New Palestine High School, Gina Iacobucci, Southern Hancock Teacher of the Year
NEW PALESTINE — For a person who was never really sure she wanted to go into teaching, New Palestine High School social studies teacher Gina Iacobucci is doing a great job. Not only was she named the NPHS Teacher of the Year for the 2022-23 school year, she also won district honors as the Southern Hancock overall Teacher of the Year.
“Once I decided I did want to be a teacher, I guess it was a career goal of mine to be a good one, so this is a great honor,” Iacobucci said. “I really didn’t know we did the whole district teacher of the year, so that was definitely a big surprise.”
Iacobucci and five other educators — Michelle Hayes, Brandywine Elementary; Karli Short, New Palestine Elementary; Jayne Jackson, Sugar Creek Elementary; Randall Stant, New Palestine Intermediate; and Curt Powers, New Palestine Junior High — found out they Teachers of the Year for their respective schools back in March. Iacobucci then learned she was the Southern Hancock districtwide Teacher of the Year during a recent year-end celebration.
“There are so many great teachers in my building, in this district and in the county, so to win this is a real honor and it just means so much that other people think I might deserve an award like this,” Iacobucci said.
A 2016 graduate of Ball State University with a double major in social studies and history, Iacobucci said it wasn’t until after an internship teaching middle school kids in Anderson and spending half the school year in Cork, Ireland, student teaching her senior year of college that she was completely convinced teaching was for her.
“That’s when it all started to really click for me,” Iacobucci said.
After graduation, she landed what she now calls a “dream job” at NPHS right out of college and has been teaching there for seven years.
“I like the fact our administration gives us lots of freedom here to be creative in the classroom and with the lesson planning,” Iacobucci said. “This is a really great place to work and my co-workers are awesome sharing all kinds of information and plans in the history department, and the kids here, they are just the best.”
It’s interesting to see how Iacobucci has found an ideal place to work in a profession she wasn’t too sure about after she took a career aptitude test in high school telling her she should be an educator.
“I tried teaching while I was in high school as a teaching cadet and I really disliked it,” Iacobucci said with a laugh. “I thought maybe I’d just study history and social studies just in case I really didn’t want to get into teaching, but after I did my student teaching in college, I was really all in.”
One of her favorite things about teaching these days is leading the “We the People” class for older students who want to learn about the constitution, the courts and the way governments really operate.
“The ‘We the People’ class made me really understand how much I wanted to be a social studies teacher,” she said.
Iacobucci noted she loves learning new things and particularly enjoys political science so much that she may one day run for office or continue her education to study law, just for her own interests. But, one thing she is certain of, she will never stop teaching students because it is the thing she has come to love most of all.
“Teaching is a really awesome job because you continue to learn new things all the time,” Iacobucci said. “I get so much joy from being a teacher … I can’t really imagine not being in the classroom because it makes me so happy.”
The next big goal Iacobucci wants to tackle is to see her “We the People” class qualify for national competition and also try to start a mock-trial type of event for the high school students.
Iacobucci grew up in Fishers, but her family is now located in Fortville and said they love living and working in Hancock County.
“It’s really hard for me to ever imagine myself doing anything else because I really, really love working here,” she said.
