Alumna Corrie Campbell surprised with prestigious Milken Educator Award
Wed, 03/15/2023 - 9:07am
One Lafayette Parish educator and UL Lafayette graduate is receiving recognition for her work in the classroom. Corrie Campbell ’08 was recently presented with a Milken Educator Award for the 2022-2023 school year. This prestigious award is given by the Milken Family Foundation and includes a $25,000 monetary prize.
Lowell Milken created the Milken Educator Awards to celebrate, elevate, and activate the teaching profession. Since its inception in 1987, the Milken Family Foundation has devoted $140 million in funding to the Milken Educator Awards.
Campbell, a third-grade teacher at Green T. Lindon Elementary School, is one of the forty teachers across the nation recognized this year. She became the second teacher ever in Lafayette Parish to receive this honor.
On the morning of her award ceremony, Campbell thought she was attending a typical school assembly. “I was thinking it was a pep rally,” Campbell said. When she noticed that there were school board members in attendance and the Louisiana State Superintendent of Education was there, she realized this was more than an average school gathering.
Shortly into the assembly, Lowell Milken took to the microphone to announce that he was there to award one teacher a Milken Educator Award. When he called Campbell's name as the recipient, she was in complete shock.
“I was just trying to process everything that was happening. The day did not go how I thought it would. It was such a huge honor,” Campbell said.
Campbell has been an educator for over a decade and credits many of her professors at UL Lafayette for shaping her into the teacher she is today. She’s most proud of the fact that she’s able to help mold the next generation through her profession.
“I’m proud to be a teacher because I can inspire the next generation that is coming up. You’re able to teach [students] more than the basics of what is in the classroom. You’re also helping them develop their character and confidence as people,” Campbell said.
As part of her award, Campbell will join the Milken Educator Network and attend a conference later this year that will allow her to network and learn from other outstanding educators. She is extremely grateful for this honor and looks forward to many more years of educating and inspiring students in Louisiana.
Photo Caption: (Main) From left, Louisiana Superintendent of Education Dr. Cade Brumley; Lafayette Parish School System Superintendent Irma Duplechain Trosclair; Green T. Lindon Elementary School Principal Nancy Credeur; recipient Corrie Campbell; Lowell Milken, founder of the Milken Educator Awards; and Teddy Broussard, senior trainer for the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching present the $25,000 check. (In Story) Surrounded by proud colleagues, the third grade ELA and social studies teacher is stunned to learn that she is the recipient of a Louisiana Milken Educator Award and $25,000! (Photo Credit: Milken Family Foundation)