Oakmont Excellence in Education award winner announced: What makes this teacher so special?

The Oakmont Association is proud to announce that the recipient of the 36th Oakmont Excellence in Education Award is Mark Nevard. Nevard is a 27-year veteran of the Oakmont faculty, and his passionate work as an English teacher has earned him the respect and admiration of the students, faculty and administration.

Nevard is a 1992 graduate of Springfield College with a bachelor’s degree in English, where he was the English program’s Valedictorian. In 2004, he received his master’s degree in English Education from Fitchburg State College. He joined the Oakmont faculty in October of 1997 as a special education teacher and then joined the English Department in the Fall of 2000. Since then he has been instrumental in revamping the English curriculum, creating a Sports Literature Class for seniors and updating the curriculum for the Journalism and Creative Writing courses. He has also taught courses at Fitchburg State University as an adjunct professor.

Nevard is currently the advisor for the Oakmonitor, the school's online newspaper, which he took over in 2011. Since then he has re-energized and revitalized the paper from a 3 issue a year publication, to a continuous online outlet with special features and video reporting. He is also the advisor of the Oakmont Forum, an outlet that showcases Oakmont students’ art and literature pieces. Early in his tenure Nevard served as the Varsity Ice Hockey Coach, the JV Ice Hockey Coach, a Varsity Football Assistant Coach and the Freshman Football Coach. And on weekends throughout the spring and summer, Nevard works on a deep sea fishing boat, where in past years he has hosted multiple school field trips, teaching students the intricacies of deep sea fishing.

“Mark is an excellent mentor, not only to new teachers and students, but to us veterans as well. He stays abreast of educational research and trends and is willing to try new ideas, sharing them and their results with his colleagues," Oakmont English teacher Paula Stefanakos.

“Mark is a caring, brilliant teacher. As a parent of one of his former students, I can’t count how many times they have mentioned the things that they learned in Mark’s class, and how they use those skills everyday in their classes in college and in their job," History teacher R. Lincoln Stiles Jr. said. "He just doesn’t prepare students to succeed at Oakmont, he prepares them to succeed in the real world and in life. I am so thankful that my child has had the opportunity to experience all that Mark offers in his classes.”

In his free time Nevard loves to fish, lounge by the pool and go to the beach. He currently resides in Leominster, with his wife Andrea and their three children, Chiara, Isabella and Nico.

This article originally appeared on Gardner News: Oakmont English teacher is winner of Excellence in Education award