VOL. XIX, NO. 10

Ms. Nancy Kerby, business education teacher, recently was awarded the Touch Shorthand Teacher of the Year award at the convention of the National Business Education Association in Denver, Colorado, on Mar. 22-25. The NBEA holds a convention every year to elect officers and hold book exhibits and seminars on business education.

The NBEA executive director, the NBEA directors, and the state supervisors of business education throughout the country attended the executive board dinner where the award was presented. Ms. Kerby was notified of her award on Mar. 1, by Stenographic Machines, Inc.

Ms. Kerby was chosen on the basis of her expertise, enthusiasm, experience, and creativity in the classroom by educational consultants and business educators throughout the nation.

Ms. Kerby has been teaching at Maine West for 13 years. She has been teaching machine shorthand at Maine West for 10 years. Maine West is very fortunate to offer machine shorthand since not many high schools in the state or nation offer a course such as this. (Machine shorthand is the same shorthand system that is used in the courtroom by court reporters to record testimony.)

At Maine West machine shorthand is taught as a valuable secretarial skill. After two years' training at the high school level, students can go out into the business world and earn good secretarial wages.

Or, if they prefer (and have the necessary expertise), they can go on to schooling beyond high school to become court or convention reporters. Many of the students Ms. Kerby has had in her classes are now court reporters; others are using their skills in the business world.