2019 Price-Deverick Teacher Scholarship
Congratulations 2019 Price-Deverick Scholarship Recipients:
Stephanie Ballance, WHS/Blowing Rock/Valle Crucis
Corrie Freeman, Hardin Park
Denise Presnell, Hardin Park
Jesse Presnell-Greene, Hardin Park
Donna Raichle, Parkway
Genal West, WHS
2015 Kate Swift Reese Scholarship
The Watauga Education Foundation awarded its annual $1,000 scholarship to Watauga High School Senior, Ben Watson. Ben, plans to attend Wingate University in the fall and study to be a music teacher. Ben states his goal for the future as wanting “to give students the opportunity to have a place to express themselves in a safe, constructive way, make new friends and try to convey to them my love for music.”
2015 Price-Deverick Teacher Scholarship
8 Teachers Receive Funding from Watauga Education Foundation and Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation
Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation and The Watauga Education Foundation (WEF) have awarded 2015 Price-Deverick Scholarships to 8 teachers in the Watauga County Schools. Teachers receiving the awards include Courtney McKinney of Bethel School, Ann Donadio, Amy Michael and Barbara Linville of Cove Creek School, Jana Duke and Susan Wells of Hardin Park School, Gayle Oliver of Mabel School and Piper Woodring of Watauga High School.
Congratulations to these fine educators as they work to improve their knowledge, skills and certifications. It is always a pleasure to help our teachers reach their goals.
News about 2014-15 Classroom Grants
2014 Grant Recipents:
Bethel: Jay Ishaya
Blowing Rock/Valle Crucis: Jill Huffman
Cove Creek: Kim McAulay
Green Valley: LeAnne Hildebran, Amy Lunceford
Hardin Park: Meghan Scott, Erin Selle, Corrie Freeman, Candiace Shelton Collie, Jana Duke, Candice Shelton
Mabel: Bronwyn Merritt
Mabel/Parkway: Rae Filsinger
Parkway: Jamie Dale Sherrill
Watauga High School: Will Selle, Tim Walker, Lisa Combs, Sarah Miller, Lori Hill, Beverly Gambill
Outdoor learning, NC Lighthouse construction, Sign Language, Musical Instruments, Sensorimotor Assessment equipment, Robotics, Photography: this is just a sampling of the wonderful things to come to the students in Watauga County schools.
Twenty teachers were awarded grants from Watauga Education Foundation with the grants totaling $20,000! The award winning teachers were notified at their schools by a Watauga Education Foundation Board member, who delivered the good news along with balloons and PayDay candy bars. The teachers were formally recognized at the Watauga County Board of Education meeting on November 10 by Allocations Chairperson, Margaret Moore and WEF President Chad Smith.
WEF takes pride in having this opportunity to give back to our schools! The foundation board members work hard throughout the year through such fundraisers as FlapJack Flip and Shooting Stars. However, none of this would be possible without the support of local businesses and families.
The Watauga Education Foundation has been making a difference in the lives of Watauga County Public School families for more than 20 years. In addition to the classroom grants, the Foundation provides teachers with continuing education scholarships and administers the Kate Swift Reese College Scholarship for WHS students.
News about 2013 Classroom Grants:
The Watauga Education Foundation has been making a difference in the lives of Watauga County Public School families for more than 20 years. In addition to the classroom grants, the Foundation provides teachers with continuing education scholarships and administers the Kate Swift Reese College Scholarship for WHS students.
2011 Kate Swift Reese Scholarship
2011 Kate Swift Reese Scholarship Winner Carrie Danielle Eggers with Kathleen Reese, Clint Reese2011 Kate Swift Reese Scholarship
The Watauga Education Foundation awarded its annual $1,000 scholarship to Carrie Danielle Eggers on Tuesday, May 24, 2011. The college-bound Watauga High School Senior accepted the scholarship at the Watauga High School awards ceremony from Foundation president, Dr. Jay Fenwick, and Reese family siblings, Clint Reese and Kathleen Reese.
“We are so grateful to the family of Kate Swift Reese, for allowing us to expand our reach and offer this financial gift to a college-bound Watauga High School student,” said Fenwick. “We now touch the educational lives of Watauga county children from the time they are born with Imagination Library, through college with the Kate Swift Reese scholarship.”
The endowment was established with the Foundation in 2009 by the surviving children of Asa and Kate Swift Reese, long time Beaver Dam residents. Much admired, Miss Kate was best known for showing kindness to all she encountered and for being a natural born educator.
“Our mother understood that education was key to a successful future,” said Clint Reese, who lives in Fuquay Varina, NC. “During the depression, Miss Kate cooked three meals a day, tended a garden, made clothes for the children, washed their clothes with soap that she made, and canned meat and vegetables that were raised on the farm. She made certain that everyone attended church on Sunday and she even found time to prepare and teach Sunday school for more than thirty years.”
Miss Kate also served as the regional director of the North Carolina Agriculture Extension Service and shared her knowledge for running a tidy and efficient home with many.
Miss Eggers, this year’s winner is enrolled at Appalachian State and plans to become a teacher.
The Reese family is well known throughout the state of North Carolina and especially in the High Country. Many of the family members have worked for the Watauga County school system, including former WHS principal and school board president, Andy Reese, who passed away in December 2009. Other Reese siblings are Asa L. Reese (deceased), Norman Reese, Kathleen Reese, Richard Reese (deceased), Gladys Shoun, Betty Shoun, Clint Reese, Dorcas Hodges and Lance Reese (deceased).
Donations to the KSR Scholarship Endowment or any Foundation program can be made online. For more information on making a contribution or establishing a scholarship endowment, please contact us at 828-268-1273.
News about the 2011 Classroom Grants:
2011 Grant Winners
22 Teachers Receive Funding From the Watauga Education Foundation Students in Every School to Benefit
Gardens to tend, new music to sing and play, community history to record and environmental testing of the New River. These are just some of the projects Watauga Public School teachers are planning for their classrooms this year. “We are fortunate to have such creative educators teaching our students,” said Andrea Capua, the Allocations Chairperson for the Watauga Education Foundation. “Our board members were duly impressed with the original ideas submitted to enhance the classroom learning experience.”
The award winning teachers were notified at their schools, by Watauga Education Foundation Board members, who delivered the good news along with balloons and pencils and highlighters for the students in the winning classrooms. The teachers were formally recognized at the October 10, Watauga Board of Education meeting by Capua and Foundation President Alison Idol. “Our board members work throughout the year to be able to fund these requests,” Idol said. “We couldn’t do it without the support of local businesses and families, and we are truly grateful to everyone who comes to Flapjack Flip, or buys a raffle ticket or attends Shooting Stars. Along with our sponsors, it is a shining example of a community coming together to show our teachers and students we care about quality education.”
This year’s grants total $20,000 and will have a direct impact on thousands of students. They include funding for technology, sheet music, books in Spanish, art supplies and math pads. In many cases, initiatives are cross-curricular and will reach students year after year.
The Watauga Education Foundation has been making a difference in the lives of Watauga County Public School families for more than 20 years. In addition to the classroom grants, the Foundation provides teachers with continuing education scholarships, funds the Dolly Parton Imagination Library and administers the Kate Swift Reese College Scholarship for WHS students.
__________________________________________________________________
11 Teachers Receive Funding from Watauga Education Foundation and Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation
Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation and The Watauga Education Foundation (WEF) have awarded 2010 Price-Deverick Scholarships to 11 teachers in the Watauga County Schools. Teachers receiving the awards include Teresa Bentley of Parkway, Katherine Chesnutt and Mary Neal Henson of Watauga High School and Hardin Park, Kellie Gore of Watauga High School, Gina Holste and Harriett Stepuch of Valle Crucis, Amy Miller from Mabel, Amanda Price Ormsby of Blowing Rock, and Kim Shields, Christina Wall, and Kelley Wilson of Hardin Park.
“These educators are working to improve their knowledge, skills, and certification,” said WEF allocations committee chair Emily Greene. “We are delighted to be able to help them achieve their goals.”
The Price-Deverick scholarship program for teacher development was initiated in 1993 by Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation (BREMCO) to help improve the educational opportunities in Watauga County Schools. BREMCO invited the Watauga Education Foundation (WEF) to join forces with them in this endeavor in 1997.
The scholarships are named for the late Barbara Deverick and Gwyn B. Price, former Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation leaders and champions of education. “Our partnership with Blue Ridge Electric has funded more than $60,000 worth of teacher scholarships!” noted WEF President Jay Fenwick. “We know that students will ultimately benefit when our teachers are successful.”
The Watauga Education Foundation has raised and distributed more than $1 million for students and teachers since 1987. In addition to supporting the Price Deverick scholarships, the WEF also awards grants for creative teaching projects, funds supplies for Battle of the Books and Jr. Battle of the Books, and produces Shooting Stars, the annual juried talent show for WCS visual and performing arts students.