OMAHA - A Columbus High School graduate says his high school teachers are one of the reasons he is being honored for excellence in teaching.
Joe Dicostanzo graduated from CHS in 2004, before heading to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and eventually landing at Omaha Benson High School. Dicostanzo, who teaches Freshman history, is being honored for his work at Benson by being given the Christa McAuliffe Award, an award the recognizes excellence in teaching.
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“I coach basketball for Omaha Benson High School, forty-five minutes/half hour before the game and my principal says I need to see you for a second,” says Dicostanzo, “and she notified me that I was nominated and won, and it was really exciting. I feel like it's not an individual honor but a community and school honor because of the support they've given me the school and the students.”
Dicostanzo says he always felt effective as a teacher, but never expected that he would be honored by an outside organization.
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“I think it is also a great example or a great show of how great my teachers at Columbus High were,” Dicostanzo says, “We tend to emulate what we see and experience, and my experience at Columbus High was a great group of caring, concerned; teachers, educators, administrators, this is also a reflection of them.”
This award comes due in big part to a program Dicostanzo created call My Empowerment Network for Success, a program that helps male students who don't have positive male role model in their lives.
The group has so far proven a success and has been invited by the Harvard Graduate School of Education to present at the Alumni of Color Conference in Cambridge.
Dicostanzo will be receiving his award at a ceremony being held in UNL's East Campus Union, in the Arbor Suite on the third floor. The event will run from 11:30 to 1:30 and is located at 1705 Arbor Drive in Lincoln.
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