Class of 2024 Phebe and Zephaniah Swift Moore Teaching Award Winners
Each year at Commencement, Amherst College presents the Phebe and Zephaniah Swift Moore Teaching Awards to three outstanding secondary school teachers who challenged, inspired, and moved members of the graduating class. The awards are named for the first president of the College and his wife. Amherst has presented the awards since 1997.
Jeanne Winand Herdocia
ENGLISH AND ESOL TEACHER
Jefferson High School • Tampa, Florida
Jeanne Herdocia introduced Jordan Trice ’24 to Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, the book that inspired him to major in English at Amherst. Her kindness and support for him as a person and the example she sets in the world continue to influence him to this day.
When he was in high school, Trice writes in his nomination, Herdocia’s Human Rights Club provided a safe space for the students who needed it most. “More than the space itself, it was heartwarming and inspiring to see somebody who cared so much about others,” Trice notes. While many teachers cycled out of the underresourced public school, Herdocia stayed, dedicated to helping her students realize their promise and thrive.
The summer before he left for Amherst, Trice and Herdocia read additional literature by Shakespeare, Kafka, Plath, and others that hadn’t been part of the AP English curriculum; she wanted to be sure he was well prepared for what was to come. And, in conversation with Herdocia this past summer, Trice realized he wants to pursue graduate studies in English, in hopes of becoming a teacher or professor and having the kind of impact on others that she has had on him.
Related: See the news story, “Everyone Needs a Jeanne in Their Life.”
Dawn McRoberts Strauss
LATIN TEACHER
Kenwood Academy High School • Chicago, Illinois
For Anayah Scott ’24 and more than 100 of her peers at Kenwood Academy on the South Side of Chicago, the greeting “Salvete, discipuli!” (“Hello, students!”) was a highlight of the school day, signaling as it did—and still does for today’s Kenwood Academy students—the start of Latin class with Dawn McRoberts Strauss.
To “Mama Strauss,” as she is known to her students, Latin is not a dead language but an immortal one. At the only public neighborhood school in Chicago that offers instruction in Latin, the program has quadrupled in size under her leadership over the past two decades. Alongside the creative prompts, engaging projects, and lively exploration of Latin roots, she has supported the growth of her students’ emotional intelligence and self- knowledge. “We were heard and cared for,” Scott notes, “and, regardless of background and belief, we considered each other family.”
Whether raising money to ensure that all could attend the annual state Latin convention, opening her home to students during winter holiday celebrations, or lending support during the stresses of SAT season, Strauss nur- tured Scott and her peers as whole people and emboldened them to believe in themselves and pursue their highest aspirations.
Julie Filliez Werren
FRENCH TEACHER
GlenOak High School • Canton, Ohio
“Her love and energy inspired my passion for learning,” recalls Hannah Gariepy ’24. For Gariepy, Julie Filliez Werren’s famously detailed lesson plans and the color-coded note sheets from which students created their own textbooks were outstanding. She introduced her students to French music, art, films, books, politics, culture, and food as well as language, and organized a trip to France for a firsthand experience.
But it was when unexpected personal challenges came her way that Gariepy realized how truly extraordinary her French teacher was. “Madame was one of the first people I opened up to about everything,” she writes. “She supported me when I needed it most.”
Gariepy had barely begun to think about postsecondary plans when the fall of her senior year arrived. “Being a first-generation, low-income student, I did not even know where to begin,” she remembers. Only when Filliez came to her with suggestions for scholarships and an invitation to research potential schools together did the prospect of college come into focus for Gariepy. “Were it not for Madame’s guidance and, even more important, her heart and soul, I would not be at Amherst College today.”