By Deliah DeLeon Special to the Dispatch
Gilroy – Dawn O’Connor, a science teacher and cross country coach at Ascension Solorsano Middle School in Gilroy, won California State Science Fair Teacher of the Year.
“I felt really honored, I was really surprised,” said Dawn O’Connor, who was notified last week of the award. “The students nominated me, then they called me to tell me I was a finalist, then I had an interview where they asked me about the significance of science fairs, then the judges made the final decision.”
This year’s science fair was held at the University of Southern California. O’Connor took seventh grade students, Marisa Ahmadkhani, Meghan Carvalho, Colin Gavin, and her daughter Heather O’Connor, to the Santa Clara County Science Fair, then to the California State Science Fair.
“I liked it because I got to meet a lot of new people and I got ideas of other projects I want to do next year,” said 12-year-old Ahmadkhani. While at the award ceremony, the students and their teacher were anxiously waiting for the announcement.
“It was very exciting when she won; before announcing her name they gave us clues instead of just saying her name. It was all leading up, we were all like ‘that could be her, I think that’s her, it is her!'” said 13-year-old Carvalho. After being announced the winner, O’Connor accepted a plaque, along with a $2,000 check.
“It was exciting, I was really happy for her, it wasn’t a great surprise that she won since she’s such a great teacher,” said Gavin, 13.
The students and their teacher are looking forward to participating in next year’s science fair, and are hoping that more students will join them.
“One of the things I noticed while I was talking to a lot of the out of state teachers, is they did not have as much support from their administrators like our school did,” she said. “When we went to county level, our Superintendent Edwin Diaz, our Principal Sal Tomasello, and school board member Javier Aguirre, all came to the school and met and talked to the kids; they were really supportive. I was really appreciative about their support.”
Along with winning California State Science Fair Teacher of the year, O’Connor also won the GUSD Board of Education Excellence Award April 27.
“I look at this award as a reflection of my students, I set the bar high for them but they are hard workers. It’s nice to get those acknowledgments every once in a while,” said O’Connor.
