Reyburn Intermediate honored twice for its academic achievements

Mica Tan (Center) awarded the CLMS State Educator of the Year at an awards ceremony in Sacramento. PHOTO CONTRIBUTED

The past two weeks have been exciting for Reyburn Intermediate.

After taking home the National Schools to Watch award for the fourth time in Sacramento, Reyburn AB teacher Mica Tan was awarded the California League of Schools State Educator of the Year. Tan was rewarded for her excellence in middle-school education.

“I’m just so honored and privileged, I love what I do,” Tan said. “It’s really cool to share this with the students because how much they’ve impacted my journey.”

In order to be considered for the award, the applicants were given a prompt about the most important lesson students have taught them.  

For Tan, that wasn’t too difficult.

“That was an easy thing to talk about because every day they show me something, so I was just really honored to share that,” Tan said.

Tan entered the running for the award after the administration at Reyburn nominated her for the local chapter of the CLMS back in November. From there, Tan competed against eight other people from the Central Valley region.

After winning within the area, she was automatically nominated for the state-wide award where she faced off with nine other educators, eventually coming out on top.

“I spent two years living in Ethiopia before I started teaching in America, so I think I bring a more global perspective,” Tan explained. Tan lived there for two years before coming back to America. “My kids are both adopted from Ethiopia and our oldest son didn’t speak English when we got here five years ago. He’s in third grade now and he’s reading Harry Potter.”

Her global experiences had a positive impact on her career.

“I feel like their journey and my experience being overseas has given me a global perspective of what really matters. If we make good people, good people work hard,” she further explained.

Tan’s priority is not just to make sure her students are learning the necessary requirements, but also how to be good people in the process.

“My priority is to teach kids how to be a good person [sic] and how to make others feel good and building your own confidence. I find when you do that, amazingly enough everything else falls into place,” Tan said. “You want to learn when you’re a good person and when you’re a good person you want to help other people.”

For the past three years, Nugesse has been a vital part of the Madera Tribune covering sports, news, entertainment and feature writing. Nugesse’s ability to interact with the community allows him to promote students, athletes and community members with fairness and objectivity. We are happy to have Nugesse join our team here at the Clovis Roundup.