Hillcrest High School Theater teacher Joshua Long has received a prestigious 2015 Beverley Taylor Sorenson Legacy Award for Excellence in Arts Education, an honor comes with a $2,500 cash award for Long and another $2,500 to promote the arts at Hillcrest.
The Sorenson Legacy Awards for Excellence in Arts Education recognize distinguished public school educators who embrace the arts with excellence in their classrooms, and the positive impact their work has had on Utah schoolchildren.
Long led the Hillcrest thespians to capture the 2015 5A State Theatre Championship and the first perfect scores ever to be earned in the competition’s history. His students also have won consecutive national sweepstakes awards for their Shakespearean plays, as well as the 2012 4A State Theatre title. Long received the Utah High School Activities Association Distinguished Service Award for Theatre Teacher of the Year in 2012.
Long is among 10 Utah recipients of the 2015 Sorenson Legacy Awards. He and other honorees will be recognized Saturday, May 2, at a dinner at the University of Utah. The event is hosted by the Utah State Office of Education, with support from the Sorenson Legacy Foundation.
This is the third Sorenson award to be bestowed upon Canyons District educators. Corner Canyon High School band and orchestra teacher Randal Clark and Butler Middle School dance teacher Rebecca Crowley received the awards in 2014.
