Dee Hunt Oral History, Part 1/4, Arizona Journalism Teacher of the Year 2000

Descriptive

Part OfDee Hunt Oral HistoryIntervieweeDee HuntInterviewerJoyce McBrideBrowse TopicEducationLaborSociety and CultureSubjectGlobe High SchoolGlobe, ArizonaDescriptionThe Hunts moved to San Carlos to teach in 1977. A year later they relocated to Globe, built a house and started a family. Dee Hunt has taught adults in Phoenix, at the junior high in San Carlos, the 8th grade at Holy Angels School and several years at Gila Pueblo Community College before taking a position at Globe High School in 1989. Initially, Globe High School hired her to teach freshmen English, but when an issue arose over the yearbook staff and the teacher resigned, the administration noticed Dee’s minor in Journalism and snapped her up to fill that position as well. And as the Yearbook instructor, it was a given that she would also be the one to teach photography. Dee’s journalism expertise was in newspapers and not yearbooks so she took on the challenge with gusto, relying on her disciplinarian background to realign the staff she’d inherited and to recruit quality students. She called yearbook publishers, got herself trained, got her students trained, and entered them into competitions right away to hone their skills. She also credits her pier, Ms Harder, the instructor for the Papoose, for coordinating challenging competitions between their students to sharpen journalism skills. In 1993, Dee Hunt accepted an invitation to teach at a summer yearbook workshop at Columbia University and, seizing the opportunity to sharpen her Wigwam students, she took them with her. The following year, the Globe High School Wigwam staff was thrilled to receive a Silver Crown Award from Columbia University. Crown Awards are the highest recognition of overall excellence given by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association to a student print or digital medium. This award placed Globe High School’s Wigwam in the top 20 yearbooks in America. Dee was both thrilled and fired up to compete even harder. She continued teaching Yearbook during summer workshop sessions at both Columbia University and San Diego State for many years. In 1997, Globe High School was again selected, this time to receive the Pacemaker Award, reinforcing the Wigwam’s ranking in the top 20 yearbooks in the country. This preeminent award of the Associated Collegiate Press is a significant honor considering AAA Class Globe High School was competing against larger AAAAA schools around the nation. Perhaps Dee’s crowning glory as a teacher at Globe High School was when her passion and excellence in teaching was noticed and recognized by Al Neuharth, the founder and publisher of USA Today. In 2000, she was named Arizona Journalism Teacher of the Year. Again, accompanied by her yearbook staff, Dee Hunt went to New York City to receive recognition along with journalism teachers being honored from other states. Her credit as Arizona’s Journalism Teacher of the Year remains a significant honor to Globe High School in that never before nor since has a rural high school teacher been so recognized in Arizona. Dee Hunt retired from teaching Globe High School’s English, Yearbook Journalism and Photography in 2004. After substituting for a couple years the administration gave her a room in the basement for an archives. Subsequently, for the past ten years, she has been collecting, cataloging, preserving and protecting Globe Unified School District’s records. The archive now holds approximately 5,000 items, including yearbooks and 100+ years of trophies and memorabilia. Audio Length00:20:47Date Original2016-02-03Date Range1970s (1970-1979)1980s (1980-1989)2000s (2000-2009)TypeSound- NonmusicalOriginal FormatOral historiesLanguageEnglishContributing InstitutionGila County Historical MuseumCollectionOral Histories of Globe High SchoolRights StatementThe opinions expressed in this interview are those of the interviewee and interviewer only. They do not represent the views of the Gila County Historical Society of Globe High School. Please contact the Gila County Historical Society Museum, located at 1330 North Broad Street, Globe, AZ 85501; call 928-425-7385 or email [email protected] with questions concerning content or the use and reproduction of this resource.

Geographic

City or TownGlobeCountyGila CountyStateArizonaCountryUnited StatesGeoNames URIhttps://sws.geonames.org/5296013

Oral HistoryDee Hunt

Administrative

IdentifierDee Hunt, Arizona JournalismTeacher of the Year.mp3Date Digitized2016-02-03Digital FormatMP3

40.mp3

Menu

Dee Hunt Oral History, Part 1/4, Arizona Journalism Teacher of the Year 2000