Founders' Cup Recipient Named

MKA Upper School English teacher Patty Forbes was recently named the recipient of the 2008 Founders’ Cup for Teaching Excellence. Presented annually by the Alumni Association, The Founders' Cup award honors a full-time faculty member who exemplifies the highest levels of teaching and scholarship, who shares and uses ideas that improve teaching with other faculty members and who contributes to the well-being of the entire MKA community both in and out of the classroom.

Patty Forbes has taught English at MKA for almost 20 years. A former Department Chair and advisor to the Yearbook, Patty has also been a team leader, mentor and an active participant in student activities, as well as providing support and encouragement to countless seniors as they prepare their college admission essays.

In announcing the award, Founders’ Cup Committee Chair Lori Windolf Crispo ’78, noted, “Patty is a superb teacher who pushes her students beyond their perceived abilities to excel. She has received numerous nominations over the past decade from parents, from current and past students and from her colleagues. All of them echo the same theme: that she brings her subject to life; that she is a dedicated scholar, and that she has passed on her passion for her subject to her students.”

As one parent wrote, "Her love of literature, her admiration for precise writing and her constant enthusiasm for her subject are all qualities that endear her to many, many MKA families. We credit Patty Forbes with a good portion of the success our son has experienced in college as a writer. He really honed his skills as a writer under her tutelage." Another nomination spoke to her ability to “Bring students along as writers and readers (whether they know it or not). She is a gem!" Forbes’s famed love of 19th century English literature, and especially of the Brontes, was summed up in the words of one of those students: “She loves her books!”