NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — MCLA alumna Lindsay St. Pierre-McGinnis M.Ed. '08 has been nominated for the 202 Outstanding Educator Award by the Massachusetts State University System at the Massachusetts State House on April 25.
St. Pierre-McGinnis joins eight other educators who will be recognized for their teaching excellence, especially in the face of challenging situations, as well as their contributions to the communities in which they live and work.
St. Pierre-McGinnis received her Masters of Education at MCLA in 2008 and earned a second master's degree in conservation biology at Antioch University. Lindsay St. Pierre-McGinnis began her career as a conservation biologist and found her passion for teaching after becoming a Middle School Science/Math educator at Gabriel Abbott Memorial School, on a Florida Mountain.
During her time at Abbott, she designed an environmental/outdoor curriculum which included an outdoor classroom with raised garden beds and spearheaded the school's first soccer program.
Currently, Lindsay shares her expertise and environmental activism with her students at Hoosac Valley Middle/High School in Cheshire, Massachusetts. She has helped lead the establishment of a DESE Innovation Pathway Designation in environmental studies, designing curriculum in outdoor leadership, conservation stewardship, food science, and outdoor adventure. She continues to work with MCLA, partnering with the Environmental Studies Department to offer her students college credit for her environmental sustainability course. She has teamed up with colleagues and was awarded a $25,000 grant from the Henry P. Kendall Foundation to establish a sustainable garden program for the high school. MCLA and her community are proud of her work as an educational and environmental leader and honored that she received the MCLA Educator Alumni Award last year.
In 1839, Massachusetts became the first state to recognize the importance of teacher preparation programs with the establishment of normal schools that were free of charge to students who committed to teaching in the Commonwealth's schools. These institutions that were designed specifically to educate school teachers have grown to become comprehensive state universities. Today, nine-member institutions educate students in multiple disciplines beyond education from business, humanities, and social sciences, to natural, formal, and applied sciences. Even with this expanded mission, the State Universities continue to educate over one-third of public school teachers in Massachusetts.
The nine-campus Massachusetts State University System comprises 4-year, baccalaureate, and master's degree-granting teaching universities. They include six comprehensive institutions that combine a liberal arts education with professional development training, which include Bridgewater State University, Fitchburg State University, Framingham State University, Salem State University, Westfield State University, Worcester State University, and three specialized institutions, including the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, and the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Buzzards Bay.
