The Paula Mittleman
Educator of the Year Award
In 2015, the New Jersey Speech and Debate League lost Paula Mittleman to cancer. Paula was born and raised in Somerville, New Jersey encouraged by her widowed mother, who she adored, to live big and love life. In 1965, she graduated from Connecticut College with a BA degree in English. She was employed as an English teacher for the Bridgewater-Raritan High School for over 35 years, retiring in 2005. Paula coached speech and debate and was the director of the High School and Junior High School musicals. She enjoyed reading, particularly British literature, movies, the New York Yankees, and beloved dog, Mookie.
But Paula’s greatest passion was coaching Speech and Debate for Bridgewater. Beginning as an assistant coach for Bridgewater East, she assumed the role of head coach, and began a historic career coaching State, District, and National Champions. In 1987, when she felt her successful students were snubbed by the local paper, the Courier News, she wrote a letter to the editor in which she proclaimed the accomplishments of her three students who were State and District Champions who would be competing at the National Tournament in Ohio. This is what Paula did best. She was more than a coach, she was a mentor, and an advocate for not only her students, but for the students who represented New Jersey Forensics. She served as a member of the Executive Board, League President, and District Chair. Long after her retirement, Paula could be found manning the Extemporaneous Speaking prep room.
Paula Mittleman will always have a great space in my heart. She taught me to believe in myself, to stand up and embrace my individuality. She was and is a strength to me in all she taught. She is someone to celebrate. — Darren Kwiatowski
And so, as Darren suggests, the New Jersey Speech and Debate League continues to celebrate Paula Mittleman’s legacy by annually awarding the Paula Mittleman Award for outstanding contributions to Speech and Debate.
| Year | Coach | School |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Katherine Burke | Randolph |
| 2022 | Raymond Shay | Princeton Academy of the Sacred Heart |
| 2021 | Kate Clarke-Anderson | Ridgewood |
| 2019 | Martin Page | Delbarton |
| 2018 | Adam Leonard | Hunterdon Central |
| 2017 | Peter Quinn | Randolph |
| 2016 | Laurie Schmid | Phillipsburg |
| 2015 | Renee Drummond | Elizabeth |
| 2014 | Anne Poyner | Summit |
| 2013 | Dennis Philbert | Newark Central |
| 2012 | Bro. Michael Tidd | Delbarton |
| 2011 | Phillip Drummond | Freehold Twp. |
| 2010 | Jonathan Alston | Newark Science Park |
| 2009 | William Cooper | A. L. Johnson HS |
| 2008 | ||
| 2007 | Brent Farrand | Newark |
| 2006 | No Award Given | |
| 2005 | Eileen Waite | Randolph |
| 2004 | David Yastremski | Ridge |
| 2003 | Gail Bauwens | Matawan |
| 2002 | Antoinette Baskerville | Newark Barringer HS |
| 2001 | Paula Mittleman | Bridgewater |
| 2000 | Mary Gormley | Montville |
| 1999 | Vincent Borelli | Long Branch |
Upon her passing, the accolades poured in.
As one former student, Bryan Bellomo, wrote:
Paula, who was my teacher and mentor, Paula who boasted that she would never wear the same outfit twice in a semester, Paula who I think of in royal blue always, Paula who received my first ever goal spoken out loud and watched it become a reality for me, Paula who taught English and rode the bus from our speech and debate competitions on Saturday mornings when the frost covered every window but the front, Paula who saw me in my first suit, Paula who coached me in my first meet – finishing dead last of all the competitors, Paula who knew I cried over it in the back of the bus swearing never again, Paula who mentored me through multiple state championships and national championships and watched as I stumbled into crawls into walks into sprints into art. Paula. Fire-red hair to match a fire-red spirit…I took my first steps as an artist there with you, shared my first unformed attempts at scrutiny and taste and coaching, reveled in failure with passion and success with grace, learned to win with humility, to lose with a lesson.
From Gilbert Lee:
I get into conversations with people where they say, “You’re a lawyer, and you did speech and debate? Oh, that must’ve been good practice.”
It was. And it just as well never could have happened. I rarely tell this story, but when I did my first forensics tournament, I came in dead last or very close to it…But Ms. M. encouraged me to keep things up, and she said to me as a freshman that she thought I was good enough to be a national champion someday. I thought it was a little bit crazy, but hey I went along with it. Thankfully so: the friends I made in high school forensics are my friends today. It helped me get into a good school. The friends I made in college debate are my friends today, too. The career I’ve gone on to have would’ve been a lot harder, maybe not even happened, without Ms. M.’s nudging of me early on.
So, it’s no exaggeration that maybe outside of my immediate family, no one’s had more influence on my life than Ms. M. had. Many others can, and have, said the same. And I’ve left out the more important things. Maybe you don’t believe in yourself, maybe you’re an awkward teenager, but if you have a bright red-haired woman listening to you talk for seven minutes at a clip, a few times a week, you start to think that people want to hear what you have to say. Maybe you don’t know what you want to be, but then you see a role model alternating between talking about Shakespeare or the Oscars or Dancing with the Stars or whatever. And you realize that one of the greatest virtues is for people to recognize you as an original.
From Victor Roy:
I have so much to thank her for. For believing in me to get up in front of people and express myself. For riding the bus every Saturday morning to high schools across the state. I can hear your voice telling some story, even from the back. For adding pizzazz to our BRHS hallways with your fierce red hair, always-unique outfits, and that passionate spirit. For staying after school and listening to me screw up and practice speeches over and over again. Why did you have so much patience with me? For loving the New York Yankees. Especially for loving Hideki Matsui and commiserating about Chuck Knoblauch’s errant throws… For the bouts of hyperbolic encouragement and faith. From that first 9th grade speech class … to state and national competitions… to a permanent place in my heart. Thank you, Ms. M, for making that heart of mine a whole lot larger.