The Virginia Pooler Memorial Prize

For the graduating senior who best embodies the spirit of Whitney teacher Virginia Pooler. Ms. Pooler was a founding faculty member when the school first opened in 1976, and was universally adored and respected by students and staff as an unconventional science and health instructor. She attracted those who came to school to be loved and understood, and could engage the most reluctant learners to see the connection between her often frank lessons and their own lives in the real world. Alumni still remember carrying egg babies around campus for a whole week, guarding them anxiously like newborns. Ms. Pooler personally mentored hundreds of students and never gave up on anyone, even those who left Whitney for disciplinary reasons, teaching resilience and helping them become the successful adults they are today.

From daughter Erin Pooler Couitt (edited to highlight main ideas):

My mother always said, “Gin, like in tonic,” when people asked her name. To the students, she was Pooler. My mother was known for being straightforward, down-to-earth, and approachable. Don’t mistake her seasonal wooden figural necklaces, skirts, pantyhose, and sensible Naturalizer heels for some sort of stuffed-shirt schoolmarm. She was my mom at home, but she recognized that she mothered so many of her students at school too.

The types of students drawn to her were those who perhaps weren’t receiving that attention at home. She didn’t turn her back on anyone, regardless of the maladaptive behaviors they may have demonstrated in other classrooms. My mother’s high emotional quotient allowed her to connect with even the most difficult of students, who looked forward to her classes despite not always wanting to come to school.

Before the sex-education curriculum, she used to teach a lesson on etiquette and table manners, because “you’re probably going to have to go on a nice date.” She helped students make the connection between cooking and science experiments, stressing the importance of following directions in both recipes and the laboratory during quarterly cooking assignments in which students would have to prepare a dish and then have it reviewed by two other people. And who could forget the egg-baby assignment? Probably not the janitorial staff, as they dealt with the aftermath of negligent “parents” around school.

My mom had a way of bringing the curriculum alive, regarding her students with the respect and maturity that they craved as young teens and holding them accountable with a straight-shooting and sometimes sarcastic quip. She was there when Whitney opened in 1976, and even when she was on leave in late 2000, I remember her telling some well-wishing student visitors that she was going back to work soon. But she passed away in February the next year. Other than her love for her own children, her commitment to her students and Whitney High School was unmatched.

The Pooler spirit encompasses commitment and loyalty, strength and resiliency, compassion and empathy, leadership and selfless service to others. My mom inspired me to become a special-education high-school math teacher for 12 years (before I transitioned to providing logistics support to the U.S. Space Force). And I know she has inspired countless other former students to help make our world a better place.