Three HRA faculty members honored with Wythe W. & Mary A. Holt Faculty Award
Hampton Roads Academy recently announced the three faculty winners of the annual Wythe W. & Mary A. Holt Faculty Award.
This annual endowment award is presented to select HRA faculty members who are pursuing further learning opportunities, international travel experiences or research that will enhance their classroom teaching. The award was given to Maribel Gendreau, Elizabeth Hollingsworth and Karen Waddill.
Dr. Gendreau and Dr. Hollingsworth, Upper School Science faculty members, will use the grant to begin a joint research project exploring the electrical activity of nerves located in the legs of cockroaches and how various manipulations alter these responses. Research from the project will be used to advance project-based learning with Upper School students at HRA.
“We are planning to use this experimental design in our science classes, such as Anatomy, Physiology and Forensic Science,” said Hollingsworth. “This tool will be valuable for many Upper School students, giving them the opportunity to perform self-designed science experiments in the high school classroom in the field of neuroscience. In general, most high school students are not able to explore this field until they enter college.”
This summer, Middle and Upper School French faculty member Mrs. Waddill plans to visit the Arab World Institute in Paris to learn first-hand about the Arabic culture in France. Waddill, who has taught on the Arabic influence in France, hopes to learn more about the culture through participating in conferences, lectures, theatre performances and visits to the institute’s museum.
“I would like to promote the beauty of the Arab culture and language(s) and to help my students better understand their historical and cultural significance,” said Waddill. “I am very proud that I work at a school that offers the opportunity to learn in a setting outside of our own classrooms.”
The Wythe W. & Mary Holt Endowment was established by Mary A. Holt upon her passing. The Holt family has long been a part of the Hampton Roads Academy community. Wythe W. served as one of the founding members of HRA and many of their children and grandchildren attended the school.
Headmaster Peter W. Mertz believes that the Wythe W. & Mary A. Holt award will continue to inspire faculty at Hampton Roads Academy.
“One of our strengths as an academic institution of learning comes from the critical thinking of many of our exceptional faculty and staff,” said Mertz. “The Wythe & Mary Holt Faculty award continues to allow our faculty to broaden their skill sets and impart invaluable knowledge to the students here at HRA.”
Click here for the WY Daily article about the award.
Click here for the WY Daily article about the award.
Hampton Roads Academy
©2018-2022 Hampton Roads Academy. All Rights Reserved.