Doug Lack was born a creative. Today he is in his element in his art classroom and moving through hallways where student art work fills the spaces of Holliston High School.
Dawn Miller is the definition of a rural county’s commitment to its future. Growing up in Halifax County, the younger Dawn was a star student in schools that were just a couple of decades past segregation. Now she’s back, paying it forward.
Aiden McCrory
Like teens all over the world Aiden wants in on the conversations of his community and his nation.
Glenn D’Avanzo
“The rock climbing wall is a symbol of what Holliston High School has tried to do to drive change. It utilizes the passions and life experiences of teachers - Glenn in this case - to engage and unleash the passions of learners.”
Kiana Labor
Kiana Labor has been at Bellows Free Academy for 13 years, an experience almost unheard of in America, but an experience rooted in the rural one-room schoolhouses that once defined American education. She has grown up within this community, and in turn, she has helped hundreds of others grow up.
Gemma Sampas
Gemma knows the difference between going to school and learning and she’s found that working on projects that matter to her has kept her passion alive and given her a sense of purpose for learning.
Listening to this young teacher’s story, it became clear to us that every kid who struggles in school needs a teacher like Krysten in their corner. Her ‘whatever it takes’ attitude about building relationships with learners who often are disenfranchised from school.
Tishia Wilson’s family expected her to go to university, and expected that she would be a leader. Her childhood was spent not just as the oldest of siblings but as the mentor for the many foster children her parents invited into her home, who often arrived with special needs.
Justin Bathon
Justin Bathon’s role in a statewide effort to transform schools by transforming school leadership has made a real difference in the daily lives of hundreds of thousands of Kentucky kids
Lois Alt & Norma Furger
Lois and Norma understand the integrated power of relationships, culture, opportunity, engagement, and learning in creating equitable school communities.
John Clements & Mary Anne Moran
We have no idea how many public high schools have co-principals but we knew when we first met John Clements and Mary Anne Moran their work together as co-principals was unique, offering others a new way of thinking about flattening structural hierarchies in schools.
Carly Seidler & JoAnn Ford-Halvorson
These two women are dedicated to facilitating a process of building out progressive learning support for young children at a public school early childhood center. In doing so, they are bringing a team of educators with them to wrap a constructivist, child-centered curriculum grounded in the Reggio Emilia philosophy into their work with young children.
Aisha Ndayishimiy has absorbed a global education, the hard way. Born in a Tanzanian refugee camp to parents who had fled civil war in Burundi, she is now a student in the public STEAM Academy High School in Lexington, Kentucky.
When Jarrett, the child of a multi-generational dairy farm, moved into high school in Bellows Free Academy, it was a different kind of “moving up” experience. As part of a rural K-12 school he was already part of the school community, and the students in high school were already in his committed and involved peers.
Terry Stoupas & Annick Charlot
The Conservatory School in the northern part of Palm Beach County is a K-8 arts infused program for a very diverse student population.
Mark Lineberg
Having worked in school systems across Virginia, Mark Lineburg has found a real home in the impoverished former tobacco country along the state’s North Carolina border. Mark’s work represents a plan for the future of the rural areas that have been left behind across the country.
Mary B. Austin School
Mary B. Austin Elementary is a district “School of Innovation” but it has not gone the route of “better demographics.” Despite this, by every metric, quantitative and qualitative, this school is doing right by its children.