Deerfield duo who 'teach kids how to be human' up for 2022 Golden Apple Awards

“This I Believe” is the theme of the Deerfield High School Dance Company's show running April 7-9 in the school auditorium.

Yet neither Dance Company sponsor Nikki Lazzaretto nor her friend and colleague who directs the Deerfield Theatre department, Britnee Kenyon, can quite believe that out of hundreds of nominees statewide these two teachers from the same high school are among 30 finalists vying for 2022 Golden Apple Awards.

Not just that.

“To be a teacher in the arts, where you're on the chopping block regularly, I feel that I have the opportunity to represent an art form that is not normally recognized,” said Kenyon, a 2019 Golden Apple nominee while at Rolling Meadows High School, now in her third year as Deerfield's Theatre director.

The women feel several ways about it - humbled, proud and appreciative among them.

“I think it's incredible, because as my department chair (Dee Bolos-Hartman) likes to say, we save lives. It's a place where people can feel success,” Lazzaretto said.

“Sometimes in their academic day (students) may not feel as successful, and our classes sometimes give them a chance to shine.

“I sometimes think that's not recognized because it's not part of the daily grind, or as needed to get into a prestigious college, or what their goals are, so sometimes we're overlooked in that way,” she said.

Those who nominated them realize their value.

Kenyon and Lazzaretto don't know who did so. It will remain a mystery even after the Chicago-based Golden Apple Foundation names 10 teachers and two principals in the spring.

In 2021 the two recipients were notified in the first two weeks of May.

“They just come to your school and the only person who knows or is allowed to know is your principal,” Lazzaretto said.

Following the nomination came what Kenyon called a “rigorous” application process. That was followed by class observations, interviews with the teachers by Golden Apple representatives, and interviews with students, parents, colleagues and Deerfield Principal Kathy Anderson.

“The fact that there were two performing arts teachers from the same high school and it was a blind application process, we honestly felt even more honored,” said Kenyon, who lives in Northbrook.

“The rarity of it and the gravity of the situation felt that much more significant. It's not like they were looking for arts teachers from Deerfield. It was a pretty magical moment for us, both finding out that we got it,” she said.

She and Lazzaretto came to teaching by different routes.

Lazzaretto, who had the maiden name of White when she graduated from Carmel in 1993, wanted to be a teacher, despite her father's desire for her to go into the business world.

She at least paid lip service to her father's wishes, entering as a business major at Rollins College in Florida - “Mr.” Fred Rogers' alma mater. After an introductory business class, she changed course.

Ironically, her shift into education, which includes a pair of master's degrees in the field, followed another bit of her dad's advice.

“When the alarm goes off in the morning, you don't want to be mad that you have to go to work,” he cautioned.

“This is my chosen path. I wanted to be a teacher,” said Lazzaretto, who lives in Libertyville and has two national dance titles to her credit as former coach of the Lake Forest Dance Team.

Kenyon did not want to teach.

“Primarily a theater kid” at Lisle High School, Class of 2006, the former Britnee Ruscitti initially wanted to be a director.

She got an undergraduate degree from Illinois Wesleyan in theater arts and arts management. At 22 she was serving as an intern to a Chicago director when she, too, followed career advice, this not so promising.

“You're not a man and you're not in your 40s,” Kenyon was told. “I was like, 'OK, I'll see you later.'

“While I'm proud to be a trailblazer in a lot of aspects of my life, I felt like it was insurmountable. That was my first inkling that there was something greater out there for me,” she said.

Their views on the power of teaching are remarkably similar.

“In our classes we are allowed to use the arts as a vessel to teach kids how to be human ... They aren't going to need to remember how to pirouette, but they are going to need to learn how to be good listeners and how to work with others,” Lazzaretto said.

“The power of the arts is a very real thing,” Kenyon said.

“We are incredibly lucky to be in a position to be able to work with kids in the way that we do. I wish more people would take the time to really understand or at least ask about the impact that what we do has on young minds.

“If they would like to ask, we'd be happy to tell them.”