Gwinnett County Public Schools named Theresa Buckley, from Jones Middle School, as its 2021-2022 Media Clerk of the Year. The Media Clerk of the Year award recognizes a media clerk, who through individual leadership and sustained effort, has made worthy contributions to the operations of effective school library programs. 

Buckley says receiving the award is humbling. “It is an honor because it’s a reflection of the role of a media clerk and how it can have a positive impact on the students,” Buckley said. “It makes me feel proud that I can help students find the books that make them excited about reading.” 

Buckley was nominated for this honor by Maile Steimer, the media specialist at Jones Middle. Steimer describes Buckley as, “a team player who is willing to help teachers and students in any way possible.”  In addition to fulfilling everyday media clerk responsibilities, Buckley schedules the media center volunteers, participates in the school’s Readers Rally team, and personally delivers books to students. She works with her media specialist to foster an environment that is inclusive to all students by creating displays of diverse books and using the Google translate app to effectively communicate with students whose first language is not English to help them to find books.

Buckley says her passion for interacting with and helping students is what fuels her. “I enjoy working with students and our parent volunteers in the media center everyday while doing book check-ins and check-outs,” Buckley said. “Also, to help students improve their empathy, I create book displays featuring diverse books. When we have book fairs, we dress up in costumes to get students pumped up to read books. My mission is to put a book in the hands of all kids and have them excited about reading.”