Krista van Gaal is getting the Baillie Award for Excellence in Secondary School Teaching from Queen’s University. The ceremony is set for Tuesday.
The Baillie Award is presented to only a few educators across the country each year. Van Gaal, a chemistry teacher at St. Michael Catholic High School, was nominated by Randilynne Urslak. The award honours educators who, during a student’s high school career, had a decisive and formative influence.
Van Gaal says she was shocked when she got the phone call. She says reading the essay written by Urslak, and her interpretation of van Gaal’s commitment to education, was mind blowing. Urslak is graduating from Queen’s, with a degree in Life Sciences, the same day van Gaal gets her award.
Van Gaal says she’s proud of Urslak for sticking to a path and following through with it. She says sometimes that’s the hardest part and why people fail, not because they can’t do it.
Van Gaal started teaching at St. Mike’s in 2005. This is her first time winning a major award and seeing a former student graduate from university.
She says she just gets to see her students for a brief snapshot in time and live vicariously through them. Van Gaal noted it’s funny because in her mind, they don’t age, and then all of a sudden she realizes how many years have gone by.