Instructor Hopes to Leave a Teaching Legacy
RIGHTFUL RECOGNITION: Shea Ferrell, left, director of instruction at Tulsa Tech, with Maemi Dildy, a pre-engineering instructor and the recipient of Tulsa Engineering Foundation’s 2013 Tex Richardson Award.
Each year, the Tulsa Engineering Foundation, the Oklahoma Engineering Foundation and the Construction Specification Institute present the Tex Richardson Engineering and Science Guidance Award to an instructor for outstanding achievement and service in engineering and science guidance activities in the State of Oklahoma. The award was established in 1992 to recognize both teachers and engineers in Oklahoma who demonstrate exceptional service in guidance activities for students.
The 2013 Tex Richardson Guidance Award recipient, Maemi Dildy, an instructor for the last 12 years and currently an instructor of Tulsa Tech Pre-Engineering classes at Thomas Edison Preparatory School, felt honored to be included with this year’s nominees.
“There’s such a huge push to implement the (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education,” she says. “To be recognized among so many of these great instructors in our state was both an honor and quite humbling.”
Shea Ferrell, Tulsa Tech’s director of instruction, nominated Dildy and believes her commitment to her students exemplifies what the prestigious award represents.
“Ms. Dildy’s involvement with the FIRST Robotics program, along with anything related to the curriculum that she can possibly put on her plate, she does,” Ferrell explaines. “She balances these activities with her family life, spending many weekends and extra hours helping her students achieve the goals she feels they’re capable of.”
In addition to receiving the 2013 Richardson Award, Dildy was also a finalist for CareerTech’s Teacher of the Year.
“I’ve wanted to be a teacher since I was 5 years old,” Dildy says. “I can even remember my older brother getting to go to kindergarten and how I thought it was unfair that he got to go to school and I had to stay home.”
By the time she was in sixth grade, Dildy was determined to become a math teacher, a subject she taught for several years before she began teaching the curriculum and related pre-engineering courses.
“What I love about our program is our kids continue their education, and they’re very successful in college,” Dildy says. “Some engineering schools have an approximately 50 percent dropout rate, so I think it speaks volumes that our students finish successfully.”
Dildy’s contagious enthusiasm and passion for her profession demonstrate why she received the Tulsa Engineering Foundation’s 2013 Tex Richardson Award.
“I love being a teacher and feeling like I make a difference in this world,” she says. “I want my students to leave my class as different individuals than when they arrived. Their accomplishments and success will be my legacy.”
If you’re looking for exciting classes for high school and adult students, award-winning business and industry training, or are ready to engineer your next career, Tulsa Tech invites you to visit today. For more information, please call 918-828-5200, or visit us online at tulsatech.edu.
Updated 03-27-2013
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