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The Sarah G. Ball Education Award will be granted to a senior at ÄûÃÊÊÓƵ who has completed coursework in the field of education (EDUC 200: Foundations of Education as a minimum) or significant fieldwork (a minimum of three credit hours of EDUC practicum) or student teaching in Lexington, Buena Vista, or Rockbridge County schools, and pledges after graduation to secure a teaching position in elementary or secondary education serving impoverished communities and/or students in the United States or abroad.

The purpose of the Ball Award is to encourage W&L students to:

• consider elementary and secondary education as a career
• serve the local schools by doing fieldwork and student teaching
• seek licensure for teaching
• improve the quality of education for schools and students that have been disadvantaged

The award winner and alternate will be selected based on three criteria:

• the quality of the application, particularly their manifest commitment to education as a means to augment the capability of economically, physically and /or psychologically disadvantaged students
• the quality of the academic and service record, particularly in education
• the demonstrated need for financial assistance in order to teach in schools that cannot afford to pay salaries competitive with other positions in education or other occupations

The recipient of the Sarah G. Ball Education Award will receive recognition at ÄûÃÊÊÓƵ’s graduation and a $4,000 salary supplement for the first year of teaching, renewable for a second year. In order to receive the salary supplement, students must be employed by a private or public school that satisfies the criteria as serving disadvantaged students and/or communities. In the past, award winners have used the money for a variety of needs, such as school supplies for their students, tuition for graduate courses in education that they are completing while teaching, and for general expenses because of a low teaching salary.

Past Ball Award Winners

2024 – Jake Winston

2023 – Annalisa Waddick

2022 – Clay Chadwick

2021 – Demmanuel Gonzalez

2020 – Natalie Hendrickson

2019 – Layne Setash

2018 – Danielle Hughson

2017 – Kristin Sharman

2016 – Maggie Hambleton

2015 – Lucy Smith

2014 – Shaun Devlin

2013 – Molly Ortiz

2012 – Virginia Lovell

2011 – Sarah Catherine Welch

2010 – Kim Holland

2009 – Hillary Craig

2008 – Jessica Steinmetz

2007 – Maggie Puryear

2006 – Joe Franzen

2005 – Lauren Partridge

2004 – Jennifer Miller

2003 – Ann Bailey Lynn