NSHSS has recently launched an annual grant for IB teachers to help them provide additional resources for their classes. Grant winners will be announced in our next Scholar’s Journal and listed on our website in the Educator area. 

Stergios Lazos
Academic Dean/IB Coordinator
St. Edward High School, Lakewood, OH 

Three decades ago, Mr. Lazos began his teaching career at Kingswood-Oxford School in West Hartford, CT.  A Latin teacher and athletics coach, Mr. Lazos also spent brief periods of his career at Bryn Mawr College in PA, The Pennington School in NJ, and the Hawken School in OH.  At St. Edward High School, Mr. Lazos’s role has evolved from Planned Giving Director, to Chair of Classical and Modern Languages, to Associate Academic Dean, and he currently serves as the IB Coordinator and the Academic Dean.  Mr. Lazos has received numerous professional awards such as the Classical Association of Midwest and South Good Teacher Award in 2000 and the American Philological Association Pre-Collegiate Teacher of the Year Award in 2010.  Mr. Lazos earned an A.B. in classical archaeology from Dartmouth College and a M.Ed. in curriculum and supervision from the University of Hartford.

Mr. Lazos was recently named one of the 2015 Top Ten Claes Nobel Educators of the Year.  In a statement detailing his educational philosophy, Mr. Lazos explains, “Education is in a major transformation from knowledge-based to performance-based assessments. . .Teachers, therefore, must become facilitators of this information and create a framework in the classroom where students are allowed to use this information creatively and analytically.”  An IB Coordinator, Mr. Lazos describes the IB program as being “authentic and holistic” by nature.  He continues, “The IB [program] has always championed a stance of critical engagement with challenging ideas, one that values the progressive thinking of the past while remaining open to future innovation.  The aim of all IB programs is to develop internationally minded people who help to create a better and more peaceful world.”  

Mr. Lazo’s nominating student writes, “Overall, Mr. Lazos is a really fun guy.  He does a great job of teaching, but he makes the experience fun.  He's one of the only teachers that has simultaneously caught my attention and taught me something useful.”  For the past two years, St. Edward High School has had the most graduating students earn IB diplomas in the state of Ohio.  According to the St. Edward High principal, Mr. O’Linn, in addition to leading the IB program to unprecedented levels of achievement, Mr. Lazos is also “a pillar of wisdom and strength that supports the learning community that is St. Edward High School.”

Stergios Lazos and his daughter, Grace Lazos, a former recipient of the NSHSS National Scholar Award. Grace is now studying at Carnegie Mellon University.

Claes Nobel Educators of the Year

NSHSS is pleased to highlight our 2015-2016 Claes Nobel Educators of the Year, presented to ten exemplary educators who have demonstrated an outstanding commitment to preparing students for success in college and in life. These ten educators are among NSHSS’s student-nominated Claes Nobel Educators of Distinction, a program that recognizes educators who model best practices in teaching, are a positive influence for students and peers, and demonstrate outstanding leadership in education and community engagement.  Since the inception of the Educators of Distinction program in 2004, NSHSS has recognized more than 38,000 educators worldwide.