Victor R. Swenson Humanities Educator Award

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Swenson Award

With this award, Vermont Humanities recognizes an educator in grades 6 through 12 who:

Inspires his or her students and encourages in them intellectual curiosity and a lifelong love of learning
Possesses extraordinary knowledge, ability, and accomplishment in the teaching of language, literature, history, social studies, or other humanities fields
Exhibits infectious enthusiasm for his/her subject and learning in general
Embodies a commitment to the highest standards of achievement, for him/herself and students

The award and $1,000 prize are presented in the fall. To learn more about the award, call Ryan Newswanger at (802) 262-1354 or email ryan@vermonthumanities.org.

Vermont Humanities has awarded the 2025 Victor R. Swenson award to Wendi Dowst-McNaughton, a teacher at West Rutland School who has helped lead summer Humanities Camps at the school for seven years.

Dowst-McNaughton was given the award at a special school awards ceremony on February 11.

Jay Slenker, the Principal of West Rutland School, highlighted the importance to students of the Humanities Camps that Dowst-McNaughton has led, noting the camp is “outstanding opportunity for our students to become fully engaged in a Humanities program covering a different theme each year.”

He continued, “Wendi is also the Faculty Advisor to our Destination Imagination (DI) team that meets after school two days per week. She gives up her time and sometimes her weekends to help this state-recognized group continue to be so successful,” noting that under her leadership the program has won many state championships and acknowledgements.