Nami Stager went to the gym at Lexington's Northern Elementary School on Tuesday morning to attend what had been billed as a simple school visit by Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday.
As the program progressed, however, she gradually began to realize that a teacher at Northern was going to be honored.
Moments later, Stager was floored when Holliday read her name as a recipient of a 2010 Milken Educator Award from the Milken Family Foundation, a recognition that comes with a check for $25,000. The honor had been kept secret until that moment.
"I thought it was all about the commissioner coming to motivate children," Stager said afterward, holding back tears. "When they said my name ... I heard it, but it didn't resonate in my brain. Then, I looked around, and everybody was looking at me.
"I was in shock, and I still am kind of shaky."
Stager, a fourth-grade teacher at Northern, is the only Milken winner in Kentucky this year and one of 55 teachers in the country who will be named Milken Educators in 2010. All the winners will be flown to California in April to meet one another and be honored.
Stager, 29, was born in India but immigrated to the United States with her parents when she was 11. They later moved to Lexington. Stager is in her sixth year of teaching. Before arriving at Northern two years ago, she taught at Booker T. Washington. She is a graduate of the University of Kentucky and is working on a master's degree at Eastern Kentucky University. Her husband, Robert, teaches at Tates Creek High School.
Nami Stager was studying biology at UK when she began to feel the lure of the classroom and switched her major to education. She said she considers her job a calling that requires the utmost dedication every day.
Former Kentucky education commissioner Thomas Boysen, a Milken Family Foundation board member, was on hand for the award presentation, as were several former Milken award recipients, and representatives of the Fayette County and Kentucky boards of education.
Boysen told the assembled Northern students that when the Milken Family Foundation selects award winners, it looks for teachers who have vision, demonstrate effort and persistence, and love their jobs and their students.
Folks at Northern Elementary say Stager epitomizes all those qualities.
"Nami takes every kid into consideration," Northern Principal Meredith Dunn said. "She goes that extra step to make sure that every single child is targeted, exactly what they need to know and how they're going to learn it. She puts in countless hours. And she incorporates so many 21st-century skills into all of her classes, which is what we're trying to instill in all of our teachers today. She's a natural."
The Milken Family Foundation does not reveal the names of those who nominate teachers for its annual awards, Boysen said. However, a number of Fayette County educators apparently wrote letters in Stager's support.
The Milken Family Foundation was co-founded by billionaire financiers Michael and Lowell Milken. Its educator awards program was launched by Lowell Milken in 1987 to celebrate, elevate and activate exemplary K-12 educators. The awards alternate each year between elementary and secondary educators. Each participating state education department appoints an independent blue-ribbon committee to review candidates who are selected through a confidential process. The committee then recommends candidates to the foundation.
