Frederick County Public Schools teacher receives national award in education

Skyler Sales
·2 min read

FREDERICK, Md. (DC News Now) — Thousands of students and staff at Frederick High School gathered in the gym to celebrate one teacher who has gone above and beyond for her students for being a pioneer in the education field.

Shock was all that Maggie Arnold could feel when she found out she won the Milken Educator Award. The accolade is given to teachers who show outstanding dedication to excellence in education.

“We have a panel that selects the educators,” Senior Program Director for the Milken Family Foundation, Greg Gallagher, said. “So there is no nomination or application procedure for the educator, so wonderful educators like Maggie don’t even know that they’ve been considered for the award.”

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Recipients of the award get to represent their school district on a nationwide tour to improve education as well as receive $25,000 to use however they want.

For Arnold, who came to the U.S. without knowing how to speak English, the honor makes her thankful for her journey.

“I have just sacrificed so much to be where I am today and I think a lot of it comes apart doing my teaching doing my instruction,” she said.

Arnold said the award was a “really good surprise.”

“I think, just the recognition if anything, it just forces me to work harder and I do have a huge passion for education because of my upbringing,” she said.

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Arnold is the second Frederick County Public School teacher to receive the honor.

“Making sure that kids are persistent, making sure that she’s setting high expectations, making sure that they’re successful and all of those qualities are exactly the qualities that you want to see in amazing teachers and Maryland is blessed to have many teachers across our state that do this very same thing day in and day out,” Interim State Superintendent, Carey Wright said.

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