Khamphet Pease (’05) will have to wait a bit longer for her day at the White House.
The alumna of San Diego State University’s teaching credential program and Noyce Master Teaching Fellowship was named one of 102 recipients of the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST) — the U.S. Government’s highest award for K-12 mathematics and science teachers. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ceremony took place virtually on Feb. 24.
But while a makeup visit to Washington, DC is in the works, Pease’s students and colleagues at San Diego’s Wilson Middle School have already given her a day she’ll never forget.
It was Feb. 9 when word started to spread around her school site that she had received the PAEMST honor.
“I was walking the halls that day every kid I knew — even the kids I didn't know — were saying, 'Congratulations Mrs. Pease!’ or ‘Tell Biden I said hi!'” she said, laughing. “Every period I had to disclose why everyone was congratulating me that day. All my students just spontaneously gave me a standing ovation.
“It was just so heartfelt and congratulatory that I got emotional. I had kids telling me they wanted to be just like me.”
For Pease, who grew up in the City Heights neighborhood and attended Wilson Middle School herself, that affirmation was particularly meaningful. Her own childhood story — coming to the U.S. as a Laotian refugee — no doubt strikes a familiar chord in a community heavily made up of immigrants and refugees from Latin America, Southeast Asia, Africa and elsewhere.
“We came here with nothing,” Pease said. “My Dad always tells a story that when we arrived in America, they had $1 in their pockets. We were at the airport and I was thirsty, and so Dad sacrificed the only dollar to his name to buy me a bottle of water.
“(My parents) made so many sacrifices to come here to give my family an opportunity. Receiving this honor is the fulfillment of my American Dream.”
Pease now works to empower her students to achieve theirs.
Pease was honored for her innovative STEM curriculum that sees Wilson students working together on projects such as designing apps, 3-D printing and building robots. She also founded the school’s highly-successful competitive robotics club. Learn more about Pease’s teaching in a recent Informed & Inspired profile.
She stressed that the PAEMST award was not a personal accolade, but a validation of those who supported her on her journey as an educator.
“This is for family and friends, all the professors that I met in my credential program, my fellow colleagues and definitely my students,” Pease said. “It’s for the Noyce Fellowship Program, which was five years of my life spent doing research and implementing proven strategies to be an effective teacher.
“They have molded and shaped me into the type of educator that I am, which happened also to be something that the President now recognizes as outstanding teaching. They always say it takes a village to raise a child — it took a village to raise me as an educator."