April Blount Award Winners: Excellence in Girls’ Education
April Blount was a phenomenal teacher and leader at TYWLS Brooklyn from 2010 to 2019 who brought learning to life in her classroom for all of her students, making it fun and magical for them, while still holding them to high standards. In the summer of 2019, the TYWLS community lost Ms. Blount, yet, her legacy and excellence live on.
Every day she formed life-long relationships with students, guiding them with wisdom, compassion, and patience through the turbulence of middle and high school and beyond. She mentored new teachers, thought partnered with experienced teachers, pioneered countless innovations to the science and advisory curricula, and always kept the best interests of the school community first.
She embodied teacher excellence and motivated everyone around her to continually improve their own pedagogy. Ms. Blount’s mark on the TYWLS community is indelible, and her model of how to teach and nurture our students continues to inspire our community to reach new heights.
To honor Ms. Blount’s accomplishments within her school and network community, each year, we recognize one teacher from each TYWLS school with The April Blount Blue Ribbon Award based on criteria that uphold the Whole Girl Education model, which Ms. Blount truly and wholeheartedly believed in:
- Excellence in Teaching Girls: Someone who has embedded the three C’s of Connectedness, Competence, and Confidence into their teaching practice.
- Excellence in Providing High Impact Opportunities for Girls in STEAM: Someone who has blazed a trail to open new doors for students in these underrepresented areas.
- Excellence in the Promotion of Girls’ Leadership: Someone who has facilitated self-actualization and assisted young women in finding and using their voices for positive change.
- Excellence in Promoting Strong, Healthy Female Adolescent Development: Someone who has strongly impacted how students learn to care for themselves and develop a positive self-image.
Congratulations to this year’s April Blount Blue Ribbon Award recipients:
