Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Jordanna Maga, a mathematics’ teacher at Tafuna High School, has been selected as the 2019 Territorial Teacher of the Year (TTOY).

The 2019 TTOY was announced Monday this week by Education Department director Dr. Ruth Matagi-Tofiga, who explained that Maga has been a teacher for 8 years and she teaches AP Calculus, Pre-Calculus, Probability and Statistics, and Geometry.

Maga earned her Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics in 2008 from Hawaii Pacific University (HPU) and her Master of Education in Secondary Education in 2011 also from HPU.

Her teaching career began in the summer of 2009 at President William McKinley High School — commonly referred to as McKinley High School — in Honolulu.

“Returning home, my late mother, an educator herself, told me that they needed math teachers in the public schools, and I applied for a teaching job and I have never looked back,” Maga said in a statement released through the ASDOE director’s office.

“My students are like my family, you want them to win, you want them to succeed, my students' success is my success,” she said, adding that she dedicates this honor to her late mother Maupati Tiso Panapa Maga.

She expressed her gratitude to the TTOY committee for her selection, but she also acknowledged the support from her THS Principal Tutuila Togilau, Vice Principal Telesia Mauigoa, Vice Principal John Mailo, counselors, teachers and especially the students.

Matagi-Tofiga congratulated Maga, saying, “It is great to see our young people having the passion for the teaching profession and making a difference in the lives of our students.”

On behalf of the Tafuna High School administration, faculty, staff, parents, and students, “we would like to thank Ms. Jordanna Maga for representing the Warrior nation for this prestigious honor,” said Togilau, responding yesterday to a Samoa News request for comments.

“We would also like to thank” the ASDOE director, secondary leaders, and the TTOY committee “for all their support”, she added.

“We are so very proud of Ms. Maga's accomplishment. She is dedicated, hard working, and very passionate about the teaching profession. Her parents, especially her mother, Mrs. Maupati Maga would have been so proud of her daughter's achievement. Go Warriors,” Togilau said.

Maga was one of 14 teachers, selected for the TTOY 2019 competition. From the 14 teachers, the field was narrowed down to the top nine, followed by the selection of the top five finalists — that the TTOY committee made its final selection from Sept. 24-27.