Every year, each district in New Jersey participates in the Governor’s Educator of the Year and Educational Specialist of the Year awards, where, at the end of each year, two staff members per school are rewarded for their hard work and dedication towards their school system. The recipients can include teachers, counselors, and other staff members alike who have a great impact on the students around them. For the school year of 2021-2022, the Wayne Hills High School staff members given these awards are Ms. Christina Caamaño as Educator of the Year and Ms. Nicole Sandas as Educational Specialist of the Year.

Ms. Caamaño has been teaching for 10 years, mainly responsible for both honors and general freshman and sophomore English classes. She used to coach the girls’ soccer team and help as an assistant track coach for seven years. Eventually, she took up being the head girls fencing coach, going onto her seventh season, and now she has moved up to be the girls’ spring track coach and is one her fourth season. In addition, she is also the advisor of Wayne Hill’s Empowerment Club and the Class of 2021, as well as participating in several other school-affiliated activities. Some of her favorite lessons to teach her classes strongly revolve around close reading analysis, including work with poems, writing research papers, and reading thought-provoking novels. She also enjoys class discussions that surface knowledgeable questions that represent abstract concepts. She often discusses this “gray area” where topics and definitions are not necessarily black or white but can become a variety of ideas when applied to different contexts.

When Ms. Caamaño first heard she had won the Governor’s Educator of the Year award, she was shocked and surprised, the whole moment being “emotionally charged”. In the end, though, she felt appreciated and recognized more than she usually is. “10 years of hard work…it felt like it all came to one cumulative moment for me”. This hard work often encompasses her favorite aspects of teaching; sharing her passion and enthusiasm for what she loves and establishing positive connections with her students in the classroom. Much of her inspiration derives from her motivational Chemistry teacher in college. Despite her lack of connection with science, the excitement her teacher presented to the class gave her a liking towards the subject, making her eager for every experiment and assignment. This is the effect she hopes to have on her students, that she can bring them to enjoy English just as much as she does. With this, Ms. Caamaño attempts to build strong relationships with her students not just through her positive influence on the topic, but by connecting with them on a personal level, believing that“when you connect with kids, you can see them grow as. . . people”. She also tries to convey valuable lessons in her teachings to help her students absorb deeper concepts of a higher value that go beyond basic academics.

Ms. Sandas has been working as a guidance counselor for three years, starting as an intern at Wayne Hills and being offered a position after finishing her graduate program. Outside of school, she also used to teach dance at local studios. Her work as a counselor involves four different aspects of aid for students: Academic, social, emotional, and vocational. Her help with academics often involves assisting students with their classes and grades and providing resources to improve their understanding. The social and emotional aspects of her job involve helping students with their mental health and allowing them to vent their feelings. She finds this the most important and valuable aspect of her job, to validate the emotions of students. since she knows “[b]eing a teenager is hard, but no one should have to go through their troubles alone”.

Upon hearing she had won the Governor’s Educational Specialist of the Year award, she was shocked and started tearing up “knowing that someone recognized the work that not only myself, but my counseling colleagues, do to help support our students…I am so glad that I can make a positive impact on my students”. Her favorite part of her job circles back to how she helps students with their emotional well-being and mental health. She connects her role in the school back to her high-school life when she wished she felt more comfortable with confiding in her guidance counselor about her emotions and wellness. Now, she wants to live up to that desire and fulfill it as a counselor herself. This is what I hope to be for my students,” she explains, “someone they can talk to to unpack some of that ‘weight’ that stress holds over us”. In addition, she says that one of the other most enjoyable aspects of her job is her interaction with co-workers around the building. “The support I get from the other counselors and administrators is something I really cherish. It’s best to work in a team, and we all absolutely do that”.

Given the effort that both Ms. Caamaño and Ms. Sandas put into the Wayne Hills school community, they prove to be great, worthy recipients of their awards. No student finds it hard to believe that they were selected. Senior student Vanessa Brown says “she’s very proud of the Wayne Hills staff” recipients and wishes them well. In the end, the Wayne community as a whole congratulates them on their accomplishments and recognition and wishes them well for the rest of the school year.