The Sacramento Section of the American Chemical Society (ACS) is pleased to announce that James Hill has won the Janan Hayes High School Teacher Award (HSTA) for 2017.
Mr. Hill wins a $500 cash prize and $500 for classroom supplies. Additionally, he will be honored at the Sacramento Section’s awards ceremony on September 30th, 2017 that is part of the section’s “Flavors of Chemistry” event.
Mr. Hill currently teaches Honors Chemistry and International Baccalaureate Chemistry at Mira Loma High School in Sacramento. In his time there since 1997, Mr. Hill has advised and led the Mira Loma Science Bowl team to the U.S. Department of Energy National Science Bowl competition 18 times and won the national title 5 times. In addition, he is also the Director of the Sacramento Regional Science Olympiad, Science Department Chair at Mira Loma, and regularly works with students to prepare them for the U.S. High School Chemistry Olympiad.
One of the application reviewers noted, “I don’t know how he does [it all], but his students’ and school’s successes are proof that he has invested so much time, talent, energy, and heart above and beyond what a high school chemistry teacher is expected to do.”
As the winner of the Sacramento Section award, Mr. Hill will be nominated the for the James Bryant Conant Award in High School Chemistry Teaching, a national award offered by the ACS with a prize of $5,000 cash and $2,500 towards traveling to the Spring National Meeting of the ACS to receive the award.
This year the “Flavors of Chemistry” event features presentations about and tastings of coffee, olive oil, and chocolate. The presentations will be by Dr. Bill Ristenpart (coffee), Dr. Selina Wang (olive oil), and Howard and Sally Peters (chocolate). The coffee tasting will be sponsored by Chocolate Fish Coffee Roasters of Sacramento.
The ACS Sacramento Section represents over 900 ACS members in the Sacramento, Stockton, and surrounding areas. Its website is http://www.acs-sacramento.org/. This is the second year that it has awarded the HSTA. Last year’s winner was Steven Hummel of Oak Ridge High School.
The award is named after Janan Hayes, an educator who served the ACS Sacramento Section in many roles, including Councilor, for over 40 years.
