Improving Business in the Wilmington Region
WBD Joins Corning in Honoring Educational Innovation
Kelly Crowley, a 3rd grade teacher at Wilmington’s Pine Valley Elementary School, is the 2015 recipient of the Corning – WBD Award for Excellence in STEM Education. The award was given at the annual meeting of Wilmington Business Development on October 8th.
“Mrs. Crowley builds interest and excitement about STEM by demonstrating that science and math are a part of almost everything we do,” said Bob Trapp, engineering standards manager at Corning, Inc., who presented the award. “From the chemistry of cooking to the math needed to properly time and synchronize animation movies, she turns her students personal hobbies and interests into a laboratory of STEM exploration,” Trapp says.
Crowley holds a bachelors degree in sociology and elementary education from UNC Chapel Hill. She has taught at Pine Valley since 2004. In 2013, she earned a masters degree in curriculum, instruction and supervision from UNC-Wilmington’s Watson College of Education. “I live in the Pine Valley School district, and I love being a teacher and citizen in this wonderful community,” Crowley said. “I believe in building relationships with students and their families in order to build trust and understanding. With that unity in our classroom, students will learn, will grow as they learn, and will strive to reach high expectations.”
The Corning – WBD Award for Excellence in STEM Education has been given each of the last three years through a partnership between WBD and Corning, Inc., one of the area’s largest manufacturers. “For Corning to continue for another 160 years, we need that next generation of scientists and engineers to find those next innovations or to improve the products and processes we have,” Trapp said. “It is the teachers, the ones in the classroom every day, who have the greatest impact on whether our students embrace science, technology, engineering and math — or avoid them.”
