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Shelton Elementary Teacher Receives Grant from Voya's Unsung Heroes Competition

Shelton Elementary Teacher Receives Grant from Voya's Unsung Heroes Competition
Posted on 09/17/2018
Chesser classroomVoya Financial, Inc., a leading provider of workplace retirement solutions, including savings plans for K-12 educators, announced Maggie Chesser, a teacher at Shelton Elementary School, has received a $2,000 grant as part of the company’s 2018 Voya 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 ability to positively influence their students. For more than 20 years, the program has awarded over $5 million in grants to more than 2,000 educators across the United States.

Chesser’s innovative teaching idea, “Coyote Construction Corner,” focuses on creating an engineering and technology makerspace at Shelton Elementary School. Students involved in the project will use materials to complete engineering design challenges ranging from STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math)-based picture book activities to engineering and curriculum-based problems. Students will create prototypes of possible wildlife bridges before coding robots to cross the bridges, testing for durability and design implications. Each classroom at Shelton will print a final prototype and present their final designs and research findings. The Shelton 3D Problem Bank will also invite students to design a solution to school issues or needs. According to Chesser, any student involved in the program will have an opportunity to accept the challenge, research and design solutions, print and test prototypes, and print the products for use.

Chesser classroomSelected from a group of more than 1,200 applicants, Chesser is one of only 100 winners across the country who will receive this 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.
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