Biology Teacher Wins Award After Overcoming Stutter

Anneke Valk once dreaded saying simple words in front of a classroom, sweating and blushing through announcements over the microphone. Now she's been named Teacher of the Year by students who call her "outstanding" for reconnecting people with life's wonders.

The biology teacher at Wageningen University in the Netherlands combines her teaching with fitness instruction, tour guiding, and giving talks on hormones. She says working part-time in teaching keeps her from feeling stuck and allows her to grow in different directions.

Valk's love for all living things started young. As a child, she couldn't understand why pet rabbits couldn't roam freely in the house like humans. "We sometimes forget that we too are animals," she says.

Her teaching approach reflects this wonder. When students dissected piglets in her anatomy class, Valk noticed female organs were barely studied while male organs got detailed attention. She promised chocolate bars to every student who could find the clitoris during dissection, sparking enthusiastic learning that students never forgot.

The path to becoming a teacher wasn't easy. Her stutter was so severe she considered giving up on her dream of showing students how amazing biology is. But mentor Arie Terlouw believed in her before she believed in herself, giving her opportunities to practice speaking and providing encouraging feedback.

Terlouw even broke university rules to hire Valk as a junior teacher without the required PhD, recognizing her gift with students. "If I only get told what is going wrong, I close up," Valk explains. "Arie gave me confidence that I could make a positive contribution."

Why This Inspires

Valk's story shows that supposed limitations can become strengths with the right support. She developed creative solutions to her stutter, finding easier words when certain ones tripped her up. That same creative problem-solving now makes her an exceptional teacher who notices when students get distracted and immediately adjusts her approach.

Her perspective on teaching time is powerful. With a hundred students in a lecture room for one hour, she sees it as a hundred hours of collective life. "That's valuable time and I wanted to make good use of it," she says.

Today, Valk has co-written a book on hormones and workplace health, developed popular workshops on the menstrual cycle and menopause, and is working on a play. She also leads annual tours to places like Iceland and Costa Rica, sharing her wonder about the natural world.

The students who gave her the award recognized something special: a teacher who sees the miracle in every cell and helps others see it too.