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Teachers receive Siddall Awards at MEA Human Rights banquet
MEA Human Rights Awards
recipients (from left) the Rev.
Sarah Anderson, Diane Bencik
and Tisha Pankop.
Two MEA members—Troy teacher Diane Bencik and Kalamazoo teacher Tisha Pankop—received MEA Human Rights Awards for implementing programs that have enhanced international or intercultural awareness among educators and their students.
They each received the Elizabeth Siddall Human Rights Award at a banquet April 25 in Lansing. Also honored was the Rev. Sarah Anderson of Belleville, recipient of the David McMahon Award, which recognizes individuals or groups outside of MEA who have achieved excellence in the area of human rights.
Bencik, a finalist for Michigan Teacher of the Year in 2007-08, coaches Future Problem Solvers, combined teams of Troy students and teammates from schools in Tokyo and Kanagawa, Japan.
The group, Japanese American Mindthinkers, is producing a documentary addressing concerns of Japanese and other immigrants as they transition into the American school education system.
Pankop, Michigan’s journalism teacher of the year in 2006, serves as adviser for Loy Norrix High School’s award-winning student newspaper, Knight Life. For the past two years, she orchestrated pen pal interactions with her reporters and students from Romania and Uganda.
In the 2006-07 school year, Knight Life published a special edition, “The Uganda Project,” with students from St. Kizitio School in Kampala, Uganda. It exposed the nightmares that young people in Uganda face every day and educated readers about life in Uganda.
Anderson serves as the volunteer executive director of SCANN (Sevenfold Coalition Addressing Neighborhood Needs), which provides summer programs for youth, backpack/gym shoe giveaways, life skills training and after-school programs.
For an exciting look at this year’s MEA Human Rights Awards recipients, view the special video at www.mea.org/awards/ humanrights.html.