awarded its third annual Milken Fellowship and Milken Internship awards.

The recipient of the 2010 Milken Fellowship award is Jennifer Couch, of Georgia, and the 2010 Milken Internship has been awarded to Allyce Torres, of Bloomington, Ill. Lowell Milken Center Director Norm Conard said the two highly-reputable educators arrived in Fort Scott on Monday for about a seven-day stay at the center, 4 S. Main St.

The Milken Fellowship award is awarded on the basis of merit to those educators who have distinguished themselves in teaching respect and understanding through project-based learning. The Milken Intern is chosen among early career educators and graduate/college students, having proven potential for educational change through projects that teach respect and understanding.

Couch will interact with staff at the center in educational meetings that will enhance the center and her work in education. At J.C. Booth Middle School in Peachtree City, Ga., Couch serves as assistant principal and as the instructional lead teacher at the school. Before becoming an administrator, she was a mathematics teacher at the elementary, middle and high school levels. Couch recognized that her primary responsibility is to ensure that every classroom is led by a highly qualified, highly motivated teacher, according to a news release.

A long-time advocate of distributed leadership, Couch has been researching the effects of programs such as the Teacher Advancement Program, and looks forward to empowering her teachers through progressive leadership. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. from Georgia State University. She has studied educational systems abroad, including England's Every Child Matters initiative and its possible contributions to America's No Child Left Behind Act.

Couch has appeared on several teacher leadership programs in conjunction with Georgia Public Broadcasting and Georgia State Superintendent of Public Institution Kathy Cox. Her awards include the Franklin County Exceptional Teacher award, Kedron Elementary Teacher of the Year, Fayette County Teacher of the Year, and the 2004 Milken Educator Award. She is recognized as one of the outstanding educators in America, the news release said.

Torres has worked with the center for some time on a project for which she is developing a script on the story of Vanessa Martinez, a Milken National Educator recipient from Kansas last year. Like Martinez, Torres is a Hispanic American woman who wants to teach and found beauty in the work Martinez had done and in the children Martinez has nurtured, the news release said.

In a statement from the Lowell Milken Center, Torres said she is honored to get a chance to work with the Lowell Milken educators and Martinez on the project.

Torres is a theater student at Illinois Wesleyan University and a native of San Diego, Calif. She has been theatrically trained with the IB Theatre program at Rancho Buena Vista High School, USPA at UCLA, the La Jolla Playhouse, and has tested with the London Academy and New Era programs. She aspires to become a theatre instructor and working actress.

Her many honors include the Alumni Arts Talent Scholarship from Illinois Wesleyan University, the title of Honor Thespian for achievement in the International Thespian, Society Best Actress at the 2009 San Diego Shakespeare Festival, and the Vivian Bisch future theatre educator award from the California Educational Theatre Association. She has also performed at the Apollo Theater in New York City.

The statement from the Lowell Milken Center said the center "is proud to present these two highly recognized women, and we invite you to take this distinctive opportunity to discover how other teachers and students are making a difference in this world in alliance with the true mission of the Lowell Milken Center. Our purpose at the center is to aid in the development of exciting historic diversity projects that teach respect and understanding of all people."

For more information about the award recipients or the Lowell Milken Center, call the center at (620) 223-9991, or visit www.lowellmilkencenter.org