Two Fayette County teachers have been honored by Lexmark International Inc. with the company’s Educating Excellence award. Linda Dewees, a mathematics teacher at Henry Clay High School, and Nami Stager, a STEM teacher at Wellington Elementary School, were surprised in front of their students and colleagues.

Click these links to watch videos of the surprise announcements for Dewees and Stager.

Linda Dewees

Linda Dewees

Nami Stager

Nami Stager

At Henry Clay, Dewees strives to make math lessons fun and interesting through class competitions and hand-built 3-D models that help students comprehend concepts. She records her lessons on video and posts them online, enabling review and better understanding. She also started a STEM club for girls.

At Wellington, Stager provides many opportunities for her students to explore how STEM works in the world around them. She engages children with tools like robotics and programming software so they can problem-solve with creative thinking. Stager also leads the school’s STEM club.

The Educating Excellence program, formerly known as INSPIRE, recognizes outstanding central Kentucky elementary, middle and high school science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) instructors with $1,000 cash awards. Fellow educators, administrators, students and community members may nominate any K-12 teacher they believe is worthy of the award. Eligible nominees must teach in Anderson, Bourbon, Clark, Fayette, Franklin, Jessamine, Madison, Scott or Woodford counties.