Glen Burnie Teacher Receives $2K Grant For Innovative Program

From Voya Financial: Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), a leading provider of workplace retirement solutions, including savings plans for K-12 educators, announced today that Mallory Newcomer, a Spanish teacher at North County High School in Glen Burnie, Maryland, has received a $2,000 grant as part of the company’s 2018 Voya Unsung Heroes awards competition.

Through the Voya Unsung Heroes program, Voya Financial awards grants to K-12 educators nationwide to honor their innovative teaching methods, creative educational projects, and ability to positively influence their students. For more than 20 years, the program has awarded over $5 million in grants to more than 2,000 educators across the United States.

“Our Unsung Heroes program continues to recognize teachers who go above and beyond to inspire today’s students in the classroom,” said Heather Lavallee, president of Tax-Exempt Markets at Voya Financial. “We are proud to honor teachers like Mallory Newcomer whose inspiring program is making a difference in the lives of young people. This commitment and passion for teaching closely aligns with our focus at Voya on helping all Americans prepare for their unique financial futures.”

Newcomer’s innovative teaching idea, “Travel the World,” focuses on introducing authentic learning experiences by pairing English-speaking students in Spanish classes with Spanish-speaking students in English as a second language (ESL) classes. Through this collaboration, students will choose countries and places of interest to create virtual field trips using technology-enabled expedition goggles. Once the preferred location is chosen, students will research the different cultural and heritage sites throughout the world to present during Hispanic Heritage month. With the Voya grant, Newcomer hopes students will obtain a common language experience and unite to collaborate on a common goal.

Selected from a group of more than 1,200 applicants, Newcomer is one of only 100 winners across the country who will receive this award to help fund and bring her program to life. In addition, she will now compete with other finalists for one of the top three prizes — an additional $5,000, $10,000 or $25,000 from Voya Financial.

To learn more about this year’s winning projects, as well as those from previous years, visit theUnsung Heroes website at Voya.com/UnsungHeroes. Applications for the 2019 Voya Unsung Heroes awards are currently being accepted through the website until April 30, 2019.

Unsung Heroes is part of Voya’s broader efforts to empower teachers to become leaders by promoting their careers, recognizing high-achieving accomplishments, providing training opportunities and offering financial support to achieve their goals.

Photo courtesy of Mallory Newcomer