Berzina was surprised in his first block class and was presented the award in front of his students. “It was such a cool experience,” senior Caden Reynolds said. “You don’t get to see teachers getting awards everyday, so it was I was happy for Mr. Berzina when he was presented the award.”
Berzina was surprised in his first block class and was presented the award in front of his students. “It was such a cool experience,” senior Caden Reynolds said. “You don’t get to see teachers getting awards everyday, so it was I was happy for Mr. Berzina when he was presented the award.”
Jacob Larson
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Honored for Excellence

Teacher wins MPS Communicate award
Byline photo of Jacob Larson
Jacob Larson, Online Editor-In-Chief
October 23, 2025

On Friday, Sept. 12th, science teacher Tyler Berzina received an MPS Communicate award for dual enrollment. A representative from the University of Nebraska-Omaha presented Berzina the award in front of his class after a heartfelt speech from principal Greg Tiemann, who was proud of Berzina getting such an award.

Berzina was one of ten teachers across the Omaha metro area who were awarded for dual enrollment by UNO, and he was the only Millard teacher to receive this honor. Despite this, department head Jason Krska wasn’t surprised, as Berzina operates with a high standard for himself in the classroom.

“There’s not a lesson that Mr. Berzina doesn’t purposely design for,” Krska said. “Whether it’s the lesson that day or building upon it for the future, he’s always prepared and is very methodical about how he builds his plans.”

Seeing a teacher get recognized for his hard work and dedication is something that the administration at West is incredibly proud of.

“It’s great to see Mr. Berzina get the recognition that he and so many of our teachers deserve,” assistant principal Casey Lundgren said. “Sometimes you put in a lot of work and it goes unnoticed, so it’s really nice when an outside organization like UNO puts forth the effort to recognize teachers.”

While the award is obviously quite the honor for Berzina to have received, getting recognized isn’t what fuels him to be the best teacher he can be.

“(What drives me) is the opportunity to care for these kids,” Berzina said. “The award is definitely nice to get, but it’s not what drives me.”

Millard West faculty will certainly be energized by seeing one of their peers get recognized, but while awards are great for teachers to receive, what really makes an educator feel proud of themself is knowing that they impacted students in a positive way.



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