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It was always a dream for Anna Sophia Steinki ’24 G’26 to become a teacher, and now the ���ϲ����� alumna and current Teach for Alamance Fellow is accomplishing that dream and more, being named the Alamance-Burlington School System (ABSS) Beginning Teacher of the Year and a top 10 finalist for the North Carolina Beginning Teacher of the Year.

“I have never been more proud of myself in my entire life,” said Steinki, who is second-year teacher at R. Homer Andrews Elementary School. “It was honestly a dream come true. No matter how much I was like, ‘I’m not going to win this thing,’ I really wanted it in my heart. So, for them to say those words out loud, I was in complete shock.”

Marked for excellence

Steinki earned her undergraduate degree in elementary education, with a minor in Spanish, from ���ϲ����� and did her student teaching at Andrews Elementary. Her current fourth-grade class is the same students she instructed as a student-teacher in 2024.

Leslie Benson, principal of Andrews Elementary School, nominated Steinki for the district-wide award and says it was an easy choice.

“Anna Sophia is deeply dedicated to the art of teaching, her classroom truly brings her joy and serves as her happy place. She cares for each of her students individually and goes above and beyond to meet them where they are, no matter the need. Her creativity shines through in her instructional approaches, always finding innovative ways to promote student success,” said Benson. “Anna Sophia welcomes feedback with grace and applies it thoughtfully, demonstrating a genuine commitment to growth. She is a true example of a teacher marked for excellence.

Fellow support

Steinki is now working to earn her Master of Education as a Teach for Alamance Fellow, a scholarship program that provides full tuition remission and a small stipend to teacher-candidate graduates of the Dr. Jo Watts Williams School of Education who wish to enroll in ���ϲ�����’s Master of Education program.

The Fellows must commit to two years of teaching in ABSS and must be employed by ABSS at the time of matriculation to the Master of Education program and for the duration of their studies.

For Steinki, the Fellows program has been a lifeline as she carries over the strong connections with faculty from her undergraduate experience, including Lisa Thompson, adjunct instructor of education; Lisa Buchanan, associate professor of education; and Melaine Rickard, instructor in education.

“They are my biggest support system,” said Steinki. “I’m still taking classes with them and they are still giving me homework, and I am still completing assignments, but at the same time, when I needed help with teaching, they are some of the people I turn to when I need advice or help. It’s been really nice to have those relationships.”

Thompson says it is evident Steinki cares for her students and puts in the extra effort to help them thrive, and she also represents the positive impact and great potential of ���ϲ�����’s mentoring relationships.

“She has high expectations and holds them accountable with a kind and caring demeanor,” said Thompson. “She puts the time, effort, and initiative into daily building relationships with students by connecting with many current and former students before, during, and after school with quick hugs, smiles, and meaningful comments, and makes it a priority to attend their sporting events or extracurricular activities after school and on weekends. She sees the best, expects the best, and celebrates all accomplishments big or small.”

Hard work paying off

Part of connecting with her students also includes language. Fluent in Spanish, Steinki uses her language skills to help some students through instruction and even to do parent-teacher conferences.

“Last year I used a translator, but that was more of me not being fully confident in my abilities,” said Steinki. “However, this year I did all the parent-teacher conferences by myself, and I did all the translation, and we were going over reading, behavior and math data, data, along with charts and graphs. So, it was cool to be like ‘Wow, I can actually do this.’”

During her undergraduate experience as a Teaching Fellow, Steinki studied abroad with her cohort at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. Fellows complete two education courses, one of which includes a month-long, full-time teaching placement.  One of the teacher’s protocols for how bathroom permissions are granted during the school day is used by Steinki today.

Her Winter Term study abroad experience in Poland and the Czech Republic focusing on the Holocaust, has also deeply influenced her teaching, with her students now reading “A Sky Full of Song,” about a Ukrainian immigrant who moves to the United States during World War II. Buchanan’s undergraduate students in “Elementary Social Studies Methods” created instructional materials to help the elementary students, and the classes came together for a book discussion in October.

“This school-university partnership has been such a unique opportunity as a teaching faculty,” said Buchanan. “I have had the privilege of watching Ms. Steinki evolve as a classroom teacher beginning with early education courses, then in her methods experience and now, most recently, as an M.Ed. candidate and community-based learning partner.”

It’s worlds colliding for Steinki: her undergraduate, graduate and teaching work coming together to make a positive difference.

“I want to be a teacher until I can no longer be a teacher,” Steinki said. “And it’s been my dream since I was like 6 years old, and so to win the award, I was like, ‘Wow, Anna Sophia, all your hard work is paying off.’”