Former GM teacher named to Nebraska U. alumni board, given Distinguished Alumni Award

Dr. Jonathan Rice, former science and math teacher and track and field coach at Green Mountain Union High School in Chester, was recently named to a three-year term on the Alumni Advisory Board for the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The board promotes the recognition, welfare and progress of the department and the university, and encourages financial and other support of the department. It offers undergraduate programs in Geology and Meteorology-Climatology, as well as a nationally recognized graduate program leading to M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.

The Proctorsville resident was also honored with the 2024 Distinguished Alumni Award.

Rice received his Ph.D. degree from UNL in 1990. His dissertation research focused on upper Paleozoic limestones in the western Grand Canyon and southern Nevada. Following graduation, he was recruited by Shell Offshore Inc. to work full-time as an Exploration Geologist in its New Orleans office, where he had been employed during the summer two years earlier. While working at Shell Oil Co. he received a President’s Award for Team Excellence.

He and his wife, Stacia Spaulding, Ph.D., moved back to her home state of Vermont; Rice earned his M.A.E. in Curriculum and Instruction from Castleton State College in 1995 and began his nine-year career at Woodstock Union High School & Middle School before moving on to Green Mountain.

Some of his career highlights include:

• Coach, Vermont Division 4 State Champion Girls’ High School Track & Field Team (2019 & 2020)
• National Board Certification — Early Adolescence Science (one of nine in Vermont)
• Distinguished Teacher, U.S. Presidential Scholars Program
• Finalist, Vermont Teacher of the Year
• Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (Secondary Science winner for Vermont)
• First Teacher at Sea: Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 301. Sailed on the JOIDES Resolution scientific drilling ship for two months to the Juan de Fuca Ridge, off the coast of Oregon.

• Participant on a research cruise returning to the Juan de Fuca Ridge to collect data from Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 301 and repair leaking wells. Sailed on the R/V Atlantis and traveled 8,725 feet to the ocean floor in the submersible Alvin.
• Participant in NASA Educational Workshops for Math and Science Teachers at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Watched the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery STS-95 taking John Glenn back into space.
• Participant in NASA Educational Workshops for Math and Science Teachers at Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Only 24 teachers from across the U.S. were selected to attend.