Olentangy Academy math teacher Kelsey Smith has been awarded the George B. Chapman, Jr. Teacher Award for Excellence in Mathematics Education through the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation.

The award, named after the foundation’s first president, comes with a $1,000 grant to be used for a mathematics project to benefit students in the recognized teacher’s classroom or school.

A 2011 graduate of The Ohio State University, Smith just finished her 13th year in teaching and has been with the Olentangy STEM Academy since 2015. She was nominated for the award by Olentangy Academy Principal Karen Sedoti and Chief Academic Officer Dr. Michelle Blackley.

While she knew she had been nominated for the award, Smith found out she had been selected just after landing on a red-eye flight from Las Vegas after visiting her grandmother with her 5-year-old daughter, Sylvia. “It was a nice surprise after a bumpy flight with minimal sleep,” she told The Gazette.

“This award means so much to me,” Smith said. “During hybrid learning and the years after, I felt like I really have recentered and refocused my practice to be adaptive to my students and to honor and respect what each of them bring to the table and meet each of them where they are at on an individual level.

“I truly believe that everyone can feel successful at math. The pandemic created some learning gaps and attendance challenges, and in order to continue to make math accessible to students, I had to truly commit to Olentangy’s mission of maximizing learning for every student. This has led to some positive shifts in my practice as a teacher that have been incredibly impactful on both my students’ achievements and their mathematical wellbeing as confident learners in collaboration and problem-solving.”

Teaching math wasn’t always the career plan for Smith, who originally went to school to study computer science and engineering. However, Smith admittedly struggled in some of her classes and didn’t feel her strong problem-solving skills were translating in her physics and computer science classes.

After more than two years of schooling, Smith shifted her major to education and applied for Teach For America, a leadership development organization, during her senior year.

“I wanted to try to design math lessons that were authentic, transferable, and rigorous for my students so that they could build strong problem-solving skills that could transfer to whatever career or college path that they chose,” she said. “I had an amazing experience in Teach For America and learned so much about how students learn about math, how to best learn from the community where I was working, and how to build relationships with students and families.”

Smith believes the nomination validates the hard work of both herself and her students, and she is thankful to Sedoti for trusting her to try new and different things in her classroom. She added that she is thankful to her students and their families for believing in their classroom. “This award really belongs to my students for their hard work and dedication to our classroom community,” she said.

As for what she plans to do with the grant money, Smith said she plans to spend time this summer researching opportunities that will be “most impactful for my students in the classroom.”

Reach Dillon Davis at 740-413-0904. Follow him on Twitter @DillonDavis56.