These teachers are among Philly’s best. Here’s what motivates three winners of the Lindback awards.

Even after 15 years in teaching, Rachel Cammisa-Cantz is energized by standing in front of a classroom of students at Furness High.

Wilma Hernández gets regular love letters from her third graders at Muñoz-Marín Elementary School, like the one left on her desk recently: “When I take a step into this classroom, it feels like I took a step into heaven, and when I look at you, I see an angel.”

A student came into Carla Russell’s sixth-grade class at Northeast Philadelphia Propel Academy this year with a chip on her shoulder, determined to cause trouble. Russell gave her love and limits, and now the young lady turned things around — and can’t stop hugging her teacher.

Cammisa-Cantz, Hernández, and Russell are three of the Philadelphia School District’s finest educators, among the 60 winners of the 2023 Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, honored for their transformative work in city children’s lives.

The Lindback Foundation, which recognizes strong teaching at local colleges and within district schools, since 2008 has awarded millions of dollars to teachers chosen by a panel of district and Lindback representatives.

Cammisa-Cantz always thought she’d become a doctor. But she was at loose ends after graduating from Temple University with a biology degree and a short-lived clerical job at the university’s medical school ended. On a visit to her brother’s high school, an administrator asked her what she was up to.

“By Monday, I was teaching chemistry and physical science,” Cammisa-Cantz said.

Being in the classroom felt natural. Cammisa-Cantz eventually earned an education degree, worked in Catholic and charter schools for eight years, then landed a job within walking distance of her home, at Furness High School in South Philadelphia, where she’s taught for seven years.

“This is my neighborhood school. It’s a big connection for me,” said Cammisa-Cantz, whose children also attend a neighborhood public school.

She loves Furness, which has a large population of English language learners, a veteran principal, a strong sense of community, and adults who go above and beyond for students, Cammisa-Cantz said.

“I love teenagers,” said Cammisa-Cantz, who’s the sponsor of this year’s senior class — a job that had a steady stream of 12th graders coming and going from her class, dropping off senior dues, finalizing event details. She relishes it. “The kids run everything. They just need you to guide them.”

Much has changed about education since Cammisa-Cantz entered the field.

“When I first started teaching, the kids had flip phones, but now, the drama level is so much higher,” she said. “The barrier for reacting is so much lower. Keeping their attention is so much harder.”

Cammisa-Cantz collects students’ phones when she gives tests, and when students are finished taking the exams, they don’t get them back right away. Instead, they have access to puzzles, games, and coloring sheets.

“They act like children,” she said. “Seeing those glimmers gives me hope.”

But some things are constant, including Cammisa-Cantz’s enthusiasm for teaching.

“I love teaching biology because I love exposing kids to [science, technology, engineering, and math]. They might not be interested in a career in STEM, but at least they have respect for the scientific process,” she said.

Seeing an assignment resonate with students is a thrill; a recent project about “scientists you might not have known about” — Philadelphia-born, Black, indigenous, LGBTQ — was a hit.

Cammisa-Cantz is still perfecting her craft, too, taking notes about things she wants to try or refine with next year’s classes.

“By the time August rolls around, I’m excited because I have new ideas to implement,” she said.

» READ MORE: Meet Philly’s best 60 teachers of 2023

Hernández’s grandmother never learned to read and write, but she revered teachers and education.

Her granddaughter absorbed that reverence. She loved her first school experience, at Cramp Elementary in Kensington, and when she moved to Puerto Rico, found a mentor in Ms. Rosa, who saw something special in the little girl who was fluent in Spanish but didn’t know how to read and write it. The teacher took Hernández under her wing, giving her extra lessons and lavishing her with love. Soon, Hernández was playing school, teaching imaginary children in empty seats. She’d stay after class to erase blackboards so she could take the extra chalk home.

“I wanted to be just like her,” said Hernández of the teacher who made a huge impact on her. “I will always remember how she treated me, how nice she was.”

Hernández has become the Ms. Rosa to thousands of Philadelphia children in her career, which has spanned 32 years. Hernández now teaches a bilingual third grade class at Muñoz-Marín Elementary in North Philadelphia.

Though Hernández grew up in a loving home, her parents weren’t college-educated. They had no idea how to help their daughter get there.

A mentor saw Hernández’s promise and steered her to Chestnut Hill College, where she was encouraged by people who believed in her, and challenged by a few people who looked down on her because of her background, her accent, her dreams of teaching in Philadelphia.

She was undeterred. Hernández’s first classroom was in North Philadelphia, at Potter-Thomas Elementary, and she’s never worked outside of the neighborhood.

In fact, after her parents died, Hernández moved from the Northeast back to the house she grew up in, within sight of Muñoz-Marín. Her students are her neighbors, and their families help her water her flowers, send her food, watch out for her house.

“Coming back to my community, that’s what I needed to do, I found myself, and I’m proud,” said Hernández. “This is where I always wanted to be. I tell my kids, ‘It doesn’t matter where you come from, be proud of who you are, your roots.’”

Hernández can’t stop smiling when you ask her about her students: They’re so funny, they’re so smart, they teach her so much, they say such beautiful things to her. Did you hear about the student who won a prize, then gave it to a classmate who was having a bad day?

“Even on the hardest days, they make me feel so special. Even on the hardest days, we laugh a lot,” said Hernández.

The Lindback is lovely, she said, but it’s not the pinnacle of her career.

“The best accolades,” she said, “are my kids.”

Russell is a skilled teacher, the kind of educator who gets kids to love subjects they had previously sworn were their least favorite.

But the part of the job that often sticks with her is the difference she can make in students’ lives.

Take the boy who came to Russell’s class swimming in too-big shoes. The student, a newcomer to the United States enrolled in Russell’s sixth-grade class at Northeast Philadelphia Propel Academy, clearly had no other footwear.

“I just went to the store and bought him some new sneakers,” Russell said. “He just lit up — he had never had a new pair of sneakers before.”

Russell’s mother was a teacher, and Russell swore off the profession at first. But she found herself drawn to it nonetheless, and even worked with her mother at the same school — Clymer, in North Philadelphia — early in her career. Russell then taught at Anna B. Day, in East Germantown, and Edwin Forrest, in Mayfair, before moving to Propel when it opened in 2021.

Her first students, from the early Clymer days, are in their 30s now. Some of them call Russell “Mom”; they find her on social media, they visit her at home. That’s incredibly gratifying, Russell said.

“Philadelphia’s been good to me,” Russell said. “I’ll retire here.”

Russell gets her students to work hard by building strong bonds with them.

“They’re so needy, and they want to feel loved, and when they show that appreciation, it does my heart good,” Russell said. “As a teacher, I just want to make good relationships, period — not just with my students, but with the parents, too.”

Some of her students come into sixth grade being unable to multiply, but they won’t leave her class with that deficit, Russell said. They’ll go to seventh grade with their math facts down pat.

“They come in on different levels, but by the end of the year, if you make progress, that’s all I can ask for,” said Russell, who also coaches volleyball. “Some of the kids take off like rockets.”

Students often come to Russell with barriers that have nothing to do with academics, but she’s committed to breaking them down.

The sixth grader who came into Russell’s class this year determined to be tough?

“I told her, ‘You’re going to love me,’” said Russell, who paid close attention to what the young woman needed, talked to her, complimented her. Now, “I can’t walk two feet without her hugging me.”

It’s why Russell still does the work and still loves the work.

“The more years I’ve done this,” she said, “the more rewarding it is.”