By JUDY RATTNER
As a fellow, he will receive a scholarship to spend a few days on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Mass., either in a formal short program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education or in a customized program.
"These awards were created to recognize teachers who have transformed the lives of our Long Island students," said Dr. Judith Esterquest, a board member of the Long Island club. "Teachers like Richard Kurtz, expending countless hours and extraordinary energy, day after day, year after year, they shape our country's future - and they do so one student at a time."
In his letter of nomination, Zachary Richner, a junior at Harvard majoring in government, recalls Kurtz from his four years of science research at South Side High School. "Mr. Kurtz taught but, more importantly, he inspired," wrote Richner. Describing him as a dedicated faculty member, Richner wrote "his sincere concern for his students' well-being - both inside and outside of the classroom - was evident to all."
Richner noted that Kurtz has influenced "thousands of students throughout numerous Long Island communities." And he added that Kurtz keeps in touch with many of his former students through an email newsletter called "Kurtz Kall." When Richner reached out to those students, asking them to co-sign his letter of nomination, he characterized the response as extensive, attesting, he said, to Kurtz's impact on their lives.
Kurtz, who teaches Higher Level Biology and Science Research, had more than two decades of teaching experience before joining the Commack School District two years ago. Previous experience included transforming science research at South Side and Huntington high schools. He holds a B.S. in Biology from the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, and an M.S. in Entomology, and did further post-graduate work in Education. He has won the Radio Shack National Teacher Award for Science and was a finalist for the New York State Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science.
Besides working with students pursuing the International Baccalaureate degree at Commack and coordinating science research, Kurtz coaches teams competing in the National Engineering Design Challenge and in the Science Olympiad. He lives in Mt. Sinai with his family, where he enjoys beekeeping, gardening, and outdoor activities such as hiking and camping. He writes recommendations for as many as 25 students each year and has written hundreds of recommendations over his career.
Kurtz joins John Murphy, South Side High School's International Baccalaureate coordinator, in winning this prestigious award. Murphy received the award last year, after being nominated by Alex Lipton, a South Side High School graduate who is also a junior at Harvard. In a letter last year supporting Lipton's nomination of Murphy, Richner described Murphy as "a teacher who taught his students -regardless of their abilities-how to truly learn and think... What we, his students, thought did not matter as much as how and why we thought what we did. There was never a wrong answer-as long as we deeply examined our thought process, which Mr. Murphy constantly challenged and questioned to get the best out of us. There are not many teachers who can seamlessly integrate philosophers, current news events and pop culture into a single lesson, let alone show his or her students how they, too, can think in the same, dynamic way."
The ten winners of the 2009 Distinguished Teacher Award were nominated by current Harvard students and then selected by members of the Harvard Club of Long Island. Some teach AP History or AP Literature, or advanced science research, others teach English, Latin and Greek, or music, chorus and drama. A few teach at schools that regularly send students to Harvard; some teach at schools that have sent only a couple in 20 years.The 2009 winners teach 7th to 12th grades in Suffolk and Nassau counties, the length and breadth of the Island: Baldwin, Bethpage, Commack, Freeport, Great Neck, Herricks, Manhasset, Riverhead, Stony Brook and West Islip.
