Anne Arundel Art Teacher Receives National Honor

From a AACPS News Release:

An award-winning art teacher in the Anne Arundel County Public Schools has received a national honor.

The National Art Education Association has named AAACPS Acting Coordinator of Visual Arts Eleni Dykstra the 2014 winner of the Marion Quin Dix Leadership Award, one of the highest honors given to an arts educator in the nation.

The award is given annually to recognize outstanding contributions and service through performance and/or development of specific programs, goals, or activities.

“Eleni Dykstra exemplifies the highly qualified art educators active in education today: leaders, teachers, students, scholars, and advocates who give their best to their students and the profession,” NAEA President Dennis Inhulsen said.

Dykstra supports 190 art teachers, who serve AACPS’ more than 78,000 students. She is a Nationally Board Certified teacher and has been a visual arts educator for 23 years. 

“Effective leadership is the backbone to any organization, and I am fortunate to have had predecessors who have built a solid foundation in the state of Maryland,” Dykstra said. “Fostering passion, energy, and enthusiasm starts with the leader, and it has been my mission to do just that.”

Dykstra was named Maryland Art Educator of the Year in 2013, and in 2008 she was the recipient of the National Art Education Association’s Eastern Region Middle Level Teacher of the Year Award.

NAEA’s members include elementary, secondary, middle level, and high school art teachers; university and college professors; education directors who oversee education in our nation’s fine art museums, administrators and supervisors who oversee art education in school districts, state departments of education, and arts councils; and teaching artists throughout the United States and many foreign countries. 

Dykstra will receive her award at the NAEA National Convention in San Diego, Calif., later this month.