by Christopher Peak | Oct 1, 2019 2:52 pm

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Posted to: Hometown Heroes, Schools, Fair Haven

Lauren Sepulveda felt like a “pretty average” high school student with no direction — until a social studies teacher encouraged her to sign up for an Advanced Placement class and compete in National History Day.

Sepulveda, now a social studies teacher herself at Fair Haven’s Clinton Avenue School, found out just how exceptional she is when she was surprised Tuesday with a $25,000 check for being one of the country’s best teachers.

That check came from the Milken Family Foundation, which honored Sepulveda as one of this year’s top educators during at a morning assembly in her school’s gym.

Since 1987, the Milken Educator Award has recognized promising educators who are still early in their careers.

Jane Foley, the senior vice president of the California-based foundation, said it’s a way of recognizing the stellar educators who don’t get enough credit for “teaching the people who get all the other awards.”

This year, Sepulveda received the very first award on Milken’s national tour that will tap nearly 40 teachers and principals in districts across the country.

Sepulveda spoke on Tuesday of how she has always tried to emulate her role model and high school social studies teacher, Ms. Taylor, in being “relentless about holding high expectations for our students,” like herself, who might not even realize what they’re capable of.

That drive caught the attention of Milken, and it resulted in the surprise recognition.

Sepulveda, who teaches history and world cultures to seventh and eighth graders, is the only Connecticut recipient this year and the first New Haven recipient since 2007.

Foley said the foundation picked her because she “brings history to life” and teaches students their “responsibilities as global citizens.”

After graduating from Southern Connecticut State University in 2010, Sepulveda started her teaching career in New Haven.

She’s spent most of the decade at Clinton Avenue School, right by where her parents lived before they headed out to the suburbs. “I can see myself as one of the kids,” she said.

In her classes, Sepulveda often encourages students to take a critical look at what’s being taught and what’s being left out.

For one assignment, she asked students to figure out what was missing from the textbook’s section on the Revolutionary War. They wrote up a new chapter featuring forgotten voices and they sent it to the publisher.

Sepulveda also makes the lessons real. She’s brought in guest speakers, including veterans from World War II and survivors of the Rwandan Genocide. And she’s asked students to draft a bill that the entire class would approve like a legislative body.

Outside class, Sepulveda has organized community service, like hurricane relief fundraising and food drives, and she advises the student council. She has a spot on the school’s culture and climate committee and on the district’s equity and strategic planning committees. She mentors beginning teachers and she helps the state recruit new teachers.

“The successes we continue to see in districts around the state are in large part due to the dedication and passion that educators like Lauren Sepulveda bring to the classroom,” Miguel Cardona, the state’s education commissioner, said in a statement.

“As educators, we know that the way to get students engaged is by presenting them with content that helps them apply context and meaning to what they are learning,” he went on. “Lauren’s approach to social studies challenges students to go above and beyond textbook lessons with exciting activities that resonate and enrich their learning experience, leading them to form real-world connections with the subject matter at hand.”

At Tuesday’s ceremony, state officials applauded Clinton Avenue’s recent turnaround.

Over the last four years, with a new principal and a turnaround grant, reading proficiency scores have nearly doubled, marking the largest gains of any elementary school in the district.

Then Foley said that she had a surprise for one educator in the gym.

She called up six students who, like on a daytime game show, held up green squares with digits that represented the cash prize. They started out at $250, then multiplied it exponentially by adding additional zeros.

When Desi Nesmith, the state’s chief turnaround officer, brought out the last square, for a total of $25,000, students screamed and stomped their feet against the hardwood basketball court in a drumroll of excitement.

Foley pulled out an envelope and read out Sepulveda’s gold-embossed name.

For a moment, she stood in the bleachers in shock. Her class cheered her on, as she hugged other teachers. The television cameras all trained on her. She thanked everyone in the school and the city. She said it all felt “unbelievable” and “unreal.”

Sepulveda said she plans to use the money to continue her education at Quinnipiac University. She’s obtaining a master’s in educational leadership, a six-year degree, that will allow her to become certified for a principal position.

In an email, Taylor, her former social-studies teacher, said she knew Sepulveda would pass on the inspiration to the next generation of students, who’d been just like her.

“The most rewarding experience for any teacher is to know that they have had a role in inspiring their students to find their passion and become successful,” she wrote. “This is why we teach, and knowing how hard Lauren works, I know that she is passing that passion down to her students and making a difference in their lives.”

In a speech during the convocation ceremony last school year, after she was named the district’s Teacher of the Year, Sepulveda reminded teachers how their work — that often means ending the day with “our heart on the classroom floor” — can have an effect that lasts a lifetime, just like she said Taylor had done for her.

“Being an educator is such a powerful profession, but we must wield our powers delicately,” Sepulveda said. “Even having one teacher who doesn’t make the vital and necessary relationships can turn a student off from learning all together. However, we also have the ability to take a child, who may arrive to us unsure of their talents and skeptical of school, and turn them into passionate learners for the rest of their lives.

“We can no longer hold the dated ‘it was good enough for me’ philosophy. This means shifting the mindset from what our students cannot do, the limits they face and what may seem out-of-reach to them, to instead focus on what our students are capable of, how we can support their talents and what opportunities we as educators can create,” she went on.

“Remember we have one of the most important jobs there is,” she concluded, “and I believe in my heart that no one knows how to do it better than us.”