Yellow Jacket crowned Hermitage High School’s First-Year Teacher of the Year

by Sydney Koch ’22

Finishing up after a long day of teaching, Alexandra Lugo ’21 heard the steady roar of a marching band clanging down the halls of Hermitage High School. The recent RMC grad was covering another teacher’s classroom for hall duty when she peeked out the door to find the source of the commotion.

“That’s when they surrounded me with the marching band and a bunch of teachers gave me balloons; I realized I had just received the award,” Lugo explained. The high school Spanish teacher was named First-Year Teacher of the Year after being nominated by her colleagues for the strength of her teaching, the creativity of her curriculum, and other factors. She now represents Hermitage for the division-wide honor, the winner of which will be selected from schools in each of Henrico County’s five districts.

Culture in the Classroom

Becoming an educator has always been the career path Lugo planned. In high school, she discovered subjects she loved, including Spanish, and her passion for the language resulted in her pursuing a Spanish major at Randolph-Macon with a minor in education.

Growing up in a Hispanic family, Lugo has found a passion for sharing her family’s culture and heritage with her students. “The Day of the Dead was a really popular unit that I taught, and I got to share some of the stuff my family members did in Mexico,” Lugo gushed. Talking to her relatives about their cultural traditions has rekindled a new appreciation in Lugo for her Hispanic heritage, and sharing those insights brings a personal flair to the curriculum.

“It’s the little things that allow not only my students to learn, but also help me continue to learn about my own culture,” she said.

Educating Future Educators

As a first-year high school teacher with a small age gap between herself and her students, classroom teaching can sometimes feel daunting. Lugo attributes her successes in managing many of the challenges to Randolph-Macon’s education department. “All my professors were so insightful, going into detail on what we need to do,” Lugo explained. “All the courses were very applicable to real-life teaching.”

Lugo distinctly remembers applying advice she received from her Randolph-Macon professors during a recent challenge. “I got an angry email from a parent that was going to be hard to respond to,” she explained. “I found myself reflecting on what my education professors would say about parents and how to handle them.” With the lessons learned at RMC fresh in her mind, Lugo crafted the email carefully but confidently.

“The response I got back was actually very understanding, which made me feel so proud that I handled it in the way I did,” Lugo said.

Lugo’s success in her first year of teaching reflects the care and attention she received from her professors at Randolph-Macon, all of whom, she says, taught her to believe in herself. That confidence is more valuable than any award, especially so for a young educator like her.

“My professors have most importantly taught me to tell myself ‘I’ve got this,’ because teaching can be hard,” Lugo emphasized. “I would definitely recommend going to Randolph-Macon to anyone, but especially to people looking to be a future educator.”

 

 

Sydney Koch ’22 is an RMC senior from Raleigh, North Carolina. As a student-athlete studying English, Sydney has found an ability to juggle her passions of volleyball and writing throughout her college experience.