We’re Recognizing our Educators

Do you have the courage, heart, and brains to prove there’s no place like Cheyenne? Members of your business community will gather on June 23 to celebrate our servant leaders that make the region a great place to live, work, and do business. 

WY We Care

Your Cheyenne Chamber’s education and talent development initiatives are more than organizational knowledge and capacity. It is also about empowering our people young and old to expand their minds and intellectual capacity. How do we do this? Maybe it’s our intern extern project, Venture, or maybe it’s working with education at all levels through our North Star initiative. Ultimately our education and talent development approach is about people. Our goal is to maximize the potential of our people from the youngest citizen to our seniors. Maximizing people builds our community and creates a resilient future that can handle any challenge. 

Our business community exemplifies the courage, heart, and brains required to set Cheyenne apart. Together with your Cheyenne Chamber, we work everyday to prove there’s no place like Cheyenne.

Doing the Big Work

Building Wyoming’s Future takes the right people willing to put in the work on behalf of Cheyenne. The Cheyenne business community strives to build a great future for our community and our region. Join us as we celebrate these organizations that embrace a servant leadership approach to their work, and better our entire community because of their efforts. 

The Teacher of the Year Award is for a Teacher who has done great work in the Cheyenne area; they have helped develop our young minds within the Cheyenne Community. Finalists must teach at LSCD1 or LSCD2. Nominated for this year’s Teacher of the Year Award:

• Joe Allen at East HS: Joe is the FFA Teacher at East High School. He is an amazing teacher who gives above and beyond what is expected to his students. Joe has served as the president of the FFA State Board of Directors for several years and he travels with students to numerous events and competitions year around.
• Nicole Hayes at Arp ES: The time and effort that Nicole puts into her teaching making sure her students have well thought out fun lessons so learning is fun for her students is genuinely amazing. She works hard to earn and nurture her students’ trust and tries to build their relationships. Not only does Nicole work hard with her students, but she is on numerous leadership teams in the school to help improve the school and make it a better environment for all parties involved. The time and effort she puts into her profession truly makes her school and the community a better place.
• Kim Halvorson at Hebard ES: Kim tirelessly works in Hebard Elementary, which has chronic problems with funding. Despite this, Kim shows up every day and puts money from her own pockets into her classroom, her lessons, and her students.

“The best way I can describe how I feel about this nomination is that I feel seen,” said Joe Allen. “There are so many times in education that we feel like no one knows what happens in and out of the classroom. It is a great feeling to know that someone has noticed the time that goes into working with my students in the agriculture and FFA programs at our school. It is a great reminder for me of what my most basic goal is as a teacher, and that is to make all of my students feel the same way, and seeing them in what they do as students on a daily basis. I always want them to know that I see who they are, and I want to help them get where they are going in their educational journey.”

How To Change The World

Your Cheyenne Chamber is on the frontlines of this issue, working with nation-wide partners and meeting with your representatives to get the job done. Learn more about our work at CheyenneChamber.org, or call 307-638-3388 to find out how you can support our mission and protect Wyoming’s future. 

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Story by J. Elizabeth Bennett

Elizabeth Bennett serves the Greater Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce as the Director of Marketing and Communications. She is passionate about working with the diverse communities in Cheyenne and creating accessible communications material that engages our chamber members.