St. Alphonsus School science teacher Nancy Snyder has won a 2012 Golden Apple Award honoring her as an outstanding individual who devotes her life to teaching in Catholic schools.

Snyder will receive the award at a banquet on May 29, along with a cash award of $5,000, a golden apple pin, a certificate and a golden apple statue with a 24-karat gold cross.

Bishop David A. Zubik and the diocesan secretary for catholic education, the Rev. Kris Stubna, Sacrae Theologicae Doctor, will present the award on behalf of the Donahue Family Foundation.

"I am very excited about teaching junior high science," said Snyder. "Kids come back and say how I got them interested in science, and that means more to me than any award."

Snyder said she plans to use the money to take a long-awaited trip to the Galapagos Islands, saying, "It has been a dream of mine for many years."

Snyder is well-known at St. Alphonsus School for the science projects her seventh- and eighth-grade students produce every year. Students begin the projects during the summer, and she is always available to answer their questions.

Victoria Sledge of Cranberry, one of the parents who nominated Snyder, said, "Mrs. Snyder is a dedicated teacher who gives students the tools they need to succeed in high school and beyond. She selflessly spends hours outside the classroom, guiding the students and their families in the pursuit of science."

This year, her students received 16 first-place awards at the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science Region VII competition in February, and five of those 16 students also received six special awards from various corporations, professional societies and local universities. They will compete at the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science state level at Penn State University's main campus May 13.

This award-winning teacher incorporates labs, experiments and the insights of experts in the field to enrich her classroom instruction. Right now, the students are learning about the Big Bang theory of evolution.

Parochial Vicar Rob Fleckenstein will join her class for a question-and-answer session on how that theory relates to Catholicism. Students' parents with careers in medicine, the nuclear industry, biology and chemistry are often guests in her classroom, sharing their experience with the students.

"I like to make science fun and interesting to the students because it's fun and interesting to me," said Snyder.

Last summer, she spent more than three weeks in Alaska, including a week onboard a Princess cruise ship with a naturalist and friends.

Snyder has been at St. Alphonsus full time since 2001, and also logged six years there during the 1980s.

She is a graduate of Penn State University with a Bachelor's degree in home economics and later obtained Biology and General Science certification from the University of Pittsburgh, gaining a Master's equivalency.

Snyder married her Littlestown, Penn., high school sweetheart, George, after college.

After teaching home economics and taking time to raise two children, Paul and Eva, and two foster children, Snyder enrolled in classes at Slippery Rock University and got hooked on biology.

Her professor encouraged her to pursue her teaching credentials in biology, and she completed them at the University of Pittsburgh while working full time as a substitute teacher.

George's career took them to Louisiana and Huntsville for a few years, but most of her teaching career has been spent in the Pittsburgh area.

School Principal Sister Mariella Bradley, Religious Sisters of Mercy, is thankful for Snyder's dedication to teaching and wisdom.

"Because Mrs. Snyder has experience as a high school teacher, she knows what is required of each seventh- and eighth-grade student in order to be ready for high school," said Bradley. "What an asset Mrs. Snyder is for St. Alphonsus."