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2019 Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient

Mrs. Julia Smart

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Mrs. Julia Foulk Smart has taught for 32 years in the Haddonfield School District and for a collective 34 years in education. She currently teaches Advanced Placement Literature, College Prep English 12, and serves as advisor to the HMHS Yearbook. Mrs. Smart has coached a variety of sports such as basketball, swimming, and field hockey. She has advised the yearbook staff and has served as a class advisor several times over. 

Over the course of her career, Mrs. Smart has always been recognized as a highly competent teacher and a leader among the faculty. She serves as the Facilitator for the English Department, a role in which she supports her colleagues in pursuing and developing the best possible practices for teaching English/Language Arts.  Her colleague, Kim Dickstein noted that, “Julie’s greatest accomplishment is being an exemplar for her peers. She is a fearless leader and advocates for her colleagues and the study of the English language and literature.”  Assistant Superintendent Chuck Klaus, who taught Senior English alongside Mrs. Smart for many years described her as, “an excellent teacher who sets the highest standards for her students”. 

Kim Dickstein, the NJ Teacher of the year wrote of her colleague
Julia Smart’s influence on her as a mentor. “She has changed the course of my life. I was a teaching intern for Smart in 2008 and she gave me the freedom and confidence to find my voice as an educator. When I was hired for the following year, Smart continued to serve as a mentor to me and to this day has been my greatest cheerleader… She sacrifices her time and effort because she believes in supporting others and the power of education. “

Those high standards are something she willingly applies to herself and her work. She continues to seek ways to develop her skill and knowledge of best practices.  As recently as last summer, Mrs. Smart participated in scoring hundreds of essays as a means of further developing her expertise in assessment.  This kind of dedicated practice on her own time is a measure of her commitment to her craft and to her students who will directly benefit from this work.    

Mrs. Smart cares about her students and their work. She always looks to celebrate student voices, whether it is entering her students in the Walt Whitman Poetry Contest or supporting her students' interests around the school and community. She deeply cares and loves learning; moreover, she is willing to take a stand for what she believes is fair and in the best interest of all stakeholders.

Her student, Jenny Hansberry wrote, “Mrs. Smart had a subtle way of preparing us for that next stage in life.  She gave us the tools we needed to grow academically and personally.  I learned very quickly that Mrs. Smart was someone who I was lucky to have as a teacher, and I knew she was someone who I would continue to stay connected with well after my high school years were over.  What I learned as her student extended far beyond her lesson plans.  In our first week of class, we were reviewing our summer essays on "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time."  She quickly reminded our class of chatty seniors that ‘rocks are hard; life can be difficult,’  and that we should be using correct grammar throughout the school year.  Her sense of humor and honesty were some of the best things about her.  Ten years later, I still remember that moment.  Reflecting on my time as her student, I realize there were so many moments, projects and passages from books we read that are more powerful now than ever.  We are so lucky to have a teacher like Mrs. Smart who has the ability to make the students better people before heading out to face the world.”  

“If she knew I looked back on passages from Siddhartha, I think she would fall over, but this is an example of a book that the students, including myself, struggled to find the joy in reading.  Although now I find myself now revisiting a passage in a book that Mrs. Smart insisted we read more closely: ‘It may be important to great thinkers to examine the world, to explain and despise it.  But I think it is only important to love the world, not to despise it, not for us to hate each other, but to able to regard the world and ourselves and all beings with love, admiration and respect’ (Hesse). This is a teacher for whom I have nothing but love, admiration and respect.”