Alumna receives statewide teaching award

UIndy alumna Kara Heichelbech, a teacher at Clark-Pleasant Middle School in Greenwood, has been named this year’s Outstanding Middle Level Teacher by the Indiana Business Education Association. The statewide award was presented at the organization’s recent annual conference in Indianapolis.

A 2012 graduate, Heichelbach spent more than a decade in the corporate world before entering the Master of Arts in Teaching program in UIndy’s School of Education. The MAT program, designed for career-changers who already hold bachelor’s degrees in specific content areas, can prepare graduates for teaching careers in less than two calendar years.

Heichelbech has taught digital communications at CPMS for the past four years and serves as Related Arts department chair and yearbook advisor. She also leads the school’s Warrior Strong team in the Relay for Life cancer awareness event, raising $4,500 to date.

She is not UIndy’s first MAT grad to win an IBEA service award, however. Other recent recipients have included Becky Sondgeroth, who was the Outstanding Secondary Level Teacher for 2012; Todd Kunz, who earned the Emerging Professional Award for 2010; and Anna Stumpf, Emerging Professional for 2007.

More information on the MAT program is here.