Award-winning Chestnut Hill director known for her stuffed animals inspired by her grandfather’s story

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Corinne Scioli showed us a photo of her grandfather and remembered the first time she knew she was meant to teach.

“I just started writing my name on the sand,” Scioli said.

“He said, ‘Can you show me how to do that?’” Scioli continued. “He started tracking my letters.”

At the time of that story, Scioli was about the same age as her youngest students at the Jenks Academy of the Arts and Sciences School District in Philadelphia, at Germantown and Southampton avenues in Chestnut Hill.

Principal Scioli stands outside there every morning and greets her students with a smile and a hug.

She has now been named one of the best in the district. The Lindback Foundation presents its annual Distinguished Principal Award to seven school district administrators in Philadelphia.

Scioli, an alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania, is one of seven administrators to receive the prestigious Lindback Award, which also comes with a $20,000 grant for their school. The directors are nominated by their colleagues.

“All this pomp and circumstance makes me a little uncomfortable because I’m not doing any of this for any fame or glory,” Scioli said.

Scioli said the money will be used to build more collaboration spaces, similar to the use of the school library. She wants to turn the gym into more of a multi-purpose space that the neighborhood can use.

The space could be used for “community partners to come in, sit at the table with our kids and really develop projects and programs that will have an impact on the community around the world,” Scioli said.

During the entire time we spent at school, students kept coming up to greet Principal Scioli with a smile and a hug. It all comes back to her grandfather’s story and what inspired her to teach.

“That same core love I felt that day, I feel today,” Scioli said.

And every morning afterward.

Congratulations to all the recipients of this year’s Lindback Awards. The awards for Scioli and six other administrators were announced first, and next month the Lindback Foundation will award $3,500 stipends to 60 teachers in the Philadelphia school district.