Bernardine Vojtko of Wyoming, creative movement teacher at Wyoming Seminary Lower School in Forty Fort and dance company director at Wyoming Seminary Upper School in Kingston, received the prestigious Frances and Louis Maslow Award for excellence in teaching during the school’s recent eighth-grade Commencement ceremony.
Vojtko received the honor in recognition of her effective teaching, support of the program and ideals of the Lower School, and her positive influence on the lives of the students, said Dr. Kip Nygren, school president.
Since joining the faculty in 1981, Vojtko has worked to create a developmental and sequential creative movement curriculum for primary students and has choreographed numerous Lower School performances, including the annual Maypole dance and several holiday and spring choral concerts. At the Upper School she has built a dance curriculum that today boasts over 50 dancers of all ability levels, and has directed over 30 annual dance programs and numerous musical theater performances.
Vojtko has taught dance at Misericordia University, Marywood University and Wilkes University’s Encore Kinder Music Camp. She was a faculty member at Bravo Dance Conservatory under the direction of Trinette Singleton of the Joffrey Ballet and has choreographed and directed for numerous regional theaters and high schools. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in dance and elementary education from Mercyhurst College. In 2010 Vojtko received the Teaching Excellence Award from the Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church.
