Roslyn teacher Allyson Weseley wins national Mary Margaret Moffett Memorial Excellence in Teaching Award
Roslyn High School teacher Allyson Weseley, center, with students, from left, Dylan Laskowitz, Emilee Youn and Ruby Charnes. Credit: Dawn McCormick
When Roslyn High School teacher Allyson Weseley won a prestigious national award earlier this year, it was a career-capping win for someone whose students are usually the ones taking home the big prizes.
Weseley, 59, of Sea Cliff, was awarded the Mary Margaret Moffett Memorial Excellence in Teaching Award, presented annually by the Society for the Teaching of Psychology, a Washington, D.C.-based division of the American Psychological Association. The distinction recognizes “excellence in scientific psychological instruction for teachers at the high school level,” according to the society's website.
“They [the society] are looking for how you promote interest in your students and how you stimulate student interest in psychology,” said Weseley, who retired in June after decades as a social studies teacher and the school's coordinator of secondary research. Among other accomplishments, the award cites Weseley as having mentored more than 80 students who were selected as semifinalists in the Regeneron Science Talent Search.
“Psychology was a field of study I fell in love with in college,” said Weseley, who graduated in 1985 from Great Neck North High School, earned a bachelor’s in psychology from Princeton University in New Jersey, a master’s of education from Harvard University and an education doctorate from Columbia Teachers College in Manhattan. She said she was inspired by the field’s focus on “the motivations of everyday, average people, and why people we do what they do,”
Wesely joined Roslyn High School in 1989, developing the school’s AP Psychology class in the early 1990s. Over her 36-year teaching career she’s also developed high school research programs in psychology and other behavioral sciences, and founded and ran the Long Island High School Psychology Fair for a decade.
Former students say Weseley goes beyond the classroom to help others succeed — and celebrate that success.
“She actually came to the Washington, D.C. to the gala where I was honored for Regeneron science research,” said Jacob Tyler Gross, 20, a 2024 Roslyn High graduate and a current Harvard University junior. Gross said she read his work and gave helpful suggestions when he was preparing his research into COVID-19 monoclonal antibodies, a project which won a $25,000 college scholarship as one of 40 Regeneron finalists.
Yena Kim, 27, a 2017 Roslyn High School graduate currently studying for a joint PhD in cognitive psychology and business at the University of Chicago, said Weseley "opened so many doors" for students. “I wouldn't be where I am today without her support," she said.
Roslyn High School Principal Dave Lazarus said she helps students elevate their research — which he experienced firsthand when she offered "thoughtful feedback" while he wrote his doctoral dissertation. “She was patient, kind, funny and supportive,” Lazarus said in an email.
Weseley said she will continue her work in retirement with plans to co-author series of psychology prep books and by returning to the school a half day each week to support the new research director.
