Rachel Schultz and Katie Wirthlin
Voya Financial, Inc., a leading provider of retirement plans for educators, announced that Rachel Schultz and Katherine Wirthlin, teachers at McVay Elementary School in Westerville, have received a $2,000 grant as part of the company’s 2015 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.
Schultz and Wirthlin were recognized for creating ACCESS, which is focused on building an inclusive arts program that is working toward developing STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) skills in creative and explorative environments. The ACCESS (Arts and the Common Core for Elementary School Students) project will give students access to NAO robots, Tap-its, STEM curriculum, and several music generating devices, in a way that meets every student’s diverse learning needs and allows them to access the curriculum through the use of Universal Design. By combining the arts, science, technology and math, pupils will be exposed to experiencing and learning subjects they don’t “like” through the ones they feel they can better grasp.
Selected from a group of nearly 1,000 applicants, Schultz and Wirthlin are among only 100 winners across the country who will receive this award to help fund and bring their program to life. In addition they 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, please visit www.unsungheroes.com. Applications for the 2016 Voya Unsung Heroes awards are currently being accepted through the website until April 30, 2016.