When Omaha South High Magnet School social studies teacher Maria Walinski-Peterson thinks about her 2011 Alice Buffett Outstanding Teacher Award, she's reminded of master teachers she had as a student there. Teachers like Sally Fellows and Jim Eisenhardt. "They were models of teachers who knew what they were talking about, who had some energy, some enthusiasm, and who made me want to pay attention. They had a kind of charisma. I wanted to do a good job for them," says Maria. "That's a pretty tall order to get that breadth and depth. The fact that anybody thinks I have even a small piece of that…" she says, her voice trailing off. "When that call came about the Alice Buffett, I thought, Really? I'm not Sally Fellows yet, I'm not Jim Eisenhardt yet, I've only been doing this nine years, this is too soon. "But I learned from the best, and I knew if I'm going to truly follow this vocation I have to give these kids something they're not going to necessarily get from somebody else." The recognition and the $10,000 that come with the award means raised expectations. "There are people looking at me like, 'Really, you got a Buffet? What's so great about you?'' The pressure is enormous. Other people are like, 'Oh, just relax and enjoy it.'” To which her response is, “Are you freaking kidding me?' If students and colleagues have said you're one of the best in your profession -- guess what? -- I have to be one of the best. I don't get to slack off. People are watching." She may feel added pressure, she says, "because I'm relatively young. You don't usually get a lifetime achievement award until you've put in a lifetime." There’s pressure, too, teaching where she once attended school, but she couldn't see herself working anywhere else. "I lobbied diligently to be here. After I got my teaching certificate and master's degree at Drake University, I was sending emails and calling people back here saying, 'Make sure there's a spot for me -- I need to student teach in this building, so that I can teach in this building.’ This place gave me so much. It's simply payback. It's a calling and I just knew this is where I had to be." If anything, her loyalty has only deepened. She says she recently declined “a cushy gig” at a suburban school to stay at South. In light of what happened last fall, she can’t imagine ever leaving. Days from being married, her best friend and intended maid of honor, fellow South social studies teacher Stacey Klinger, died when a truck struck her as she crossed the street in front of school. Maria will never forget how students consoled her. “These kids literally and figuratively put their arms around me and said, ‘We’re here for you. What do you need?’ We bonded in a way you can’t bond in any other way. We have that history together. They have seen me at a level of humanity they don't see too many teachers in.” As an Academic Decathlon and African-American History Challenge coach she’s bonded with yet more kids. “I just know we’re always going to be like this,” she says, clasping her hands together. “I love those people and they love me back.”

read more: Omaha South High Buffett Outstanding Teacher Award Winner Maria Walinski-Peterson Follows Her Heart