
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 14, 1994                   TAG: 9407140077
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By MELISSA DeVAUGHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

AWARDS KEEP COMING FOR BLACKSBURG TEACHER

Catherine Ney has won more awards and secured more grants for science and technology teaching than any other elementary teacher in Montgomery County.

But receiving the Presidential Award for Excellence in Elementary Science Teaching would be the highlight of her career, she said last spring in an interview.

Ney is one step closer to that highlight after being selected last month as one of three state finalists for the Presidential Award. She received a $750 prize from the National Science Foundation and will compete to become a national winner. Those winners will be announced in the fall.

If selected, Ney will receive a $7,500 grant and spend a week in Washington for an awards ceremony, tours of the area, visits with congressmen and possibly a chance to meet President Clinton.

"Well, obviously I was surprised and happy," Ney said Tuesday. "My principal [at Margaret Beeks Elementary School] said I was floating."

There are four categories to the Presidential Award for Excellence - elementary science, elementary math, secondary science and secondary math. Charles Jervis, a science teacher at Auburn High and Middle School, received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Seconday Science teaching last year. Frank Taylor, who teaches science and chemistry at Radford High School, also won the award in 1991.

As if the Presidential Award is not enough, Ney also was informed last week that she is the recipient of the Christa McAuliffe Fellowship honoring the Concord, N.H., schoolteacher who perished in the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger explosion. The fellowship, granted to one elementary teacher in the state each year, includes a $32,500 stipend. Ney, a second-grade teacher, said she will teach part time and spend the other half of her time fine-tuning a program to connect science, technology and math to other areas of elementary curriculum.

"I'm going to be very busy," Ney said. "But it will be an interesting year." Ney, 46, is married and has two grown children.

by CNB