Collegiate Honors Meg Evans for Excellence

In 2016, Bill and Susan Hamill and their daughters Blake '98 and Carter '01 created the Hamill Family Endowment in appreciation for the excellent teaching their daughters received while at Collegiate. The endowment recognizes and rewards outstanding full-time teachers who have 15 years or less of experience, with a preference for teachers early in their career. The endowment also rewards specific attributes in these young teachers who demonstrate faithful commitment to the teacher-coach-mentor model and demonstrate student success in inspiring student attainment in the areas of critical thinking and problem-solving, accessing and analyzing information and effective oral, written, multimedia communication and more. The Hamills recognize great mentors can come in many forms, and therefore this award is not limited to teachers who are solely classroom instructors. There are 3 awards, 1 in each division.

This year's Middle School Hamill designee underscores a fundamentally important principle, which is to inspire students inside and outside of the classroom. One colleague has noted that this year's recipient is always looking for ways to genuinely make Collegiate a better school community. It is not surprising, then, that this teacher has spearheaded the ChangeMaker Club in our Middle School, which tasks students to work collaboratively to uncover and understand challenges on our campus and in our community with the intent of designing solutions through creative thinking.

 

And creative solutions have been plentiful from Meg Evans.

 

In addition to leading ChangeMaker, Meg also worked closely with Christina Dobson to develop the Cougar Writing Center, where older Middle School students help younger students to grow as writers in a peer mentoring model. Meg also was a faculty sponsor for the STAR Tutor and Mentor Program working with students at Quioccasin Middle School through the Tuckahoe YMCA. In all of her spare time, Meg also serves as the Middle School English Department Chair and was asked to lead our Risk Management Team.

 

Regardless of where Meg is or what she is doing, one can always count on her to be prepared and planned, while leaving room for spontaneously organic moments that often pop up when the environment is just right. In class, Meg is a terrific curator of lenses for all of her students to work at finding their own voice and identities through the various stories they study. Meg has an uncanny ability to take really complicated things and break them down into digestible chunks that even an absent-minded 7th Grader can fully grasp without any issues-- a true superpower, indeed. As a teacher, advisor, and mentor, Meg is incredibly responsive to students as she always pushes us to consider doing what is best for students. An exemplary teacher and colleague, please join us in congratulating Meg Evans, the Middle School Hamill Family Endowment Award winner.