Celebrating Excellence in Teaching
First granted in 1989, the Lee S. Pattison Distinguished Teacher Award seeks to celebrate teachers who best embody all that Lee Pattison gave to the Country Day community. The award recipients are announced at the final faculty meeting of the year and receive a $10,000 stipend over three years, and an additional $1,000 to spend on something that benefits the school.
The 2024 recipients of this award are Malena Castro and Ann Wimmer. Malena is in her 17th year of teaching Spanish at Country Day, while Ann is in her 18th year of teaching in the Lower School. Both women have been fierce advocates of knowing, nurturing, and inspiring the students that pass through their classrooms.
What was your impression of Country Day when you arrived?
Ann Wimmer: I fell in love immediately. It felt like a family from Day 1. Even though teaching was new to me because I was a student teacher and I didn't know anything, everyone was so eager to help take me from where I was to where I needed to be. It’s something we do with our students but also with our teachers, guiding them to be the best version of themselves.
Malena Castro: I was very impressed with the whole environment. The teachers seemed professional, and the students were well-mannered and driven.
What is your impression of Country Day now?
AW: I feel lucky to have found this place and blessed to have my children here. I'm thankful for that every day: to work at a place I love where I learn something new every day and where my kids [Lucas `32, Landon `34, Addison `37] get to be a part of this incredible learning experience and community. There are so many kids who don't want to leave here at the end of the day – including my own.
MC: I feel the same as I did when I first came here. The dress code was very strict when I came here and students couldn’t leave their backpacks in the commons, so it’s a bit more of a relaxed environment but there is still a very good relationship between the students and the teachers that is based on trust. And the parents here recognize the value of a second language and are really interested in their kids having that advantage. There is something you perceive from the moment you come to Country Day: The people who work here are recognized as people who have strong values with a big commitment to teaching and creating good citizens who are good leaders for the future. And after 16 years, it's an honor to be identified as part of a community like this.
If you could have any other job in the world, what would it be?
AW: I would still be teaching. Sometimes I think full-time mom would have been a good job for me but then I think, no, I need to be out of the house. I really can't imagine doing anything else other than teaching. Those are my two all-time favorite roles of my life: being a mom and being a teacher, and the fact that I get to do both in one setting is really phenomenal.
MC: Teaching already is a second career for me. My first was in clinical psychology. But I moved around a lot because of my ex-husband’s career with P&G, so I put my career on hold. When I lived in Mexico, I went to a private school and took English, but it wasn’t until 1990 when I married and moved to Cincinnati the first time that I learned I didn’t really know English. We moved around from there and I was amazed at how quickly my little boys went from speaking only Spanish to speaking Spanish, English, and French. In 2001, we moved to Cincinnati permanently, and friends started asking me if I could help their kids with Spanish. After my divorce in 2008, I asked myself, ‘What is my mission? Where is my place?’ and that is when my second chapter started. Country Day is the place where, for the last 16 years, my second chapter has been written.
What did you want to be when you grew up?
AW: When I was young, I wanted to be a teacher, but by the time I was in high school I wanted to be a psychologist. Really anything EXCEPT a teacher; I had too many family members who were teachers. But then I did a practicum in a school setting, and I thought ‘Maybe I am supposed to be a teacher’ because I loved the classroom setting more than I loved anything else. So, I finished my degree and went right back to school to become a teacher.
MC: Two things were in my mind when I was little: I always knew I wanted to work with and have an impact on people, and that's probably why I chose a career in psychology. But, at the same time, education and schools were always in my life. My grandpa was the head of one of the most prestigious schools in our town [Merida, Yucatan], my father was a doctor but was also the head of the medical school at the University of Yucatan, my sister was an assistant upper school principal in Mexico and then became a school counselor when she moved to California, my grandma and all her sisters were elementary school teachers. I was surrounded by academia my whole life. The idea of teaching was not foreign to me, it was almost like a family business.
This award seeks to celebrate teachers who best embody all that Lee Pattison gave, day in and day out: loyalty, creativity, humor, flexibility, and integrity. Which of these do you think best aligns with you and why?
AW: Loyalty. I'm learning how to balance work and home a little better, but I feel that I give more to our school than anything else in my life. It’s because I'm grateful to be part of Country Day. It is a place that makes me WANT to be loyal. I am glad to give my time and my talents because I know they are appreciated and valued. Country Day provides me opportunities to grow as an educator, parent, and person, and I am happy to use what I have to offer to help build up our Country Day community in return. As I try to remind my students and my own children, we often feel the best when we help others, and I often feel the best when I am building up this community through teaching, building relationships, and sharing the good news about this amazing school.
MC: I would say humor and flexibility. Both are big parts of my character. My colleagues always joke, ‘Here comes Malena with her Mexican humor!’ I can laugh at everything by beginning to laugh at myself first. As for flexibility, that is part of my formation and my culture. When you grow up in a third-world country, things don’t always work as expected, so you have to find your way around, learn to be creative, and to go with the flow.