STANYS presents Island teacher with 2026 Middle School Science Educator Award

Story and Photo by Alice Gerard

Senior Contributing Writer

Veronica Connor Middle School teacher Jamie Mancuso-Dulak has focused on both creativity and technology in instructing her students.

A year ago, Mancuso-Dulak was awarded $1,995 from the New York State Association of Computers and Technology for her project titled “Animating Fantasy Worlds, Bringing Graphic Novels to Life with Hummingbird Robotics.” The goal of the project was to use technology to bring graphic novels created in Mancuso-Dulak’s sixth grade classes to life.

On Jan. 14, Mancuso-Dulak, who teaches ELA (English and language arts) and science, was given the Middle School Science Educator Award by the western Science Teachers Association of New York State (STANYS). The counties included in this geographic region are Erie and Wyoming.

The Grand Island Central School District Board of Education honored Mancuso-Dulak at its Feb. 2 meeting, held at Grand Island High School.

STANYS “recognizes two middle school teachers and two high school teachers every year,” Mancuso-Dulak explained. “I was actually nominated by a colleague, by Deanna Przepiora. It was quite the honor. I was relatively new to middle school and new to teaching science. In a lot of ways, I feel it’s where I was always meant to be. It’s something I absolutely love doing. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.”

Przepiora, a sixth-grade science teacher, was one of four teachers who received the STANYS Middle School Educator of the Year Award in 2025.

“That really does elevate everything about pedagogy (and) the profession,” said Grand Island Central School District Superintendent Dr. Brian Graham. “You’ve done such marvelous work in our school district. When I got to know you, you were helping us integrate technology in our elementary schools: Sidway, Huth and Kaegebein. Then you came up to the middle school, to the sixth-grand classroom.”

Mancuso-Dulak and Przepiora are also members of the 2024 winter cohort of the master teacher program. In New York state, 144 STEM educators were named master teachers in 2024. Twenty-five of those teachers are from the western region. This four-year program offers teachers the opportunity to “develop expertise in the areas of content, pedagogy, and students’ families and community,” according to the website of the New York State Master Teacher Program, Western Region, based at Buffalo State University.

STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

This program is explained in the program’s website: “Master Teachers support students from kindergarten through high school (K-12) in the areas of science, technology, computer science, robotics, coding, engineering, math, integrated STEM and agricultural education.” Find more information about the master teacher program at https://wnymtp.buffalostate.edu/.

The counties included in the western region of the master teacher program are Erie, Niagara, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua and Allegany.

When asked about the application process to become a master teacher, Mancuso-Dulak said, “The application process is actually a year-long process. There are three rounds to it. We had to fill out the application, which had five parts to it. It took a few months. We had to take a test and get recommendations from colleagues and from administrators. Once we got past the first round, we had to go through an interview process. We were alerted after that if we got into the program.”

Recently, another Veronica Connor Middle School teacher, Angela Berti, who teaches seventh-grade science, became part of the winter 2026 master teacher cohort.

Mancuso-Dulak was also one of five women honored by the Zonta Club in March 2025 with the Yellow Rose Award, which recognizes women’s achievements and serves as a celebration of International Women’s Day, held on March 8 annually.