Awards season has begun for our LifeChanger of the Year program.
Two of the five educators who are finalists for the Grand Prize were surprised over the past week at pop-up awards ceremonies.
These first two events took us to the South, to an elementary school in Georgia and a middle school in South Carolina.
In Georgia, we popped into Double Churches Elementary School to surprise Eric Crouch, a fifth grade teacher from Columbus.
Eric was nominated by his principal, Paula Shaw-Powell. Paula starts his nomination by quoting some of the words of wisdom Eric bestows upon his students:
“Love first, teach second. We are all here to help one another. The whole world belongs to each of us, and the way we make it a better place is to use our gifts and talents to help others.”
Eric was recognized for giving every child an opportunity to find their passion and work towards academic success. One way he does this is through a project based learning model where students can engage with others from around the world. As a result, Eric and his students founded a non-profit to raise funds for a school in Kenya, created 3D prosthetics for pets, worked with engineers to create robotic stuffed animals to help children regulate social and emotional needs, and so much more for local communities.
Then we showed up in Summerville, South Carolina, to surprise Pren Woods at Alston Middle at a school-wide assembly. Pren, a seventh grade history teacher, was nominated by his colleague, Rachel Edwards. She explains that Pren has a gift for making history come alive for his students by making it relevant to today’s world. It’s not uncommon to find him conducting mock job interviews, incorporating racially diverse puppets and performing custom rap songs during his lessons.
“I often wonder how he has the stamina to do all that he does, but I think that his love for history and his deep desire to make his students understand the different cultures around the world help to sustain him on a daily basis,” Rachel wrote in his nomination. “I have often told him that he should serve in some type of diplomatic position. But he always reminds me that he is helping to mold the minds of young people. What could be more important than that?”
As grand prize finalists, both Eric and Pren will receive a $5,000 cash award that will be split evenly with their schools. They’ll also be traveling to our annual Conference of Champions in Palm Beach, Florida, in April, where they’ll be in the running for the $10,000 grand prize.
We’ve got three more finalists to surprise and then we will continue traveling the country recognizing the remaining ten awards winners.
