Christina Blanc

Social Studies Teacher
Floral Park Memorial High School
Sewanhaka CHSD

Christina Blanc has been a social studies teacher at Floral Park Memorial High School for the past twelve years, currently teaching advanced placement (AP) courses in European and world history. During her tenure, Blanc has developed an innovative approach to teaching that makes social studies instruction both personal and real for her students.

Last year, Blanc led her students on an international humanitarian mission. Joining with the global Build On movement, Blanc recruited a group of select students to raise funds to build a school in Nicaragua. The fundraiser yielded $30,000 for the effort, and that summer Blanc took her students on an inspirational field trip to the small Nicaraguan village of Walle to break ground for the school. She plans to repeat the project again this year.

A national board-certified instructor, Blanc serves as a reader for the College Board, scoring the advanced placement world history exam. Working with her fellow teachers, Blanc developed and implemented curriculum for an interdisciplinary program of collaborative instruction between English and AP world history courses. Outside of the classroom, she lends her efforts to a variety of extracurricular activities, serving as musical production technical director and advisor to the color guard. Blanc is a world traveler who had been to six continents, and has turned every one of her journeys into a classroom lesson.

"Ms. Blanc has an excellent rapport with her students that is born of her sincere interest in each of them as an individual," wrote her Education Partner Award nominator. "She also relates exceptionally well to her peers and is extremely supportive of the educational environment. She is a capable and dedicated teacher, and a tremendous asset to her school and community."

"Ever since I was a little girl, I've known that I wanted to become a teacher," said Blanc. "It is my highest priority to prepare students for college. The greatest compliment I've ever gotten is when former students have visited to tell me that my class prepared them well for their academic futures."