2 SoWashCo Teachers Are Finalists For Minnesota Teacher Of The Year

WOODBURY, MN — Two educators in the South Washington County Schools system were recently named as finalists for the 2022 Minnesota Teacher of the Year award.

Park High School teacher Younna Eiden-Giel and Cottage Grove Middle School teacher Andrea Welvaert are among 11 educators named as finalists for the award by Education Minnesota, the union that runs the Teacher of the Year program.

Eiden-Giel teaches social studies to juniors and seniors at Park Ridge High School, while Welvaert is an autism spectrum disorder and center-based program teacher for grades 6-8 at Cottage Grove Middle School.

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The union’s selection panel is scheduled to interview each finalist April 30 before voting for the 2022 Minnesota Teacher of the Year.

Rochester teacher Natalia Benjamin, who was named 2021 Minnesota Teacher of the Year, is set to hand the award to her successor at a ceremony May 1 at the Saint Paul RiverCentre.

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Seventy-seven teachers were nominated for the award. An independent panel of leaders in education, business, philanthropy and nonprofits reviewed their portfolios to choose 25 semifinalists.

Park High School teacher Kiersten Jaeger and East Ridge High School teacher MacKenzie Hildahl were also named among the initial batch of educators in the running for the award. Hildahl was later named as a semifinalist.

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The South Washington County Schools system has never had one of its educators named as Teacher of the Year, according to Education Minnesota.

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