5 Teachers Win Amgen Awards for Excellence

Five Ventura County teachers with a combined total of 117 years experience won Amgen’s annual award Thursday: $10,000 each to spend any way they want, company officials announced.

The ecstatic educators reported that they were having a marvelous day being congratulated and shaking hands with their students, many of whom confessed to nominating their teachers for the seventh Teachers of Excellence award, handed out by the Thousand Oaks biotechnology company.

This year’s winners are:

* Christopher Bark, a 22-year special-education teacher at Moorpark High School.

* Peter Joel, a 26-year second-grade teacher at Weathersfield Elementary School in Thousand Oaks.

* Rosemary Pampuch, a third-grade teacher at Camarillo’s Los Nogales Elementary School with 26 years of experience.

* Alan Rose, a math and choir teacher at Westlake High School who has taught for 18 years.

* Jim Steele, a 25-year criminal justice and law teacher at Camarillo High School.

“Needless to say, I feel like I’ve been hit by a Mack truck,” said Steele, describing how overwhelming it felt to be recognized as an outstanding educator.

Amgen received more than 1,000 nominations this year from Ventura County parents, teachers and others in the community who submitted the names of 564 teachers.

A panel of three anonymous judges made the selections based on letters that stressed, in part, the positive impacts that the teachers made on their students’ lives.

The company began giving out the awards seven years ago to show its support for education and the children in the community, said Gordon Binder, Amgen chairman and CEO.

The prizes will be handed out at a private dinner May 5 at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library near Simi Valley.