Fairfield Freshman H.S. Teacher Honored for Reaching Across Cultures

Mehrtash Mostofi remembers the teacher who gave him a warm welcome to a new city and a new language and assured him that everything would be okay. Mostofi, a student in the architectural engineering technology program in UC’s College of Applied Science (CAS), will be paying a special tribute to his former teacher at UC’s Commencement Ceremony on Dec. 13.

Fairfield Freshman High School teacher Larry Abbott, a 20-year-veteran of teaching, is one of four educators from around the Tristate who will receive the Cincinnati USA Outstanding Educator Award. The ceremony will take place at 10 a.m., Saturday, Dec. 13, in Fifth Third Arena at Shoemaker Center. Abbott will be presented with a $1,000 UC scholarship to be awarded to a high school senior of his choosing who plans to attend UC in the 2009-2010 academic year.

Mostofi’s nomination of Abbott was selected from among 18 recommendations of soon-to-graduate students who wanted to recognize a K-12 educator who inspired them to pursue a college degree. The nominations were reviewed by a UC committee that included representation from the Office of the President, UC faculty, staff and students.

Mostofi graduates from UC next June. He was born in Iran, and his first language was Farsi. When he was eight years old, his family moved to Holland, where he learned to speak Dutch. Then, his family moved again in 2000, settling in the United States and in Fairfield, Ohio. As Mostofi entered his freshman year of high school, he was a young adolescent struggling to fit into a new city and a new culture, and yet again, learning a new language.

“I did not speak English very well and had difficulties with many subjects,” says Mostofi, who’s now 22. “Mr. Abbott was my English teacher and my English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) teacher. He was always very helpful and never got frustrated with all of my questions,” Mostofi recalls.

“Mr. Abbott helped me get ready for high school and for all of my education thereafter,” says Mostofi. “My freshman year was the hardest year in school for me, but with the help of Mr. Abbott, I got through it. I cannot thank him enough for that.”

“I saw a student who wanted to learn and wanted help. I saw a student who had a lot of promise, as long as he applied himself,” says Abbott.

“This honor means the world to me. The principal at our school notified me about the honor, and I looked at him and he looked at me and at almost the same time, we both said, ‘That’s why we do it.’ When I think about it, I still get tears in my eyes,” Abbott says.

He adds that a talented teacher must be able to see the good in students and try to guide students out of bad habits. “Each student is an individual. They’re not all from the same mold, and you have to be able to recognize that.”

This December marks the fourth year that UC has presented the Cincinnati USA Outstanding Educator Awards to recognize the lifelong inspiration of K-12 educators. The students and their honorees will join UC President Nancy L. Zimpher at a special luncheon that will take place from noon to 1:30 p.m., Saturday, Dec, 13, in Room 850 of the Richard E. Lindner Center.

Read More About the Cincinnati USA Outstanding Educator Award

UC Commencement Web site