Congress School teacher Lesley Starkey has been selected to receive the 2024 John E. Oster Award for Excellence in Teaching. Starkey’s nomination was submitted by her peers and then reviewed by an independent award committee made up of community members and Sturgis Public Schools leadership. She will be the 43rd recipient of the award, which she will accept during the Sturgis Area Community Foundation’s annual meeting at the Sturges-Young Center for the Arts.

About the Award

The Oster Award is given annually to a teacher in the Sturgis Public School District. The award targets teachers demonstrating high professional standards for teacher training and education, and extraordinary devotion to the Sturgis community. The award is given in memory of the late John Oster, a Sturgis attorney who placed a high value on education.

About Lesley Starkey

Lesley Starkey is a Title 1 Special Education teacher at Congress School and has been employed as a teacher with Sturgis Public Schools since entering the field in 2007.

Starkey, who ran track for the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, says that it was her history with track and field that brought her to Sturgis after graduating from college.

“I went to high school in Albion, and I competed against Sturgis as part of the Twin Valley conference,” explains Starkey. “My dad was my coach, and he was still coaching high school track when I was preparing to graduate college. At that time, Emerson Green was coaching for Sturgis and when he found out I was about to become a teacher, he told my dad that Sturgis had open positions.”

Starkey pursued one of those open positions, and the rest is history. Since joining Sturgis Public Schools as an elementary school teacher, she has committed herself to helping her students achieve success year after year.

“What I love about teaching is that no day is the same. Seeing that growth in students keeps me going,” says Starkey, pointing to a computer screen which displays her students’ academic data. “That competitor in me says we’ve got to move these kids. We can’t let them be stagnant. So, what are we going to do to make that possible?”

In addition to teaching, Starkey coaches the high school track team, a position she has held since 2020. Just like in the classroom, Starkey’s goal on the track is to help students become the best version of themselves.

In recent years, Starkey has worked with the Michigan High School Athletic Association to expand its adaptive program to make space for more students with disabilities. The program was originally created to provide access for students in wheelchairs, but Starkey saw an opportunity for students with other disabilities, who were not in wheelchairs, to also benefit from the adaptive program.

“For me, it’s about asking how every student can be successful – whether in the classroom, on the track or in the field,” she says. “It’s about helping all students go to that next level.”

Starkey will be recognized on Thursday, October 3rd during an event at the Sturges-Young Center for the Arts, where she will receive the Oster Award.

The Sturgis Area Community Foundation is a $30M foundation committed to serving the charitable needs of our community and enriching the quality of life for all people in the Sturgis area. Through philanthropic services, strategic investments, and community leadership, the Sturgis Area Community Foundation helps people support the causes they care about now and for generations.

For more information on grants or donor services, email sacf@sturgisfoundation.org.