Wantagh High School principal Paul Guzzone will be one of two Long Island administrators to attend the 2025 Nobel Prize Teacher Summit.
Guzzone, along with Schreiber High School principal Kathryn Behr, will travel to Sweden at the end of March. The conference will be held from March 23 to 29 and hosted by the Nobel Prize Museum in Stockholm.
Guzzone was encouraged by Wantagh Superintendant John McNamara to attend. He then applied by answering a number of questions, followed by an in-person interview with the sponsoring agency EF Tours, a company that provides a limited number of scholarships to teachers and administrators looking to travel and provide education across borders.
One week later, Guzzone received the news on Dec. 16, 2024, that he would be attending the conference.
Guzzone is in his fifth year as principal of Wantagh High School. He was recognized with the Administrator of the Year award by the Nassau Counselors’ Association in 2022.
Educators from more than two dozen countries will be attending the summit. When asked about what he wanted to take away from the experience, Guzzone sia he would have to find out what kind of information the experience provides for him.
“The true answer is I don’t really know what I want to learn,” he said. “It’s the opportunity to kind of see what else is out there, to see what other schools are doing, how they’re educating their kids, what kind of approaches they are taking that are different from what we do. I know what I know from our region, but I don’t know what I know from around the world.”
Guzzone also stressed taking those lessons in and being able to apply them back to Wantagh High School, as well as the larger region.
The global program includes a welcome dinner, workshops, city tours, school visits, the teacher summit on democracy, and free time to explore Stockholm. The summit will allow Guzzone and others to hear from Nobel Prize laureates, scientists, psychologists, and educators who will offer various perspectives on the future of democracy, according to the museum.
Wantagh School District is 83% white, according to 2023-24 enrollment data. The Nobel Peace Summit will also be an opportunity for Guzzone to learn more about education for different ethnic groups.
“Listening to leaders from other schools that are aligned to these different ethnic groups can broaden my horizon and see how we can meet the needs not only academically, but socially and emotionally of the kids who are in those minority subgroups in our school,” he said.
In addition, the principal wants to share with the world what is happening in Wantagh. He mentioned spreading the word about the district’s science research and civic readiness programs, as well as the multiple community efforts that the school is involved in, including raising money for 9/11 victims and field trips to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.
And of course, an experience across the world comes with the approval of those at home. Guzzone said his son gave him the approval to make the trip to Sweden.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, you have to go,” Guzzone said his son told him about the trip.
The Wantagh principal said that he is humbled to attend the summit and looks forward to representing the region during the six-day trip.
