Kraft earns Arch Coal award

An Encampment School art teacher is ending her career on a high note after receiving the Arch Coal Teacher Achievement Award.

“It was pretty thrilling,” Kraft said. “It was really the frosting on the cake. After a wonderful career like this, it felt really good I was going on a high note.”

Kraft was one of only 10 teachers in the state to receive the award, and only one of two in Carbon County, according to Arch Coal’s website.

Kraft, along with nine other teachers, were awarded at a ceremony May 1 with a plaque, trophy and $3,500 dollars from the Arch Coal Foundation.

“Teachers do more than instruct – they inspire,” Gov. Matt Mead said. “They change lives, influence communities and cultivate a lifelong love for learning. Carol and I thank Arch Coal for honoring excellence in education and for allowing us to join in spotlighting exceptional teachers. We congratulate this year’s honorees on their selection and salute them for their contribution to Wyoming’s future.”

Nominations were made by the public, and the winners were selected by a panel of past recipients of the award, said Greg Schaefer, a public affairs official for Arch Coal.

Kraft holds a bachelor of fine arts degree with high honor from Michigan State University in Ann Arbor. She was named a Milliken National Educator in 1997 and the Wyoming Art Educator of the Year in 1994, and she received the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Power of Art Award in 2007. She was a Fulbright Memorial Scholar in 1999, was honored as Outstanding Art Educator by the Greater Yellowstone Coalition in 1993, and was one of 75 educators selected from more than 4,000 for the Visions of America Conference in 2010. She served as a delegate to the National Art Education Association National Assembly from 1991 to 1993, and was a member of the program approval on-site visitation team for the Wyoming Professional Teaching Standards Board. She also has served as president of the Wyoming Secondary Art Educators Association and as a grant reader for the Wyoming Arts Council. She is also currently member of the Platte Valley Arts Council.