PRESS RELEASE
SFPCG-PR-101-2021
FIL-AM HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATOR IS OREGON’S 2022 TEACHER OF THE YEAR
On the occasion of World Teachers’ Day on 5 October 2021, the Philippine Consulate General in San Francisco, which has consular jurisdiction over the State of Oregon, fetes Filipino American high school teacher Ethelyn Tumalad for being awarded as the “2022 Teacher of the Year” by the Oregon Department of Education (ODE).
“It is with great pride and joy that the Philippine Consulate General congratulates Filipino American Ethelyn Tumalad, a Language Arts and Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) teacher at Clackamas High School, for being awarded as Oregon’s 2022 Teacher of the Year. She now joins a distinguished group of 62 other Oregonian educators who have received the award since it was first introduced in 1955,” Philippine Consul General Neil Frank R. Ferrer said.
“Ms. Tumalad’s award is yet another recognition of the invaluable contribution of Filipino American teachers in shaping future generations of Americans. Her innate ability to empathically connect with her students is unmistakably Filipino—pakikipagkapwa-tao—and I am glad that Mr. Tumalad remains deeply rooted to her Filipino heritage,” Consul General Ferrer said.
Oregon Governor Katherine “Kate” Brown praised Ms. Tumalad in a video message aired during the awarding announcement. “Inside and outside of the classroom, Ethelyn is a strong advocate, a wonderful listener, and an empathetic colleague, teacher and friend. Educators like you are the shining stars our students need,” Governor Brown said.
According to the ODE press release, Ms. Tumalad is a first-generation Filipino American who migrated to the United States with her family when she was only five years old. As a Language Arts and AVID educator, she leans into her Filipino identity to support her students in finding their own voices, “recognizing the beauty of their diversity and being unapologetically themselves.”
Guided by her own experience as a migrant educator, Ms. Tumalad serves as advisor for the Asian Pacific Islander (API) Student Union at Clackamas High School, and co-leads her school’s Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) staff affinity group.
“I’ve seen the importance of having positive role models of color; therefore, it is important that students themselves see their advisors work together to build bridges among each other’s marginalized identities. As an educator who always wants to ensure that students become change agents in the classroom, I lead my students with empathy and truly believe that modeling is the best form of education,” Ms. Tumalad said in her application for the award.
As Oregon’s “Teacher of the Year,” Ms. Tumalad received a $10,000 cash reward from the Oregon Lottery and Clackamas High School, and a year-long professional development and networking with other outstanding educators across the United States under the Chief Council of State School Officer’s National Teacher of the Year program. END