NOMINATE AN EDUCATOR FOR A CATO AWARD!
Often the educators who make the greatest impact in our lives do so not only through classroom instruction, but through the ways they inspire students to become all they are meant to be.
Like a painter with a brush or a sculptor with clay, educators use creativity to develop something bigger than any single lesson, performance, or project: they create spaces of learning, optimism, and hope.
At the Arts & Science Council, we believe integrating the arts, sciences, and history into a wide range of subjects and experiential learning opportunities is essential to nurturing the next generation of artists, leaders, and community members.
In that spirit, ASC is now accepting nominations for the 2026 CATO Excellence in Teaching and CATO Lifetime Achievement in Teaching awards.
Each year, ASC invites public nominations for exceptionally creative classroom teachers who have distinguished themselves in teaching the arts, sciences, or history, either as core disciplines or across the general curriculum more broadly.
Six recipients of the CATO Excellence in Teaching Awards will receive $1,500, presented through the support of ASC’s CATO Excellence in Teaching Endowment.
In addition to the annual award, nominations are also open for the CATO Lifetime Achievement in Teaching Awards, which are presented every three years to recognize exceptionally creative teachers with a distinguished career of more than 15 years teaching the arts, sciences, or history, or who have demonstrated creative infusion of the arts, sciences, or history into the core curriculum.
Three $5,000 awards will be presented to Lifetime Achievement recipients, made possible through the support of ASC’s CATO Excellence in Teaching Endowment.
Teachers, principals, school administrators, parents, students, or other community members may nominate teachers for consideration. Teachers may also self-nominate.
Nominations for both awards are due by 11:59pm on February 27th. Awardees will be announced in early spring.
To be eligible for either award, teachers must be currently employed, or have retired within the last two years, from a public or independent Pre-K through 12th grade school in one of the following counties: Mecklenburg, Cabarrus, Gaston, Iredell, Lincoln, or Union in North Carolina, or Lancaster or York in South Carolina.
For more information about the ASC CATO Excellence in Teaching Awards, email Ashley Lam, Arts & Education Partnerships Program Officer at Ashley.Lam@artsandscience.org.
