This article is part of a series by The Vicksburg Post, in partnership with the Vicksburg-Warren County Chamber of Commerce, featuring each of the Educator of the Year nominees.

 

The COVID-19 pandemic has reached deep into each part of society, affecting the lives of everyone. But for one local teacher, the pandemic has given her a unique teaching tool to bring into her classroom.

“The past year has been particularly interesting as a social studies teacher,” St. Aloysius teacher Maggie Nasif said. “We have discussed COVID and the role of the government, the presidential election and the electoral college, presidential impeachment, and much more. In a very small way, you could say that this year has made my job easier.”

Nasif is a finalist for the Vicksburg-Warren County Chamber of Commerce’s Educator of the Year award.

The Chamber will select and announce one elementary and one secondary teacher of the year at the chamber luncheon on Feb. 17. The winner of each award will receive $1,000 from Ameristar Casino and the runner-up for each award will receive $500 from Mutual Credit Union.

Nasif, who received her law degree from the University of Mississippi in 2007, is in her seventh year at St. Aloysius, where she teaches AP government, government, economics, U.S. history and problems in American democracy. Before earning her law degree, Nasif earned a degree in political science from Colorado State University and remains a member of the Mississippi Bar Association.

“I teach because I want students to see the world from different perspectives,” Nasif writes in her Educator of the Year application. Part of that perspective has come with the development of a school-sponsored trip Nasif plans for seniors to Washington, D.C.

“During the trip, the students were able to see and learn firsthand so much of what we discussed in their U.S. history and government classes. The students sat in committee hearings in the U.S. Capitol, saw people protesting in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, watched a play at Ford’s Theater where President Lincoln was assassinated, visited a foreign embassy, met students from almost every state in the country and engaged in political debates with people from places very different than Mississippi,” Nasif writes. “It was amazing to me, as their teacher, to watch them learn, grow and gain a stronger sense of patriotism. It was an experience I will never forget.”