A local teacher is a little overwhelmed after receiving high praise and receiving a special award.
Diane Nehmetallah is the culinary arts teacher at Assumption College Catholic Secondary School.
She is the recipient of the Loran Teachers Building Leaders Award after being nominated by one of her former students.
Those few students that receive the four-year Loran Scholarship valued at $100,000 are able to nominate a teacher that impacted their education.
Quinn Conlon is one of those roughly 30 students every year that make the cut for the scholarship and pointed to Nehmetallah as the inspiration behind her pursuit of a Nutritional Sciences degree.
Nehmetallah was nearly speechless in accepting the award, and can't believe the impression she's had on some of her students.
"Humbled and I'm honoured. I mean with all the amazing educators out there I was chosen — I mean I should be thanking [former student] Quinn [Conlon] for what she's done for me," says Nehmetallah. "It's just something I do in my classrooms — that's my profession."
WECDSB trustees applaud for Assumption College Catholic Secondary School teacher Diane Nehmetallah as she receives the Loran Teachers Building Leaders Award at the board's regular meeting held on January 30, 2018. (Photo by Ricardo Veneza)
Nehmetallah feels it's important to give students as much support as possible.
"It's just to let the kids be themselves, to celebrate everything they do in the classroom, to acknowledge that what they're doing is a great thing and everybody has something to share," she says. "Every student is a gift for me."
The Loran Teachers Building Leaders Award was established in 2015 with 28 teachers across Canada being recognized. In 2016, 22 were nominated from coast-to-coast.