When Alisa Salvans casually logged onto her email account and saw a message from Mr. Pickitt, she didn’t expect for him to be asking her to represent Richardson High School as a nominee for the prestigious Tech Titan of The Future award.
When she attended the black-tie event on August 28th at the Renaissance Hotel, she definitely didn’t expect to walk out winner. Yet, chemistry teacher Mrs. Salvans walked away with both the award and $4,000.
As a nearly speechless Salvans approached the podium in front of the mayor and CEOs of major technological corporations, she only had one thing to say: “Well, this was totally worth missing the first football game.”
And that is the only time Salvan’s dedication to her students falters. She isn’t a teacher for the sake of winning awards and said the only downside of the prize was that it didn’t give money to the school or allow her to fund more unique projects for her students.
“It’s very nice, obviously, but winning is not the reason I teach,” Salvans said. “I consider this award like a cherry on a sundae. The ice cream and the other good stuff – that’s the kids. Honestly, I could have a sundae without a cherry any day.”
The award recognizes high school math or science teachers with innovative teaching techniques or programs that inspire student interest in math and/or science. Salvans – who often has old students come back to help around her room, with experiments, and sometimes, just to talk – fits the description perfectly.
“She made the learning experience fun,” senior Dimitrios Perdikomatis said. “With her, chemistry was insanely entertaining.”
Assistant principal Elise Curry, who is in charge of the science magnet, agrees.
“Ms. Salvans is one of the most amazing chemistry teachers I’ve ever met,” Curry said. “She sees chemistry in everything and brings it to life for the students.”
Both Salvans and Curry are proud of this award and what it says about the school – which has won numerous other state and national awards.
“The best thing about it is that it’s more proof that RHS has the cream of the crop, not just in teachers, but in students,” Salvans said.
![Katherine Dodgen teaches during first period Algebra 2. She [Elaine Dodgen] was always really supportive of everything that I wanted to do, Dodgen said. Even when there were people who doubted me, she always believed in me. Photo credit: Shea Southern](https://thetalononline.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Dodgen-foundation.png)
![The Halloween project came back for its second year while students were asked to design a functioning, spooky-themed machine that could run purely mechanically. They [the projects in this class] are fun, and interactive, and then informative, said Abubakar Bakatunde, a tenth grader in the class.](https://thetalononline.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/robotics.png)
