LYNWOOD — A history teacher and AVID facilitator at Lynwood High School, Ana Higuera had no idea that an assembly she was asked to help coordinate Nov. 4 was actually being held in her honor.

Higuera got the surprise of her life when her name was called during the assembly for the Milken Family Foundation National Educator Awards, where a teacher at the school was to be honored with a no-strings-attached cash prize of $25,000 for exceptional work. Little did Higuera know that teacher was her.

The award recognizes the importance of outstanding educators and encourages talented young people to enter the teaching profession.

Unlike most teaching awards, the Milken Educator Awards have no formal nomination or application process. Each year, teachers, principals and specialists are recommended without their knowledge by a blue-ribbon panel appointed by each state’s department of education. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connel was on hand to see Higuera receive her award.

This is the Milken Family Foundation’s 23rd annual coast-to-coast tour honoring 54 educators with collective cash prizes totaling $1.35 million. In Los Angeles County, there were two winners: Higuera and Roberto Gonzalez of Virgil Middle School in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

“Highly effective educators are the human capital that will equip America’s youth in this increasingly competitive global economy,” said Lowell Milken, chairman and co-founder of the Milken Family Foundation. “By shining a national spotlight on exceptional people like Ana Higuera, the Milken Educator Awards send a powerful message of the critical role that talented teachers play in preparing young people for a bright future.”

School board member Rachel Chavez, who was re-elected to the school board the day before, said knowing a Lynwood teacher was going to be honored by the Milken Foundation for her work was better and bigger news than her own re-election.

“It’s so wonderful that one of our own is [being] honored,” Chavez said. “It’s wonderful to know that something so positive is being recognized in our school district, because there are a lot of good, positive things that happen in our school district, with our teachers and our students.”

Chavez said it was inspiring to see former footbal player Roosevelt Grier, a Milken Family Foundation trustee, at the assembly cheering the high school students on.

Higuera said she didn’t know her name was going to be called. In an interview this week she said: “I was asked to help seat the students at the event so I had to be there a few minutes earlier to help coordinate the seating arrangements … so I guess that was their way of making sure I was there … but never did I think for a moment that the assembly was for me.”

Humbled by the reward, Higuera — who said she is considering donating a portion of it to the AVID Program — said she is still in disbelief.

She said she has even watched the video recording of the event, and still can’t believe that her name was called.

“I was in shock I think,” she said. “I wanted to watch the video because I couldn’t remember what happened after they called my name. I couldn’t believe it and I’m kind of shy, so that happening in front of the entire school was just overwhelming.”

At the moment, Higuera, a Lynwood High graduate, said she didn’t cry. But since the announcement, she said, she has received e-mails from students, current and past, thanking her for being their teacher and for all that they learned from her. “So, yes, I’ve cried since then,” she said. “I don’t think I cried right then and there because I was still in shock.”

Higuera, 33, graduated from Lynwood High School in 1994 and returned to the school district as a teacher in 1998.

Elizabeth Montelongo, 17, has been in the AVID Program at Lynwood for two years now under Higuera’s leadership. AVID, which is an acronym for Advancement Via Individual Determination, is an in-school academic support program for grades 4-12 that prepares students for college eligibility and success.

“If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be here right now,” Montelongo said. “She has helped us a lot with filling out [college applications], with our personal statements, and she encourages us … she’s an inspiration, and gives us confidence and makes us believe in ourselves.”

Montelongo said that she believes she can speak for other AVID students that Higuera “has changed our lives.”

Citlalli Jimenez, 17, knows for sure that if not for Higuera she may have never applied to colleges. “I wasn’t planning on going to college until I joined AVID,” Jimenez said. “Once I joined … I was inspired to go to college. Ms. Higuera is my inspiration, and she’s my role model, I hope that one day I can accomplish the things that she’s accomplished.”

Higuera was also recognized by the school board Tuesday night.

School board Vice President Alfonso Morales said the Milken recognition is a testament to the work that Higuera does at Lynwood High School.

Chavez agreed and added, “This is an example of what happens when our educators do what they’re supposed to do,” she said. “She didn’t apply, she was chosen … and that makes us proud. Keep up the good work,” Chavez told Higuera who was in the audience at Tuesday night’s board meeting.

School board member Oscar Espinoza said he hopes Higuera’s recognition and reward inspires other teachers to follow in her footsteps. “Great things are happening here,” Espinoza added. “I just wish that Milken had more money, wish there were others like Milken who could reward teachers for their hard work like this.”

In addition to her own classes, Higuera is the coordinator and an instructor in the AVID system, which provides a rigorous curriculum for students considered to be in the middle of their peers to help them prepare for college. Ninety percent of students in AVID at Lynwood go on to college.

Over the past three years, Higuera has increased AVID participation to 400 students. She arranges college tours for students each year. For many, it is their first visit to a college campus.

Since Higuera’s AVID students have been so successful in gaining acceptance to colleges, many of her former students are often the tour guides for these trips.

Since first presented in 1987 to 12 exemplary California teachers, the Milken Educator Awards program is now the nation’s largest teacher recognition program having honored more than 2,400 educators from coast to coast with more than $60 million. The awards alternate each year between elementary and secondary educators.

Candidates for the Milken Educator Awards are selected on the basis of exceptional educational talent as evidenced by effective instructional practices and student learning results in the classroom and school; exemplary educational accomplishments beyond the classroom that provide models of excellence for the profession; individuals whose contributions to education are largely unheralded yet worthy of the spotlight; early- to mid-career educators who offer strong long-range potential for professional and policy leadership; and engaging and inspiring presence that motivates and impacts students, colleagues and the community.

Jimenez, who will miss Higuera upon graduation from Lynwood High School, said she wishes that she could have had more teachers like Higuera throughout the years.

“I think she’s changed my life. I think she’s changed a lot of our lives,” she said.