Sarah Powley has been chosen as the 2009 Milken Fellow by the Lowell Milken Center in Fort Scott, KS. She will serve the Fellowship in the summer of 2009. The Lowell Milken Center (LMC) Fellowship will be awarded each year on the basis of merit to those educators who have distinguished themselves in teaching understanding and respect through project-based learning. Milken Fellows develop projects in collaboration with the Center. These projects develop stories about unsung heroes to teach respect and understanding of all people.

Sarah is an English teacher and department chair at McCutcheon High School in Lafayette, Indiana. She was selected as a Milken National Educator in 1993. She has led the development of a model Honors English curriculum in the Tippecanoe School Corporation and spearheaded an interdisciplinary program called "Beyond the Pages" to promote reading, literature and the arts through visits from nationally recognized authors such as W.P. Kinsella and poet Gwendolyn Brooks. In 1998, Powley pursued her interest in international education as an exchange teacher in Russia and participated in a three-year program of student exchanges with a secondary school in Pskov. She and two colleagues established The International Club at McCutcheon, an extra-curricular organization that allows students to participate in international service projects. In 2006, Powley received a Lilly Teacher Creativity Fellowship Award to travel to Rwanda, where she served as a guest teacher while studying the country's 1994 genocide. Powley has made numerous presentations on teaching the Holocaust—including presentations about The Children of Willesden Lane—at Indiana Department of Education workshops and at the National Council of Teachers of English annual conference.

Sarah serves as a Co-Chair of the Greater Lafayette Holocaust Remembrance Conference, an annual event in Lafayette whose purpose is to honor the lives of those lost in the Holocaust and to work to eliminate prejudice and hatred today. In conjunction with the GLHRC, Sarah and her students conducted a workshop for educators on the Holocaust and the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, and Sarah has facilitated dramatic presentations about the Holocaust for middle and high school students. This spring, the GLHRC secured the script for Life in a Jar from the Lowell Milken Center; subsequently, the McCutcheon Drama Club, under the direction of the McCutcheon drama and choral departments, presented the play to packed audiences at McCutcheon and at the Children's Museum in Indianapolis.

A fellow teacher says, "Sarah is a unique and special individual who makes a difference in the lives of many students. Her dedication and devotion to teaching sets an example for teachers everywhere."

Click here to read more about the 2009 Milken Fellow.