Nominated by: Juliette Low Fleury

It is with immense joy that I find myself in a position to submit a letter of recommendation to a teacher who has shaped so much of the person I am today. Mr. Dua is a great example of what a teacher should do to help people, young and old, be more creative, determined, and persistent in order to reach human and civil rights goals. Mr. Dua has been a light of hope for many Black and brown students in our community at a time when few people are able to support students' differences while also encouraging them to work together. This makes him an excellent candidate on being Honored. I first met Mr. Dua as a student in his psychology course during my senior year of high school and was a founding member of the Black Student Union extracurricular club, which my classmates and I revived with the help of Mr. Dua. Since the first class he taught, he has been able to improve the minds of my classmates and me in a way that is both amazing and immediate. And his presence that academic year was either unusual or unusual for all of us, particularly students of color. Mr. Dua has been teaching thirteen years, and that’s uncommon; African American men like himself make-up only 2% of the 3+ million U.S. public school teachers. Mr. Dua's actual presence shows how important it is to improve education (by helping Black and brown students develop critical thinking skills so they can be resilient and make progress in a post-Brown v. Board of Education country) clashed with the reality and legacy of more white teachers teaching Black children, which forced thousands of Black teachers out of the classroom. Even more rare than his presence in his field is his degree of excellence. It is evident that the impact that Somerville had on him was brought over when he taught us, and we were grateful for that. He was named the 2017 Massachusetts History Teacher of the Year, becoming the first African American in our state to earn the award. He is a two-time Massachusetts Teachers Association Human and Civil Rights Award winner, a finalist for National History Teacher of the Year and Massachusetts Teacher of the Year, and the first member of the Ideation4 UpLift nationwide cohort for Black male educators. Though his achievements have been recognized throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, his greatest strengths are the ones that people don’t think about. For me and countless other students, what makes Mr. Dua special is his focus on our strengths, both collective and individual, and his dedication to helping his students better our communities. His encouragement and faith are contagious, and they have often been the only things that make the difference between students who find and use their voice and those who don't. Mr. Dua has invited local leaders, families, and colleagues to tour his classroom. This isn't so they can see him, but so they can see how we, as young black, brown, and white ally leaders, talk, do activities, and work on projects that help the community in educational, social, economic, or political ways. That has always been his mantra—that everyone is a learning student and how vital it is for the youth to harness their creativity and imagination for change and to rightfully claim that room as their own. With his help, students have pushed for policy changes that put the voice of young people and mental health at the center. I didn’t fully appreciate the depth of Mr. Dua’s influence on my education until I started college at Harvard University. To be young, gifted, and Black while being educated in the United States is to be underestimated, undervalued, and misunderstood at almost every turn. Unlike many of my classmates, I was lucky to have a teacher like Mr. Dua who told me I was smart, capable, and deserved to do well in school. His presence in our classroom as a highly educated Black man was proof that Black and brown people could be successful in our society, and his confidence that I too could have that same success gave me the confidence I needed to be vocal about my own beliefs. It is not an exaggeration to say that I wouldn’t be where I am today without Mr. Dua, and the same can be said for the over one hundred students who participated in our BSU and the hundreds of other Black students within our district who were inspired to create their own cultural organizations within their middle and elementary schools. But the best sign that Mr. Dua cares about the success and well-being of underrepresented groups in his community is that he continues to make sure students' voices are heard. This is an example of a leader who is willing to put the needs of the community ahead of his own. By helping his students, he has shown countless people the value of such help. His choice to keep fighting is what makes Mr. Dua the man he is, and to me, that is a truly excellent example of an educator worth honoring. P.S. - If you're interested on seeing further as to why Mr. Dua is worth honoring, do see his impact: - https://linktr.ee/kevindua - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevindua/