Megan Almond, a Longwood University senior from New Canton, has been selected to receive the Richard A. Meade Student Teaching Scholarship from the Virginia Association of Teachers of English (VATE).

Almond is the third consecutive Longwood student, and the fourth since 2011, to win the $1,000 scholarship, which is awarded to only one student each year. It was created to recognize “the efforts of highly capable students entering teaching.” In addition to the monetary award, the scholarship will cover Almond’s expenses to attend this year’s VATE conference, set for Oct. 16-18 in Richmond, where the award will be presented.

Almond is a graduate of Buckingham County High School and is the daughter of Christina and Larry Almond. She is student teaching this semester in the Fluvanna County schools in sixth grade at the middle school through Oct. 23 and then through Dec. 17 at the high school.

She’s been an asset for the middle school so far, where the teacher she works with, a veteran of more than 15 years, reported that Almond has contributed “invaluable ideas about how to best reach students,” said Dr. Robin Smith, Almond’s faculty adviser at Longwood.

“Megan is smart, hard-working and very knowledgeable about English language arts and about how students learn. She is going to be a wonderful teacher,” added Smith, a professor of English.

Almond, who plans to teach secondary English after graduating in December, is an English major with a concentration in secondary education and a minor in children’s literature. She is a member of the Cormier Honors College, education honors society Kappa Delta Pi and the Longwood Association of Teachers of English.