A FILIPINO-American was selected as one of the five California Teachers of the Year.

Lovelyn Marquez-Prueher, an English teacher at Dodson Middle School in Rancho Palos Verdes, was also one of the 16 Los Angeles County Teachers of the Year for the 2014-15 school year.

“We’re very honored that one of our teachers from Los Angeles County is one of the top five among the state’s more than 300,000 teachers,” Los Angeles County Superintendent of Schools Arturo Delgado said in a statement.

With her new title, Marquez-Prueher said the attention she has been receiving is humbling.

“But I’m proud because when my parents first came to the United States …. It was definitely a goal for them to make sure that I finished college, that I found a career I was passionate about and that I’m happy,” she said.

At a young age, Marquez-Prueher said she knew she always wanted to be a teacher.

With 12 years of teaching experience, the first Philippine-born teacher to win this award has taught at multiple schools.

In her first three years, she taught at Le Conte Middle School; her next four years after that were spent at Wilmington Middle School; then she took two years off from teaching in the LAUSD to care for her newborn child, but served as an adjunct instructor at Cal State Los Angeles and Mount St. Mary’s College; and for the last three years she has been at Dodson Middle School.

Originally from Bacoor, Cavite, Marquez-Prueher and her family relocated to Southern California when she was 9 years old.

As a California Teacher of the Year, Marquez-Prueher said she feels she will be able to show the Filipino community, “that we’re kind of a force to be reckoned with,” among other things.

She said Filipinos are hard working, goal-oriented, and supportive of each other as a community.

“So an achievement of one is an achievement of all,” she said. “I definitely would not be here without the support of my parents, my extended family and all the Filipino friends that we made here in the United States,” she said.

Marquez-Prueher will be formally awarded in Sacramento on Feb. 9.

In September, two Filipinos, including Marquez-Prueher, were selected as LA County Teachers of the Year.

Maricar Fortuno Catalan, also a teacher in the LAUSD, was also considered for the California Teachers of the Year award, which recognizes those who best represent the state’s teachers and embody what teaching contributes to quality education.

The competition is part of the National Teacher of the Year program, the nation’s oldest, most prestigious recognition program that highlights excellence in teaching.

(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Weekend December 13-16, 2014 Sec. A pg.1)