City High English teacher and Education Leader Cliff Luft won the 2021 Schools That Can Robert F. Kennedy Award for Teaching Excellence.
In his acceptance speech, Mr. Luft spoke of educators as "hope-dealers" and expressed his desire that all educators and everyone in our schools can "offer hope and love to our children."
The RFK award highlights school leaders, teachers, and students who exemplify their respective roles as an educator and/or learner as well as live up this year's quote: “This world demands the qualities of youth; not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the life of ease.”
Following the Awards ceremony, City CEO Dr. Dara Ware Allen moderated the high school portion of a panel discussion that included City High senior Aneesha Dell, who joined selected students from across the country in responding to themed questions regarding the following topic: "How a Generation Defined By COVID Builds a New Future".
In honor of Robert F. Kennedy’s legacy, and in partnership with Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, Schools That Can annually presents the Robert F. Kennedy Urban Education Awards to a school leader, teacher, and student from urban schools. Awardees embody Kennedy’s characteristics by speaking truth to power and acting as agents of positive change.
Schools That Can works with school leaders, students, and teachers from a diverse cross-sector of K-12 schools to advance real-world learning that builds an education to employment pathway so that all students are prepared to succeed in a rapidly-changing world.
City High History teacher Mark Barga and alumni Marci Mazza-Fredley have won in the respective teacher and student categories in a prior year.