Every year, BestPrep, a nonprofit organization in Minnesota, recognizes the top two percent of teachers who have excelled in teaching Minnesota youth. This year, business and financial management teacher Abby Lugo was nominated. Lugo said BestPrep has been something that she has been able to utilize in her lessons.
“I utilize (BestPrep) in the classroom a lot. We just did an e-mentors program where we paired up with a company, and my students have been emailing with them back and forth weekly, and then we do a meet and greet event,” Lugo said. “I’ve used them to do mock interviews. We play the stock market game in personal finance.They really align with my values as well as helping students get experience outside the classroom.”
According to senior Griffin Krone, the award is a representation of how much effort and care Lugo puts into her job.
“(The award) shows how much dedication she puts into (teaching). She cares a lot about us as individuals and as students in terms of how well we succeed inside and outside of the classroom,” Krone said.
Senior Alicia Margalli said Ms. Lugo is a good source of advice, and has taught her a lot throughout the year.
“I always go to (Ms. Lugo) for advice, because she knows what she’s doing,” Margalli said. “She’s a very good leader, and I’ve definitely learned a lot by being in her business class.”
Lugo said she is proud of winning the award, and that it is a good way to motivate her to keep moving forward and putting effort into her job.
“There’s always a bit of awkwardness around it, but it does excite me. I work really hard and I put in a lot of extra time to make sure that I can get students’ experience outside of the classroom,” Lugo said. “It does feel good and it does rejuvenate me to keep doing these experiences because I know someone does recognize all the extra work that goes into making it happen.”
According to Krone, Lugo spends most of her time in the classroom focusing on skills that will be applicable after high school.
“She teaches life lessons. It’s less about stuff that will be on tests and whatnot, but more about things that can help you succeed later on down the road, like investing and time management.”
Margalli said Lugo has helped her not only inside the classroom, but in learning about her career aspirations as well.
“I want to major in business, Ms. Lugo helped me understand more about what direction I should go in,” Margalli said. “She also helps me a lot marketing-wise and in class, like deciding how to headline a poster to catch a customer’s attention.”
According to Lugo, although she has spent time working for other organizations, teaching has helped her to hone in on her passions. Moving forward, she wants to spend more time trying to help students of color with networking, and inspire them to take jobs in a business-related field.
“There’s something about working with students at the high school level that’s just magical. I’ve worked in industry before, but doing what I do here is me getting to experience passion,” Lugo said. “I also want to teach to diversify the board rooms across America. I think it’s really important that they start to look like our actual community, and if I can introduce that at the high school level, help students build networks, and lift up our students of color then that’s what I want to do because students are the future.”
