Des Moines, IA—The Iowa World Language Association (IWLA) is pleased to announce that the 2017 Educator of the Year (Secondary Level) Award has been given to Kimberly Huegerich, a Spanish language teacher at Nevada High School in Nevada, Iowa. The Educator of the Year Award is designed to recognize teachers who exemplify the best in teaching at their particular level, who demonstrate involvement in the Iowa World Language Association, and who provide evidence of leadership and contributions to the field of world language education. The award presentation was held during the luncheon of the 2017 Iowa World Language Association Annual Conference at the Des Moines Downtown Marriott in Des Moines, IA on Friday, October 13th. 

Ms. Huegerich’s resume reveals an amazing depth of knowledge about teaching language in modern times - it shows her expertise in technology, in directing conferences for language teachers, in presenting at conferences on a variety of topics, and in mentoring new teachers.  She has been a four-year IWLA Executive Board member and served as president of IWLA, and has served in multiple other positions in language teaching organizations.

Ms. Huegerich has been a leader in the state, with a literal can-do spirit, exemplified in this passage in her narrative:  “Someone had mentioned wanting to create an Iowa based comprehensible input get-together. I casually interjected, “I could do that”…That ended up being a huge risk that turned out better than I could have imagined. Comprehensible Iowa was born: idea to completion within 3 months.”  One of Ms. Huegerich’s students said that she captured the “hearts and minds” of her students while teaching, and one of Ms. Huegerich’s nominators said, “Kim’s reach is greater than just her classroom, her school, and even IWLA.” 

Pictured: Kimberly Huegerich and family