(Cushing, Okla.) Cushing Chamber of Commerce honored eight recipients Monday kicking off the 2012-2013 Business After School program. Two Cushing school staff members – one teacher and one support person and one CHS senior girl and senior boy are selected each month during the school year. Monday’s reception honored those for September and October.
Teachers named were: Liz Mastel and Linda Berman; support personnel were: Mike Armstrong and Angela Lauderdale: CHS seniors were: Myrissa Day, Alexa Cackler, Christian Hinix and Cole McKnight.
Liz Mastel, teacher at Deep Rock, comes from a long line of educators – third generation, in fact. “My grandmother taught at the Ingalls school, my mother taught at a small school in Lincoln County,” she wrote in a brief biography. Her uncle, Conner Fitzgerald, taught at OSU and was the Superintendent of Hillside Elementary, outside of Cushing. He grandfather was on the school board for the old Happy Valley School District and her great-grandfather Morgan donated 40 acres for the first Harmony School, north of his homestead, on Harmony Road.
Because of ten years spent as an archeologist, Liz said she enjoys visiting archeology and museum sites, reading historical documents and tracking down family genealogy. She attends the Methodist Church and is a volunteer with the Sauk & Fox Language Program. She also serves on the Oklahoma State Department of Education’s Native Language Certification Committee.
Liz is married to a Vietnam veteran and would love to travel to Vietnam with him to see many of the places he has told her about. She has a son, Ben, who has a degree in Theater Production and works for the Ashland Shakespearean theater in Ashland, Oregon. Liz said she would be thrilled to spend time with him watching the backstage production of any Shakespeare plays.
Her greatest joy in teaching has been seeing her former students be successful in their lives.
Teacher Linda Berman grew up in the Czech Republic, has a bachelor and masters degree from OSU where she played tennis for the university for 4 years. She has been teaching in Cushing for 6 years. She loves spending her spare time with her three-year-old son, Jakub “Kuba.” and husband Seth Berman.
Linda said her greatest joy as a teacher is seeing the joy students have in learning about other world cultures and the students’ enthusiasm for trying to learn to speak a world language that will benefit them in their future.
Support person, Mike Armstrong works at Harmony School and is the father to “two lovely daughters” and is new grandpa to a “precious one-month-old little girl.” He enjoys fishing and walking in the woods, relaxing and spending time with family and friends. If he could take a trip to anywhere at no cost, Mike said he would like to travel through the Amazon rain forest.
Mike said his greatest joy in his job is being able to watch the teachers help the children learn and grow socially.
No information was available on support person Angela Lauderdale. She did not attend the reception.
CHS senior Alexa Cackler is on the CHS cheer team. She enjoys watching Ellen in her spare time and would love to spend the day with Oprah. “She is one of my favorite people.” If she could take a trip that cost nothing, Alexa said she would love to go to New Zealand. “It is beautiful,” she said. “I wouldn’t care when!”
CHS senior Cole McKnight is a wide receiver for the Cushing Tigers. In his spare time he enjoys hanging out with friends and a “good steak and mashed potatoes.” If he could spend the day with anyone, Cole would choose Wes Welker. “It would be neat to hang out with one of the best NFL wide receivers,” he said. Cole’s “five year plan” includes working towards a degree in the engineering field.
CHS senior Myrissa Day is on the CHS cheer team and enjoys hanging out with her friends and family in her spare time. Myrissa stays pretty busy, since aside from being on the cheer squad, she takes concurrent classes for college credit hours, tumbles, sings and does community service for NHS. If she could spend the day with anyone – it would be a movie star or singer – “just to see what their life is like up close.” Preferably, it would be on tour or on a movie set. Her future plans include graduating from college and “having a good job that I like.”
CHS Christian Hinix plays defense for the Cushing Tigers and enjoys coming on the Donna & Molly Show Friday mornings for Tiger Time. No other information was available.
***
