To me, the Presidential Award means receiving a medal of honor. That medal honor displays the outstanding professional growth in your career, continuous improvement through professional development and the commitment to developing students’ skills base on their specific learning style. To me, success is a lifelong journey with trials and disappointments, but perseverance lifts us to the highest heights if we continue to look up.

Crystal Vanterpool-Richardson St. Thomas, VI | 7-12, Science, 2017

The official biography below was current at the time of the award.

Crystal Vanterpool-Richardson has been an educator for eight years, teaching seventh and eighth-grade Science at Bertha C. Boschulte Middle School in the St. Thomas-St. John School District since 2010. Crystal’s passion for teaching goes beyond the classroom. Her leadership among her colleagues as a team leader has resulted in the school-wide acknowledgment of the top students each quarter. She initiated this strategy to encourage the school to observe student academic growth while using a positive competition. Crystal's education mission is communicating a love of science and engaging students in creative activities through project-based learning and differentiated instruction. She is a member of the Bertha C. Boschulte Middle School positive behavior interventions and support team and serves as the Bully Prevention Coordinator. She encourages students to respect each other using unique learning activities and games, in addition to teaching them the school values of being respectful, being responsible, and being safe at all times. Crystal earned a B.S. in biology from the University of the Virgin Islands and a M.Ed. from St. Thomas University. She is a certified middle school teacher and is certified as a secondary educator in biology.

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