Snider High School science teacher Francis Mustapha will be honored Friday as the 2009 Dolly Parton Chasing Rainbows Award recipient.

Fort Wayne Community Schools said the award was first given by the National State Teachers of the Year to Dolly Parton in 2002 in recognition of the her love of children and her desire that all children across the country have books in their homes, become better readers and expand their imaginations.

Since then, the group has selected one teacher annually to receive the Chasing Rainbows Teacher of the Year Award. The award is given to a teacher who overcame obstacles to become an exemplary teacher, the district said.

Mustapha was born in a small village in Sierra Leone, West Africa. His pursuit of education eventually led him to the United States. He was a teacher in East Allen County Schools and then a substitute teacher for Fort Wayne Community Schools before returning to West Africa in 1979 to work at teacher training schools in Liberia and Sierra Leone. After his return, he worked at South Side High School and then Snider.

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