Collegiate Honors Faculty and Staff for Dedicated Mentorship

The 2024 Lower School Hamill Award recipient exemplifies the ideal team player. She consistently steps in to support colleagues, students, and the Lower School community with a composed demeanor and a warm, caring smile. Her unwavering focus on prioritizing her students ensures they have a consistent and supportive teacher throughout the academic year. Her calm, patient, and attentive approach is particularly beneficial in nurturing our youngest learners with significant needs, fostering their growth and development.

 

Parents have lauded her for creating a warm and welcoming classroom environment and for providing individualized attention to their children. She is always open to exploring new strategies to better meet her students’ needs.

 

A dedicated professional, she tirelessly integrates effective strategies and techniques to support each student’s success. Her collaborative spirit and willingness to go above and beyond — both in the classroom and on the playing field — demonstrate her grace and dedication. Her positive attitude is recognized and appreciated by Lower School students, colleagues, Collegiate athletes, families, and coaches alike. Her compassion, thoughtfulness, and ever-present smile leave a lasting impact on everyone she encounters.

 

Her humility, kindness, and grace are truly inspiring. It is a privilege to honor Alice Fruth as this year’s Lower School Hamill Award recipient. Please join me in congratulating her.

It is with great pride that we get to recognize a Middle School math teacher as this year’s recipient of the Hamill Family Endowment Award. Since joining our school community in 2017, this teacher has become a beacon of enthusiasm and dedication, earning the admiration of students, colleagues, administrators, and parents alike.

 

This educator has distinguished herself as an exceptional math teacher, known for her infectious enthusiasm and approachable demeanor. Her ability to connect with her 5th and 6th Grade students — many of whom are initially hesitant — is a testament to her dedication and skill. She consistently goes above and beyond, offering additional support and creating an inclusive learning environment where every student feels valued.

 

Tara Connor’s impact is not limited to her regular teaching duties. She proactively addresses the needs of her students and creates opportunities for enrichment. When she observed a growing interest in Rubik’s Cubes among her students, she organized a school-wide competition, and later another competition to include participants from the wider Richmond area. Her creativity and initiative in fostering student engagement exemplify her commitment to their growth and development.

 

Tara’s unwavering commitment and boundless energy have made her an invaluable member of our Middle School team. Her exceptional contributions have truly enhanced our educational community. Congratulations to Tara Connor, the well-deserved recipient of this year’s Hamill Family Endowment Award. We are incredibly fortunate to have her on our team, and we celebrate her outstanding achievements and dedication.

The Upper School recipient of the Hamill Award is a history teacher who is known by colleagues for her dedication to students and for her innovative approach to teaching. Her students describe her as kind, caring, and creative. She is particularly gifted at working with freshmen, helping them make the academic and social transition to Upper School.

 

She understands that patience, persistence, and process allow her to reach all the students in her classes. She carefully designs her courses to reach students effectively, aiming to instill a love of history while helping them hone crucial skills such as analyzing primary sources, crafting research papers, and making connections across time periods.

 

Her creativity as a teacher is evident in her incorporation of various technologies, such as Nearpod, and during COVID she easily found ways to make her Zoom-based classroom interesting and fun because of her facility with technology.

 

Connecting with students outside the classroom is important to this award recipient, and over the years she has coached soccer, sponsored multiple clubs, accompanied students to Model UN Conferences and trips abroad, and she has designed outings such as a tubing trip and a ghost tour of Richmond so that students have an opportunity for a safe, social outing.

 

Now starting her 10th year in the Upper School, I am honored to recognize her for care and commitment to her teaching, her students, and her colleagues.

 

Please join me in congratulating Courtney Schweickart as the 2024 Upper School Hamill Award recipient.