Blackstone Valley Prep teacher wins national educator award

GOV. LINCOLN D. CHAFEE and previous Rhode Island Milken Educator Award winners present a check for $25,000 to Marielle Emet, a math teacher and academic dean at Blackstone Valley Prep Mayoral Academy and the 2013 winner of the award. Emet stands to the right, holding flowers, next to Blackstone Valley Prep Head of School Joy Souza and Jane Foley, senior vice president of the Milken Family Foundation. / COURTESY MILKEN FAMILY FOUNDATION
GOV. LINCOLN D. CHAFEE and previous Rhode Island Milken Educator Award winners present a check for $25,000 to Marielle Emet, a math teacher and academic dean at Blackstone Valley Prep Mayoral Academy and the 2013 winner of the award. Emet stands to the right, holding flowers, next to Blackstone Valley Prep Head of School Joy Souza and Jane Foley, senior vice president of the Milken Family Foundation. / COURTESY MILKEN FAMILY FOUNDATION

LINCOLN – Marielle Emet, a mathematics teacher at the Blackstone Valley Prep Mayoral Academy Middle School, has been named the 2013 Rhode Island winner of the Milken Educator Award.

Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee, Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist, Milken Family Foundation Senior Vice President Jane Foley and previous Milken award winners presented the award at a surprise ceremony Friday morning at the school.

Emet, who also serves the school as an academic dean, has taught at Blackstone Valley Prep Middle School since it first opened its doors in 2009. As a Milken Educator Award winner, Emet received an unrestricted $25,000 grant from the Milken Family Foundation.

“Marielle Emet came to Rhode Island four years ago to make a difference in students’ lives, and she certainly has done so and more,” said Chafee at the event. “Her colleagues recognize her as a brilliant educator with intelligence, drive, compassion, humor and warmth. She will represent Rhode Island well as our 2013 Milken Educator Award winner, and I congratulate her and the whole team at Blackstone Valley Prep on this honor.”

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Now a resident of Warwick, Emet served as a Teach for America corps member in Baltimore, where she taught history and worked as a curriculum specialist. She holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Towson University in Baltimore and a master’s degree in teaching from The Johns Hopkins University.

In a release announcing Emet’s receipt of the award, her colleagues at Blackstone Valley Prep lauded her drive to go above and beyond in her work, sometimes meeting with students at their homes or on Saturdays, and motivating her peers “with her enthusiasm and by her example.”

“At the Milken Family Foundation, we believe that educators have the most important job in the country,” said Foley. “The Milken Educator Awards were created to say in a very public way that excellence in education must be recognized. By elevating the teaching profession, we hope that young people across America will be encouraged to consider a career in education.”

The Milken Educator Award honors exceptional educators for their work. Educators do not apply for the award, nor are they aware that they have been nominated for the honor, the foundation said.

This fall, about 40 educators across the country will receive 2013 Milken Educator Awards. Emet was the only Rhode Island educator to receive the award this year.

The program has been administered in Rhode Island since 1990, and there have been 72 Milken award winners so far in the state.

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