March 2023 Winner - Randy Ferino Wayne:(Meridian High School)
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Meridian Star Article
Randy Ferino Wayne loves teaching almost as much as he loves music and theater, both of which are a passion.
"I have learned quite a bit as a teacher from my students, from my principals, from the community members, from the different organizations and different programs I have been blessed to be a part of," Wayne said. "I've learned a lot, and that's what teaching is all about. You teach the knowledge that you know, but you always have to go and sharpen your skills as well."
Wayne teaches theater at Meridian High School, where he also serves as assistant band director. He is head band director at Magnolia Middle School.
On Thursday, he was recognized as March's winner of the Golden Apple Award during a ceremony at Meridian High. MHS's marching band, chorus and theater students were all on hand for the announcement.
"Winning the Golden Apple Award is very rewarding. It's very satisfying and, motivationally, it lets you know that someone sees what I do, that someone takes appreciation for what I do," said Wayne, who was overcome by the honor and the students' appreciation of him.
"There are a lot of teachers out there that may not have the Golden Apple Award, but they are still pushing their students forward and getting them to the next level," he said. "Honestly, all teachers need a Golden Apple Award, in my opinion. Some of the things that we do. We are a mother. We are a father. We are a grandparent. We are a cousin. We are a big brother. We are a mentor. Teachers wear a lot of hats."
A native of Bessemer, Alabama, Wayne grew up in the metro Birmingham area.
He credits his mother, Brenda Wayne, a retired teacher who majored in visual arts and music in college, for instilling in him a passion for teaching and the arts.
"She pushed me to do everything. She put me in tap dance, jazz dance, theater, marching band," he said.
His grandmother, Ruby Shaw, a musician, also taught him a love of music.
But, perhaps, one of the biggest influences on his life was a middle school band teacher, Joseph Terrell, who planted the seeds for what would one day grow into a passion for performing and the marching band.
"It was always set in stone that I was going to be a band director because of my middle school band director," Wayne said. "The way that he handled our band program when I was in middle school."
His middle school band, made up of 150 members, won numerous superior awards at competitions and evaluations.
"I love the way he did it and how he did it, and how music made me feel," he said. "I was like, 'I want to do the same thing.' So from fifth, sixth or seventh grade up, I knew I wanted to be a band director."
Wayne continued with the marching band throughout high school and went on to play alto saxophone in the Mighty Marching Hornets Band at Alabama State University. He earned his degree in music education.
In 2010, he found his way to Meridian to take a job with the school district on the suggestion of one of his professors.
At the time, he told himself, "I am not going to stay too, too long," because he always wanted to work in the entertainment industry. Dreams of California or Atlanta or the Big Apple were calling.
"I got the job, so I was like, 'I can do anything for a year. I will stay maybe a year or two until I get to where I am trying to go,'" he recalled.
That was 13 years ago.
"When he came over here, I anticipated keeping him one year, maybe two, in Meridian. That was over 10 years ago," said MHS Assistant Principal Rufus Wright. "He brings so much to the table. He brings a lot of stability."
Wright said Wayne motivates students and opens their eyes to possibilities they never imagined, as well as helps them believe they can succeed in reaching their dreams.
"He allows the students to see that they can actually go farther than they think they can," Wright said. "Once he opens a kid's eyes to the possibilities, they can't close them again. I have watched him do it so many times."
Like his middle school band teacher, Wayne pushes his students to be disciplined and determined.
In 2016, the MHS theater students reached the state finals of Drama Fest held at Mississippi State University for the first time in the program's history.
"We had never gone to state finals until I took over the theater department. That was the first milestone; we are now pushing toward nationals," he said of the group's new goal.
The theater department puts on two to three productions each year, and most are based on African American history. Wayne usually writes the productions himself.
"My theater students are absolutely in love with theater, and I love the vigor and the passion that they have for theater as well," he said.
Wayne lives for the moments when he takes a student who is typically shy and watches them perform a monologue on stage or when he hears the applause from parents after his middle school band performs a Christmas concert after only picking up the instruments a few months prior to that night.
"I think I dream bigger for them than they do. Like I see their passion, and I see what they are capable of, and I push them toward it," he said.
Wayne credits previous teachers in his own life for making him the educator he is today.
"I am a great teacher because I had some amazing, outstanding teachers and professors, and that is what it is all about," he said.
He hopes one day one of his former students will remember him the way he remembers his middle school band teacher Terrell.
"I want to be the same person where they can look back and say ‘Mr. Wayne taught me this' and ‘Mr. Wayne did this' and 'If it wasn't for Mr. Wayne,'" he said. "I just want to have some type of impact on their life."
