Richard Moseson 5k has been chosen as the American Go Foundation’s Teacher of the Year, winning a free trip to the US Go Congress in Tacoma, where he will be honored at the final awards banquet. “The most satisfying thing about introducing go to young kids has been seeing many of them become totally involved in the game, and eventually zipping past me in playing strength,” Moseson told the E-Journal. Moseson started the go club at Manlius Pebble Hill (MPH), in Manlius NY, when his two sons were both students at the school, in 2003, and has continued ever since. “At various times I’ve also run short eight-week sessions for students in the first grade and third grade classes, and we’ve had some of those students eagerly join the club when they reached middle school age,” Moseson reports. “I’m also running a club with Chinese elementary school age kids, at a ‘Chinese young adult ministry’ that meets every Friday evening for dinner and bible study. I meet with the kids for an hour before dinner.
“We had five students from our two clubs play in the annual Salt City Go Tournament last month (one of them won the C Division with a 4-0 record and another won three games and finished in third place). I have most of the students at both clubs playing on KGS now. We had two three-person teams from MPH participate in this year’s AGHS School Team Tournament, and they both finished with respectable 2-2 records. Some of the kids have come to play at some of the Syracuse Go Club weekly meetings as well. Membership at MPH has waxed and waned (our high has been 15 students), but I’ve had the satisfaction of seeing three of my students head off to college stronger than I am,” adds Moseson.
In addition to his current clubs, Moseson has run programs at other schools in the past, and has been active in the Syracuse go community. He has also served as an AGF Mentor for several years, helping new go programs across the nation with advice, support, and resources, via e-mail. “The AGF board faced a very tough decision this year,” reports President Terry Benson, “with four extremely strong candidates, each of whom fully deserved the award. Fortunately, we choose a new teacher every year, and the other candidates will all have a chance again next year.” -Paul Barchilon, E-J Youth Editor. Photos by Richard Moseson: Upper left: Moseson; center: at the MPH club; bottom: at the Chinese Young Adult Ministry.
