The Concurrent Enrollment Program (CEP) is pleased to announce that Centennial High School English instructor Kelli Scimeca received the West Ada School District’s high school teacher of the year award on April 26.
Scimeca received nominations from her fellow Centennial instructors and was selected from the district’s executive committee.
“It’s a huge honor obviously,” Scimeca said. “It’s great to know that people see the work that you’re doing. Centennial hasn’t won for a while at the West Ada level, so I’m proud to represent Centennial for winning that. It’s exciting, it’s huge and it’s good to see that our school’s being recognized for what’s happening over here.”
Scimeca teaches the year-long Literature and Ideas (ENGL 175) concurrent enrollment course through Boise State. Her award is also credited with other academic and extracurricular involvements, including her leadership roles in the English Language Arts (ELA) department, musical theatre department, National Honors Society, freshmen orientation and AVID, the Advancement Via Individual Determination (ACAD 101) course.
ACAD 101 teaches first generation students about college and career readiness. It includes college visits as well as tips on essay writing, scholarship applications, resume building and letters of recommendation. Scimeca will teach the course for the Concurrent Enrollment Program next academic year.
Scimeca’s also seen growth in concurrent enrollment participation. What started as one section of her ENGL 175 course will become five this fall.
“It’s so great to be able to get your high school and college credit at the same time,” Scimeca said. “It seems like a no-brainer to me. If you have to take English anyway, you might as well take concurrent enrollment and get college credit out of the way.”
Read more about the Concurrent Enrollment Program’s participating high schools, courses and instructors.