Recent UHV graduate wins teaching award
KATY – Lisbeth Wicker, who graduated from the University of Houston-Victoria School of Education & Human Development in 2009, recently was named one of two Outstanding First Year Teachers for 2010 by the Katy Independent School District.
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| Lisbeth Wicker |
“I’m just totally honored that they would choose me,” she said. “I’m a product of the Katy schools. I went to elementary school, junior high and high school here, and I just wanted to come back to inspire and share my enthusiasm for teaching. My children attend school in Katy.”
At 38, Wicker, a first-grade teacher at Kilpatrick Elementary School, said she’s probably older than the average award recipient. She worked in the early childhood profession for almost 18 years, 10 of those as a pre-kindergarten teacher at a Christian school in Katy. After all that time, she decided to go back to school to turn her associate degree into a bachelor’s degree.
Her classes at UHV provided her with the knowledge she needed to make the move from pre-kindergarten to first grade.
“It just helped me know what I needed to do to be a great teacher,” she said.
Her classes at the University of Houston System at Cinco Ranch, where UHV offers education classes and many other programs, were within walking distance of the school at which she worked.
The UHV School of Education & Human Development’s leader praised Wicker for her accomplishments.
“Alumna like Mrs. Wicker bring honor to our school and this university,” Dean Lawrence Rossow said. “We’re all very proud of her and her accomplishments.”
Along with her education, Wicker credits one other thing with her teaching excellence.
“I love children, and I know I’m touching the future,” she said.
The University of Houston-Victoria, located in the heart of the Coastal Bend region since 1973 in Victoria, Texas, offers courses leading to more than 80 academic programs in the schools of Arts & Sciences; Business Administration; and Education, Health Professions & Human Development. UHV provides face-to-face classes at its Victoria campus, as well as an instructional site in Katy, Texas, and online classes that students can take from anywhere. UHV supports the American Association of State Colleges and Universities Opportunities for All initiative to increase awareness about state colleges and universities and the important role they have in providing a high-quality and accessible education to an increasingly diverse student population, as well as contributing to regional and state economic development.
