Ten years ago, National Life decided to honor some of the people who are core to who we are as a company with a cause: the teachers and other educators who help shape our children.
We work with school employees day in and day out, helping them plan for a secure, dignified retirement through our 403(b) business.
Because of that connection with schools, we’ve always seen the amazing things that teachers and custodians, bus drivers and coaches do when they interact with the kids in their care.
In short, it was obvious that the very best educators, regardless of their position, were changing lives for the better.
And so the LifeChanger of the Year program was born as a way to make sure those educators got some of the recognition they deserved.
The program has also had the added benefit to National Life of showing that we truly are a company that cares and lives its values to Do good. Be good. Make good.
“LifeChanger has brought us an awareness that all people involved in the education of our kids have a very important role in their development,” said Louis Puglisi, Senior Vice President of Independent Distribution. “We have seen bus drivers, custodians, nurses, coaches, just to name a few. I will never tire of the amazing stories of good people do which are brought out because of the LifeChanger program.”
Along the way, our partners in the field like Louis have found that LifeChanger is a great way for them to introduce themselves to potential clients before sharing retirement planning solutions. LifeChanger has never been about pushing a sale but it has been beneficial to us as a company.
Ultimately, it’s about the teachers and other educators who we’re highlighting.
“When you approach a Principal or Administrator and let them know that you’re here to shine a light on their staff, their school, their district with this free turn-key educator recognition program, you’re met with open arms and gratitude nine out of ten times,” said LifeChanger Lead Mallorie Manosh. “This is a differentiator in this space; it sticks and it spreads.”
Louis agrees that our field partners consider the LifeChanger a key part of working with schools.
“LifeChanger has become an important platform to help our agents recognize the good that school employees do,” he said. “One highlight for me is the energy these nominations create in a schools long after the cameras have left.
The program started out small as a pilot but it quickly grew to involve every state plus the District of Columbia, public and private schools.
The first year there were 25 nominees from 22 school districts.
LifeChanger invites anyone to nominate an educator for our prizes. Over the past decade, more than 5,500 have been nominated by a student or a parent, a colleague or a supervisor, someone from the community or a family member and they’ve come from more than 2,000 school districts.
Pretty much every grade level and academic area has been represented in those nominations. One of the innovations that was adopted in the program early on was to make the nomination process akin to social media. Short profiles are written about each nominee and then anyone can comment.
That is a big part of what has made the program so meaningful for educators. Simply being nominated – and then having sometimes hundreds, even thousands, of people weigh in with comments about what a particular educator has meant – has been prize enough for a lot of people.
But we’ve also handed a lot of prizes that carry cash awards. The Grand Prize qualifies for $10,000, for example, and runners-up get $5,000.
An unusual provision of the prizes, though, is that those cash awards are split evenly between the educator and the school where she or he works.
We’ve added prizes over the years and we now hand out a total of 18 each year, ranging from Grand Prize to the Spotlight Award, which focuses on a particular discipline.
The LifeChanger website has also expanded over time to become much more than just about people working in our schools, but also about trends in education or other resources that can be put to use throughout our schools.
“When you’ve had the honor of leading a program for a decade, it’s paramount to keep aware and flexible,” says Mallorie. “One of the things I look forward to most each year is evaluating the K-12 landscape and evolving the program to best reach and resonate with this market. Just the same as National Life, LifeChanger is never standing still.”
One thing that hasn’t changed, though, and isn’t likely to is the dedication to seeking out educators worthy of recognition all across the country.
“Our program celebrates those who are making a significant difference in the lives of students by exemplifying excellence, positive influence and leadership,” the LifeChanger of the Year website explains.