Voya Honors Deville, Louisiana Teacher with Third Place Unsung Heroes Program Award
WINDSOR, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), a leading provider of retirement plans for educators, announced today that Lacey Hoosier, a science teacher at Buckeye High School in Deville, Louisiana, won the third place grant award in the company’s annual Voya Unsung Heroes program.
Through this effort, Voya awards $2,000 grants to 100 K-12 educators across the country each year to support their innovative and creative teaching ideas. Voya also selects three top winners to receive additional funds. For more than 20 years, the program has awarded over $5 million in grants to roughly 2,000 educators across the U.S.
As the third place winner, Hoosier will receive $5,000 in addition to the $2,000 grant — bringing her total financial award to $7,000. This money will be used to help bring “STEM & Medicine for Rural Kids” to life at Buckeye High School.
“At Voya, we are focused on making a difference as we serve our clients and customers, and we’re thrilled to recognize our nation’s teachers who go above and beyond to inspire today’s students,” said Heather Lavallee, president of Tax-Exempt Markets at Voya Financial. “For more than 20 years our Unsung Heroes program has empowered educators like Lacey to bring their innovative ideas to life and we are honored to recognize her as our 2018 third place winner.”
Hoosier’s innovative teaching idea, “STEM & Medicine for Rural Kids,” focuses on introducing underprivileged students to vital science, technology, engineering, math (STEM) and medical topics. To generate interest in these subjects, students from grades six all the way up through twelve, will have the opportunity to participate in hands-on STEM labs, anatomy and physiology based lessons, robotics and “Science Bowl” team competitions.
“Ms. Hoosier is an outstanding teacher who is passionate about her subject,” said Dewayne Vines, principal of Buckeye High School. “Her classes are highly engaging and through hands-on activities she is able to get even the most reluctant of students to become interested in science.”
Hoosier plans to purchase the necessary school supplies to begin building a strong science program at Buckeye High School. Through this experience Hoosier hopes to broaden her students’ knowledge base and increase their confidence to pursue a career in a STEM related field.
To learn more about this year’s winning projects, as well as those from previous years, visit the Unsung Heroes website at Voya.com/UnsungHeroes. Applications for the 2019 Voya Unsung Heroes awards are currently being accepted through the website until April 30, 2019.
Unsung Heroes is part of Voya’s broader efforts to empower teachers to become leaders by promoting their careers, recognizing high-achieving accomplishments, providing training opportunities and offering financial support to achieve their goals.
About Voya Financial ®
Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), helps Americans plan, invest and protect their savings — to get ready to retire better. Serving the financial needs of approximately 14.3 million individual and institutional customers in the United States, Voya is a Fortune 500 company that had $8.6 billion in revenue in 2017. The company had $528 billion in total assets under management and administration as of June 30, 2018. With a clear mission to make a secure financial future possible — one person, one family, one institution at a time — Voya’s vision is to be America’s Retirement Company®. Certified as a “Great Place to Work” by the Great Place to Work® Institute, Voya is equally committed to conducting business in a way that is socially, environmentally, economically and ethically responsible. Voya has been recognized as one of the 2018 World’s Most Ethical Companies® by the Ethisphere Institute; one of the 2018 World’s Most Admired Companies by Fortune magazine; as a member of the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index; and as a “Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion” on the Disability Equality Index by Disability:IN. For more information, visit voya.com. Follow Voya Financial on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter @Voya.
Media:
Voya Financial
Laura Maulucci
Office: (860) 580-1278
Cell: (508) 353-6913
[email protected]