This article originally appeared in the summer 2014 Harker Quarterly.

Bradley Stoll, mathematics department chair, received an Inspirational Teacher Award from MIT in late March. Lorraine Wong ’13 nominated Stoll for the award, saying, “I am immensely grateful that you believed in me in math, and more importantly, in life, and that you are not afraid to share your belief that being a kind human is more important than getting the best grades in a class.”

Stoll expressed gratitude at being nominated and said he was honored by Wong’s sentiments. “Lorraine’s nomination will be a constant reminder to me that I need to see and treat each student as an individual and not compartmentalize them by their grades, that I need to be compassionate, that sometimes I need to be their teacher, [and] sometimes I need to be their friend.”