Nominated by: Erin Yan

If what Aristotle says, "we are what we do," is true, then Mr. Morrell is purely excellent. When I was a sophomore in high school, I decided to join Fe Maidens, my school's all-female robotics team. Throughout my time in the team and even beyond, Mr. Morrell has inspired me to achieve excellence. From our six days a week team meeting, to our weekly leadership conferences, Mr. Morrell was there for us and lead us every step of the way. Especially during the past year, I saw the impact that he had on all of us. Managing a robotics team isn't easy and requires not only a large time commitment but also emotional and academic support. Despite teaching multiple AP Physics A, AP Physics C, Intro to Engineering, and Experimental Engineering classes, Mr. Morrell still attends every team meeting and helps guide our team. On top of all of that, he is one of the best teachers in the school. When schedules are released, you can hear cheers from students who got his class. In my junior year, Mr. Morrell encouraged me to take initiative in the team. That year the robot had a lot of problems and he encouraged me to learn ways to fix them. When I would freak out because I couldn't fix something he would always tell me that it was okay and that I could do it. My experiences that year allowed me to become a leader of the team and to inspire other people as he did for me. This past year, our team was questioning whether or not we can build the best robot we could and wanted to do less of the game. However, Mr. Morrell inspired us to go above and beyond and build our dream robot. Despite not being able to compete in the FIRST Robotics competition due to Covid-19, I know that this was our best robot yet. When we heard that we couldn't compete because of Covid-19, a lot of seniors, including myself, were extremely upset and disappointed. Mr. Morrell let us cry in his classroom until we felt better. He was willing to do anything to make up for our missed experience and it really showed that he cares about all of us. Now as a freshman at Carnegie Mellon University, when I look back at my high school experience, I remember Mr. Morrell as the teacher who pushed me to achieve excellence.