September 8, 2009 — Northeast Technology Center has named the 2009 winners of the NTC Teacher of the Year and NTC Support Employee of the Year awards.
Teacher of the Year is Craig Cooper from the Pryor campus. Support Employee of the Year is Sue Wilcox also from the district’s Pryor campus.
The awards were announced at the school’s district-wide in-service on the new Claremore campus on Aug. 10.
The winners were first nominated by a fellow staff member. Then their applications were submitted and reviewed by a selection committee, composed of one board member, one administrator, and one instructor from each of NTC’s campuses.
Cooper is the Modern Industrial Technology instructor at Pryor. He is in his fourth year as a fulltime instructor with NTC, and has taught for about 15 years including his previous teaching in evening courses. He resides in Adair with his wife, Tobie, and their daughters Chancie and Chasee Jo.
Before coming to NTC fulltime, Cooper worked for the county and also has had his own welding and fabrication shop for the past 10 years in Adair. In addition to his fulltime duties as the MIT instructor at NTC, Craig is the fire chief at Adair, which can keep him busy at all hours of the day when duty calls.
When asked what he thought when his name was announced as the winner, he responded, “I was surprised. I hadn’t really considered that I would win it.”
Over the last four years at NTC, Cooper and his students have worked hard to build the Modern Industrial Technology program from the ground up. Literally.
“When I got here, we didn’t even have a welder,” he said. “Myself and the students have pretty much built everything you see here in the shop. We built the welding booths, put the tin on the walls, built tables, the work bench, lockers, torch carts, you name it.”
Cooper says that the most rewarding part of his job is, “seeing a kid that when you teach him something new, you see him grow and develop in a trade, and you get to see them go in a direction they might not have gone. That’s the biggest reward.”
Wilcox is the Academic Resource Center Assistant at Pryor, a position she has held for nine years. She was born in Pryor and graduated high school in Checotah.
Before coming to NTC, Wilcox worked in the Pryor schools as an aide in the library at Jefferson Elementary. She then worked as a certified pharmacy tech for eight years, followed by four years at the Mayes County Health Department. She then went back to Jefferson Elementary as a secretary for three years before coming to NTC.
Wilcox also speaks Spanish, and has volunteered around the community in the past to help translate, helped with some translation while at the Health Department, and has also used this skill at times in her present position with NTC.
When asked how she felt about receiving the award, she said, “I am just so honored. I work with such quality people, and I realize we’re a team. I feel very honored and humbled.”
As the Academic Resource Center Assistant, Wilcox gets to personally know and work with all full time students on the campus. Students come to the ARC for their Key Train assessments and tutorials, work on portfolios, resumes, cover letters, as well as strengthening reading and comprehension skills, applied mathematics, and more.
“I love it when I see a student start believing in themselves,” she said. “I really have the best job on campus. I get to know every student and I get paid to encourage them and watch them succeed.”
