A Newaygo County educator known for sharing her love of science with her students has been honored with an Excellence in Education award from the Michigan Lottery.

The award winner, Sherry Claflin, is a middle school science teacher at White Cloud Junior High. The school is part of White Cloud Public Schools.

The Michigan Lottery established the Excellence in Education awards in 2014 to recognize outstanding public-school educators across the state during the school year.

Winners of the weekly award receive a $2,000 cash prize. At the end of the school year, one of the weekly award winners will be selected to receive the Lottery’s Educator of the Year award and will receive a $10,000 cash prize.

Each winner also is featured in a news segment on the Lottery’s media partner stations: WXYZ-TV in Detroit, FOX 17 in Grand Rapids, FOX 47 in Lansing, WNEM-TV in Saginaw, and WWTV-TV in Traverse City. The news segment featuring Claflin will air this evening.

“Sherry Claflin has dedicated her career to educating the next generation of scientists,” said Lottery Commissioner Suzanna Shkreli. “Her work to connect science principles to real-life experiences helps her students grow and is a testament to her dedication to providing an engaging learning experience in the classroom and beyond.”

Claflin says educators she had in her youth drew her to a career in education.

“When I was in school, I had some really fantastic teachers that made a big impact on me. I knew I wanted to have the same effect on children, so I decided to pursue a career as a teacher. I love teaching science to my students. It is an incredibly important subject and seeing them try new things and watching them learn, grow, and celebrate success is very rewarding.” 

Claflin was nominated for the award by a member of a community organization. 

“Ms. Claflin is dedicated to teaching quality earth science and stem science to the junior high students. Her students are working with NASA scientists for the second year in a row, putting experiments in space, with the NASA TechRise Challenge, and her students won the Lexus Eco Challenge for their work in light pollution in 2019. She is the president of the Michigan Earth Science Teachers Association, runs the Stephen F. Wessling Observatory public star parties, and put on the district wide solar eclipse viewing party for all staff and students.”

Claflin earned a bachelor’s degree from Central Michigan University. She has been an educator for 30 years, the last seven in her current position. 

Excellence in Education award nominees are evaluated on the following criteria:

• Excellence – Their work consistently helps students and/or their schools or school districts advance to higher levels of academic achievement.
• Dedication – They consistently go above and beyond expectations to help students succeed.
• Inspiration – Their work inspires others around them to exceed expectations either academically or professionally.
• Leadership – They demonstrate clear leadership skills in their positions with their school or school districts.
• Effectiveness – The nominee’s work has clear and positive results on the educational advancement of students within the school or school district.

_{Release and photo courtesy of the Michigan Lottery.}