EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — When Magali Gomez walked into the Ruben S. Torres Elementary School gymnasium Tuesday morning, Dec. 12 for a school assembly, she was expecting to cheer on her students as they received accolades for improved attendance rates.
Instead, she was the one being celebrated as Dr. Jane Foley, Milken Educator Awards senior vice president, New Mexico Lt. Gov. Howie Morales and Dr. Arsenio Romero, New Mexico secretary of public education, surprised Gomez with the 2023 Milken Educator Award.
Gomez received the honor before cheering students, colleagues, dignitaries and media. The award comes with a $25,000 cash prize that recipients can use however they choose, as well as lifelong membership to the Milken Educator Network to collaborate with fellow recipients and broaden their impact on K-12 education.
“Magali Gomez truly embodies the spirit of the Milken Educator Award. She is a teacher leader, an innovator in the classroom, and an inspirational role model who achieves great gains with her students,” said Dr. Jane Foley, a 1994 Milken Educator Award recipient from Indiana. “Her passion for cultivating tangible learning experiences in her classroom motivates her young students to envision a future for themselves as exemplary leaders in their community, just like their teacher. We offer our heartfelt congratulations to her!”
Hailed as the “Oscars of Teaching,” the awards will honor up to 75 recipients across the country in 2023-24 as part of the Milken Family Foundation’s Journey to the 3,000th Milken Educator. Also, 2023-24 will reach $75 million in individual financial prizes spanning the length of the initiative and more than $144 million invested in the Milken Educator Award national network overall, empowering recipients to “Celebrate, Elevate, and Activate” the K-12 profession and inspiring young, capable people to pursue teaching as a career.
“I am thrilled for Magali Gomez, the Ruben S. Torres Elementary students and staff, and the Deming community that she is being recognized for her incredible work in the classroom,” said Romero. “Her ability to adapt the latest evidence-based teaching models to relatable lessons for her students has produced tremendous academic achievement growth in reading, math, and language. Combined with her leadership in her school and willingness to go the extra mile for her students makes her exactly the kind of educator New Mexico students deserve.”
The Milken Educator Award is not a lifetime achievement honor. Recipients are sought out while early to mid-career for what they have achieved – and for the promise of what they will accomplish given the resources and opportunities afforded by the Award.
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