Alumna Camilla Walck Wins National Educator Award

Camilla Walck, a teacher at Princess Anne High School in Virginia Beach who holds three degrees from Old Dominion University, is a 2012 recipient of the prestigious Life Sciences Educator Award from the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. A $5,000 prize comes with the award.

The local educator and three others - a professor from the University of Georgia, a high school student from San Diego and a high school student from West Branch, Iowa - received their Life Sciences Awards at a ceremony in Washington, D. C., on July 19. The prizes that were presented totaled $17,000.

Life Sciences Awards recognize Americans who exemplify excellence in life sciences. The competition is open to researchers/scientists, educators and high school students. "Four exceptional people are being honored here today," Maria Lombardo, chair of the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation, said at the ceremony. "Each has made a unique contribution to the world."

Walck received a B.S. degree in secondary education/biology in 1994 from ODU, and also earned a master's in special education in 1999 and a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction in 2010.

She has taught in Virginia Beach Public Schools for 17 years, sharing her passion for biology with thousands of students. She is a National Board Certified teacher, an adjunct professor at Virginia Wesleyan College and an international evaluator for International Baccalaureate (IB) biology.

The Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation is an independent federal agency established by Congress 20 years ago to "encourage and support research, study and labor designed to produce new discoveries in all fields of endeavor for the benefit of mankind."

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest business federation, representing the interests of more than 3 million businesses, the great majority of which are small businesses.