Hartsburg District Librarian's Innovative Teaching Program Gets $2,000 Financial Boost from Voya Financial

 

[September 15, 2022] 

Voya Unsung Heroes program has awarded more than $5.9 million to help U.S. educators turn creative teaching ideas into reality for the last 26 years.

Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), a leading provider of retirement plans for educators, announced today that Nichole Folkman, the district librarian at Hartsburg-Emden CUSD #21 / Stags Read Community Literacy in Hartsburg, has received a $2,000 grant as part of the company’s 2022 Unsung Heroes awards competition. Folkman is the only winner in the entire state of Illinois.

For 26 years, the Voya Unsung Heroes program has awarded grants to K-12 educators in the United States to honor their innovative teaching methods, creative educational projects, and their ability to positively influence the children they teach. Since the program’s inception, Voya has awarded more than $5.9 million in support of educators through this nationwide program.

"Educators like Nichole greatly influence and shape our nation's future leaders,” said Angela Harrell, Voya’s chief diversity and corporate responsibility officer and president, Voya Foundation. "Their creative teaching methods and innovative thinking inspire and motivate students to reach new heights. For 26 years, through Voya Unsung Heroes and other education-oriented programs, we have supported educators who go above and beyond to enrich the lives of their students."

Folkman's innovative teaching idea, “Postcard Field Trip,” is designed to help those students, who don't get to travel or those who don't feel comfortable traveling because of the pandemic, see the world. Students learn about places, people, landmarks, environments, agriculture, and vegetation in the United States and from around the world through immersive experiences like virtual fieldtrips, museum tours, webinars, author visits, and other fun activities.

Available to all K-12 students, the curriculum will be shared in the school district's online learning spaces, so everyone can participate. The Voya Unsung Heroes grant will help Folkman take her students on trips to history and art museums, plays, and other places to explore their local community, world cultures and history.   She hopes it helps build community and reduce the feeling of isolation where students can interact as much or as little as they like, fostering independence and exploration.

Selected from a group of applicants from across the United States, Folkman is one of only 50 winners in the nation to receive the $2,000 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.

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

About Voya Foundation

Voya Foundation's mission is to improve the quality of life in communities where Voya Financial operates and its employees and customers live. Voya Foundation provides grants and establishes signature partnerships in the areas of financial literacy and children's education and fosters employee engagement to deepen our positive impact on the community. For more information, visit www.Voya
Foundation.com 

About Voya Financial®

Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), is a leading health, wealth and investment company that provides products, solutions and technologies that enable a better financial future for its clients, customers and society. Serving the needs of 14.3 million individual, workplace and institutional clients, Voya has approximately 6,000 employees and had $644 billion in total assets under management and administration as of June 30, 2022. Certified as a “Great Place to Work” by the Great Place to Work® Institute, Voya is purpose-driven and is equally committed to conducting business in a way that is socially, environmentally, economically and ethically responsible. Voya has earned recognition as: one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies® by the Ethisphere Institute; a member of the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index; and a “Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion” on the Disability Equality Index. For more information, visit voya.com. Follow Voya Financial on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter @Voya.

[Betsy Helgager Hughes]