Congratulating Melissa Collins
Floor Speech
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Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Dr. Melissa Collins, a second-grade science teacher at the John P. Freeman Optional School in the Whitehaven neighborhood of Memphis, who last week was inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame. This honor was just the most recent recognition of Dr. Collins' huge influence in the classroom as an Early Childhood educator and as a policy maker. She was also the winner of a 2010 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. During the East Room ceremony at the White House, President Obama jokingly asked Dr. Collins to consider tutoring his daughters. Among many of her accolades, Dr. Collins received the 2013 NEA Foundation's Horace Mann Award for Teaching Excellence, the 2014 West Tennessee Teacher of the Year Award, the 2015 Queen Smith Award for Urban Education from the Council of Great City Schools, the 2015 Kennedy Center-Stephen Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Award, the 2017 National Science Teachers Association Science Educator Development Award, and was one of six U.S. finalists for the $1 million Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Award in 2018. Dr. Collins has taught at John P. Freeman for 21 years and has been a standout from the start. In 2007, she instituted the ``Muffins with Moms'' days to have students see their mothers read to their classes and, later, the ``Dates for Dads'' days for fathers to have lunch with their children at school. She also instituted the ``Dress Up Friday'' days so students could show off a little. In class, she has her students don lab coats to conduct their science experiments and has been known to incorporate music in her teaching, part of the rationale for the Sondheim award. ``I learned to take a risk for my students and myself. I allowed my students to drive their own learning and curiosity,'' she has said. ``In the beginning, I would seek opportunities. Now, those opportunities seek me. I was chasing my dreams and now my dreams chase me.'' After graduating in 1992 from Whitehaven High School, where she played basketball and her father, Stanley, coached the football team, she earned a master's and doctorate from the University of Southern Mississippi while constantly giving back to her community. As a policy expert, Dr. Collins has travelled to India and Brazil and across the U.S. to confer with other recognized leaders, and to the Halls of Congress, where she has advised Senator Alexander and me on best practices and good ideas. I value her insights and her passion for the students she loves. On Friday, students still learning from home will stage a drive-by parade in her honor outside the Freeman Optional School. She is a true inspiration, and I wish her well as she continues her astonishing career.
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