It is with great pleasure and admiration that I nominate Mr. Robert Stevens of Highland High School for your local Teacher Feature on KSL Radio. Mr. Stevens is the beloved woodshop teacher at Highland High School and has consistently gone above and beyond his inherent gifts as a teacher in several ways. At the individual level, Mr. Stevens has been a mentor not only to my son, Teddy, but to hundreds of students over the years at Highland. He has taken his love for the craft of woodworking and encouraged his students to tap their own strengths and talents through his consistent examples of leadership, kindness, and love for this art form. On a personal note, he has beautifully mentored my own son in so many ways…allowing him to tap his own strengths and gifts as a wood artist–so much that my son plans to pursue his dreams with architectural woodworking at the college level. My son has never experienced such a devoted teacher in all of his life!!

On a much larger scale, Mr. Stevens has worked with elementary students in the Salt Lake City School District for a number of years. He allows young children from the greater community the opportunity to visit his classroom at Highland and creates mentoring relationships between his students and younger children regularly. Just last spring, Mr. Stevens embraced plans to construct portions of the set for a production with Nibley Park Second Graders. He spent hours encouraging his high school students the importance of building safe and sound sets–and then allowed all of the Nibley Park second graders the opportunity to come and assist the high school students with the final touches of their set. This was an opportunity that these students will never forget!

With all of this in mind, I certainly hope that you will not only consider, but award Robert Stevens with this well-deserved prize! When you meet him, you will certainly see why he has touched the hearts of so many people! Thank you!!

Fondly,

Ms. Laura M. Clinton