PAPSA Awards Empire’s Own as Instructor of the Year
Empire’s own Shamokin Dam educator, Ann Darcangelo, received the PAPSA (Pennsylvania Association of Private School Administrators) Instructor of the Year Award. She received the honor at the organization’s annual conference in King of Prussia, PA.
PAPSA presented Darcangelo with the award for meeting several criteria including: response to student’s needs, effectiveness and originality, professional achievements, and quality of recommendations. Ann has consistently achieved excellent evaluations from her supervisors and ranked in the top 5% of the 850 educators for Empire. PAPSA represents more than 320 private career colleges and schools in the Commonwealth before the legislature, state agencies and professional associations, and is the only association representing all for-profit colleges and schools in Pennsylvania. With over 150 school members, PAPSA is the unified voice of quality career school education.
Since graduating from Empire in 1992 and obtaining her cosmetology license, Ann earned a teaching certification in cosmetology and has begun pursuing a higher level of expertise through Empire’s Career Advancement Program, a corporate education program that Empire Education Group offers to outstanding instructors as a way to continue professional development.
In addition to managing the student salon, she teaches students the importance of selling retail products and has added to the curriculum by showing students how to build a customer base and increase repeat seals. She also initiated a program in conjunction with Bucknell University to hold small business classes at the Shamokin Dam school. The classes offer students additional training on opening their own business/salon. Ann ensures that the additional training her students receive is tailored to give them the best skills for success in their careers and life.
She has written to numerous members of the government to support continued funding for Small Business Development Centers (SBDC’s) and the Bucknell Small Business Development Center. Darcangelo has also been recognized for the extra time she spends on managing the students salon, classroom and retail budgets for the school.