The award for outstanding Early-Career Teaching  is given to teachers who have exceeded at making a difference in the school. They award two teachers in the state of Texas and only give the awards to humanitie teachers. The award was given to our very own geography teacher, Leslie Giesenschlag.

“Mr. Little nominated me [for this award]. The humanities Texas was asking for nominations and he thought I would be a good candidate for the award,” Giesenschlag said. “He nominated me and I got the application information.”

Giesenschlag has been teaching at Vandegrift for three years and has been teaching for a total of five years.

“What means the most to me is my principal and the people I work with think I deserve it.” Giesenschlag said. “To me, it is a big achievement because a lot of the times I feel like I’m just doing whatever other teachers do. I really love teaching and the students and the people I work with so it meant a lot to see that that doesn’t go unnoticed.”

There are 300 students and three teachers that make up the human geography department, and Giesenschlag is the lead teacher of the program.

“I think a lot of it [why she won the award] has to do with building up the AP human geography program,” Giesenschlag said. “That we built up so quickly here at Vandegrfit. Also the program being so successful because it was a big challenge.”

Giesenschlag received the award on Wednesday at the Homecoming pep rally after the parade.

“I like to be more behind the scenes, helping my students, I don’t like a lot of attention so the actual award ceremony was a little nerve racking,” Giesenschlag said. “But it felt good to be appreciated, to have my family and friends be there at the pep rally and see that [receiving the award] and see my school and my students. It meant a lot that the administration and everyone I work with acknowledges everything I do and that they really want good teachers here and that is something the school values.”