PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE CITIZEN Three teachers and one guidance counselor have been selected to receive the school district’s prestigious Middle School “Teacher of the Year Awards” and the district’s Middle School “Guidance Counselor of the Year Award.”

Lehigh Acres Middle School is pleased to announce three teachers and one guidance counselor have been selected to receive the school district’s prestigious Middle School “Teacher of the Year Awards” and the district’s Middle School “Guidance Counselor of the Year Award.”

Middle School Teacher of the Year Awards will be presented to: William Gerstner, a gifted language arts and drama teacher; Carol Anderson, a science teacher; and Johnnie Mae Hawkins, a health education teacher.

The Middle School Guidance Counselor of the Year Award will be presented to Carmelita Hampton.

“All of us at Lams are very happy to have these four staff members represent Lehigh Acres Middle School,” Principal Joe Pitura said. “When four staff members from one school are recognized as tops in their field, it certainly makes a statement about the quality of education being taught at Lehigh Acres Middle School.”

Gerstner is a native Floridian who grew up in Miami and began teaching in Lee County in 1973. A veteran of teaching at several middle schools, including 16 years at Lehigh Acres Middle School, he was asked to move to Riverdale High School to open its sixth through eighth grade program in 1999. He returned to Lehigh Middle School in 2004, where he has remained for the past eight years.

It is the second time Gerstner has won such a prestigious award, having won it in 2010 as the Middle School Language Arts Teacher of the Year. He plans to retire at the end of the current school year, after serving the district for 39 years.

Originally from New York, Anderson earned her bachelor’s of science degree from Elmira College in Elmira, N.Y., in 1980. She earned a master’s degree from Florida Gulf Coast University in 2000 and, between degrees, worked in the doctoral program at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga., creating classes toward national certification in animal husbandry for the university.

She serves Lehigh Middle School as the chairperson for the Science Department, director of LAMS Pride – fund-raising for the school – participates in other various committees, organizes and chaperones annual school field trips for all grades.

“Teaching is not something I do – it’s who I am, and I cannot help it,” she said.

Hawkins, a native Floridian raised in Miami, received her bachelor’s of science degree from the University of Florida in 1985. She also hold a master’s degree in educational leadership and is presently a doctoral candidate at Nova Southeastern University.

Her professional teaching career began with health education in the Miami-Dade County Schools in 1986. She previously taught at Immokalee middle and high schools before coming to Lehigh Acres Middle School. She serves as an assistant to the assistant principal for Student Services, assistant athletic director and head girl’s track coach.

Hawkins has been accepted into the district’s assistant principal pool and hopes to move into full-time administration in the near future.

Hampton, who was born and raised in Rochester, N.Y., is a 2000 graduate of St. John Fischer College, where she received her bachelor’s degree in psychology education. She earned her master’s degree from Saint Rose College in Albany, N.Y., in education with a specialization in school counseling.

Arriving in Florida in 2007, her professional career in education began when she accepted a guidance position at Gulf Middle School in Cape Coral. One year later, she accepted her position at Lehigh Acres Middle School, where she has been a guidance counselor for the past four years.

During her career, she has worked with students with multiple disabilities and also works as a therapist with families and children in foster care.

“I am grateful to be able to walk into school every day and help our students one day at a time,” she said. “Everyone knows, one person can make the difference in the life of a child.”