Robert Fenster - 2019 Teacher of the Year
Robert Fenster - 2019 Teacher of the Year
Hillsborough High School ~ Hillsborough, New Jersey
Joette Reger, Evelyn Padin, president of the New Jersey State Bar Association, Robert Fenster and Anne Santorelli
Robert Fenster teaches U.S. History/Honors, (Native Americans through Reconstruction) and Advanced Placement U.S. Government and Politics. He also conducts Independent Student Study with a focus on International Law. He expands his knowledge of law, citizen's rights and legal thought with enrichment programs which he attends during the summer, and shares with his fellow educators.
His students have won numerous competitions in the Mock Trial Program, Model Congress (a program he created) and the Model United Nations Program. His Mock Trial teams have won six county championships. The Model Congress and Model United Nations teams have won dozens of team awards in several competitions over the year.
In 2017, Mr. Fenster was named Claes Nobel
Educator of the Year by the National Society of High School Scholars. He was also named Teacher of the Year for the Jewish Guild for the Blind's Guild Scholar Program (2011) as well as several other awards, including Hillsborough High School Teacher of the Year in 2004.
Ms. Karen Bingert, his principal, writes "Robert Fenster...engages students on a level where they reach understanding through inquiry, discuss rather than regurgitate, and demand excellence of their teacher because he demands excellence of his students." Ms. Bingert also writes that his is, "a perennial 'favorite' teacher...because of the rapport he establishes with his students and his collegues."
Mr. Fenster received his Bachelor of Arts in History/Political Science from Rutgers College in 1991 and his Mast of Social Studies Education from Rutgers University Graduate School of Education in 1993.