Medha Kirtane Receives Distinguished Teacher Award From Princeton University

Ridgewood High School teacher Medha Jayant Kirtane has been named as one of New Jersey's best secondary school teachers by Princeton University.

Kirtane – one of four honorees overall – will receive $5,000 as well as $3,000 for the Ridgewood High School library, according to the university. She'll be receiving the award at the 2013 Princeton University commencement on June 4.

"In the final analysis, if great teachers are measured by what their students accomplish, the four teachers we honor with this award represent the very finest teachers in the profession today," said Christopher Campisano, director of Princeton's Program in Teacher Preparation in a news release.

Teachers have been honored at the prestigious Ivy League university since 1959.

Here's what the university wrote about Kirtane in the news release:

Medha Jayant Kirtane is in demand — in class, during lunch, after school, even on the tennis court, teachers and students at Ridgewood High School say. Some students want to discuss an assignment; others want to talk about life outside the classroom.

"That Medha is such a perennial student favorite is all the more remarkable (at first glance) because she is one of the most rigorous teachers that students will ever encounter," wrote Gavin Stewart, an English teacher at the school, in a letter supporting Kirtane's nomination. "She demands excellence from her students, and although she 'demands' with a smile, her standards are nonetheless admirably high. To earn an 'A' in Ms. Kirtane's class is truly an accomplishment!"

Kirtane has taught a range of social studies classes during her eight years at Ridgewood and has helped revise or rewrite several course curricula, principal Thomas Gorman said. Her current course load includes an interdisciplinary senior seminar that emphasizes independent research interwoven with intensive discussion in a small-group setting.

Lauren Cubellis, a graduate of Ridgewood High School and Princeton University, said the seminar pushed her to think critically about history and question assumptions.

"It was the most difficult class of my high school career," Cubellis wrote. "But it was also the most exciting class I had ever taken. Medha was able to turn history into a living and breathing record of humanity."

Kirtane said she tries to instill her students with curiosity, diligence, sincerity and critical thinking skills.

"I want my students to engage with themselves, me and each other to ignite their passion to learn and create ideas anew," Kirtane wrote. "From that heated process should emerge a distilled vision of what should be and how each of them can work, within and beyond their communities, to achieve their goals."

Outside the classroom, Kirtane leads the high school's girls' tennis team and was named division coach of the year in 2009, 2010 and 2011. She is also faculty adviser to the school's Asian Festival and the Student Broadcast Club.

Kirtane earned her bachelor's degree from Williams College and a master's degree from Harvard University's Graduate School of Education.