Congratulations to NSL teacher Matthew Schilling for winning the Sarah D. Barder Memorial Fellowship, a prestigious educator-recognition award administered by the Center for Talented Youth at Johns Hopkins University.

Junior Yana Kost recommended Schilling for the prize because he made the “mundane exciting” and inspired “students to pursue their studies outside of school.”

To win the fellowship, Schilling wrote an essay about mutual respect in the classroom and the importance of the U.S. Constitution. He was among 14 winners from Maryland, California and Nevada.

Schilling and the other winners stayed for three days at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles and attended conferences about technology’s growing impact on education. One of the four speakers at the conference, William Richardson, encouraged the teachers to open a Twitter account to help them communicate with their students.

“I have to buy an iPhone first, but when I do, I’m going to open a Twitter account,” Schilling said.

This is Schilling’s second fellowship since becoming a teacher at CHS. His first was the James Madison Memorial Fellowship, which is given to teachers who celebrate the Constitution in their classrooms.