OFE News Release
Oklahoma's Outstanding Students, Educators
to be Featured on OETA Awards Broadcast Saturday
May 21, 2008
OKLAHOMA CITY --
Three outstanding Oklahoma teachers, a superintendent and an alternative education program will be recognized, along with 100 of the state’s top public high school seniors, when OETA premieres its statewide broadcast of the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence 22nd annual Academic Awards Banquet at 8 p.m. Saturday, May 24.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, who served as keynote speaker for the banquet, will also be featured on the program. The broadcast will air on OETA Channel 13 in Oklahoma City and Channel 11 in Tulsa. Subsequent broadcasts will be shown on OETA’s OKLA digital channel. For digital broadcast listings, visit the station’s Web site at www.oeta.onenet.net.
The gala celebration, taped May 17 at the Renaissance Tulsa Hotel and Convention Center, is sponsored by the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence, a non-profit organization that recognizes and encourages academic excellence in Oklahoma’s public schools.
The banquet recognizes 100 public high school seniors from throughout the state as Academic All-Staters. Also featured are this year’s recipients of Oklahoma Medals for Excellence in Teaching: Stigler Elementary School teacher Valorie Lewis, Beaver High School English teacher Sheryl Melton and University of Oklahoma Professor James J. Yoch Jr. In addition, Steven P. Crawford, superintendent, Byng Public Schools, received the Medal for Excellence in Administration while the Choctaw Alternative Transitional School was honored in the category of alternative education.
Goodwin, whose keynote address focuses on “Leadership Lessons from Abraham Lincoln,” is the author of the best-selling book “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.” A biopic film based on the book is being developed by director Steven Spielberg, with actors Liam Neeson and Sally Field starring as Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln. A frequent guest historian on news programs and documentaries, Goodwin also has written bestselling books on the Kennedys, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson.
DVDs of the awards ceremony can be purchased for $12 each, with checks made payable to the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence, 120 N. Robinson, Suite 1420-W, Oklahoma City, OK 73102. Orders should include a shipping address and daytime phone number. For more information, contact the foundation office at (405) 236-0006.