Hartem teacher Nichole Folkman wins Unsung Heroes award

 

[September 23, 2020] 

Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), a leading provider of retirement plans for educators, announced today that Nichole Folkman, a teacher at Hartsburg-Emden School District in Hartsburg, has received a $2,000 grant as part of the company’s 2020 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 their ability to positively influence the children they teach.

"For more than two decades, we have been committed to making a difference in the community by investing in the future of education and providing opportunity for educators to innovate,” said Heather Lavallee, president of Tax Exempt Markets. “Though every year we celebrate the Unsung Heroes whose ideas in the classroom will better prepare our nation's children for a rapidly changing workforce, this year is unique. Educators like Nichole have had to be particularly innovative, and will continue to be, as they find new and creative ways to reach her students to help keep them engaged and learning during challenging times. It is instances like these that make us proud to support America’s educators as they go above and beyond to prepare their leaders of tomorrow for successful futures.”

Folkman’s innovative teaching idea, “Stags Read,” focuses on combining community and school resources to change access to books. The project will increase community reading and literacy by providing books to pre-school children through Dolly Parton's Imagination Library; school children, through summer reading; adults, through Free Little Libraries; and book swaps at schools. Through this project, Folkman hopes to create a community where everyone has easy and free access to books and create a space for implementing S.T.E.A.M. (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) lessons into the curriculum.

Where necessary, some programs will need to be adjusted for distance learning or will have to be recalibrated for implementation based on social distancing requirements in each state.

Selected from a group of applicants from across the country, Folkman is one of only 50 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 the Unsung Heroes website (unsungheroes.com). Applications for the 2021 Voya Unsung Heroes awards are currently being accepted through the website until April 30, 2021.

Unsung Heroes is part of Voya Foundation’s signature program, Voya Teacher Voices. Voya Teacher Voices focuses on empowering teachers to become leaders by promoting the teaching career, recognizing high-achieving accomplishments, providing training opportunities and offering financial support to achieve their goals.

[Yasmine Lewis
Voya Financial ]