John Passarini ('93,'01) participated in a week of ceremony and celebration at Disneyland Resort as part of the 2003 Disney American Teacher Awards festivities. Photo courtesy of Disney.

The Walt Disney Company named SED alumnus John Passarini ('93,'01) the 2003 DisneyHand Outstanding Teacher of the Year. Passarini, who teaches adapted physical education in the Wayland (Massachusetts) Public Schools, was selected from among more than 185,000 nominees for the prestigious award. He was nominated by his former student Katie Lynch, who had a rare form of dwarfism. Lynch, who died in October 2002 at age 27, credited Passarini for his support in her training to walk 26.2 feet at the start of the 2001 Boston Marathon.

Passarini will retire from teaching this year after thirty-four years in the profession and is now looking forward to a new career as a consultant and writer. "I'm turning a big page in my life," he said. "I'll be helping families and schools make programs work for children, helping to raise awareness that children with disabilities simply have a different level of ability- that they are more than 'broken pieces.' "

But, he says, it won't be easy to leave a vocation he loves. "What I'm going to miss most is the time I have with my students. I don't know how many hugs I get every day from kids saying 'thank you.' "