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Eight Educators Advance to Final Round of National Competition in NFTE Model Teacher Challenge

  • 06/18/19

New York, N.Y. – NFTE (Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship) today announced the national finalists in the NFTE Model Teacher Challenge, a highly competitive annual challenge for educators who teach the NFTE curriculum in middle school and high school classrooms across the country.

For more than 30 years, NFTE’s innovative entrepreneurship curriculum has been activating the entrepreneurial mindset in youth from under-served communities. The Model Teacher Challenge is a way to identify educators performing at the highest levels, promoting consistent student achievement, demonstrating effective classroom management strategies, and showing sound pedagogical content knowledge.

The eight teachers named as the 2019 national finalists won top honors in regional competition rounds and now advance to the next level, competing for the top national prize. The finalists are:

  • Brandi Cobb-Davis, a business and entrepreneurship teacher at the Environmental Charter High School in Lawndale, CA
  • Sandra Cruz, a business and entrepreneurship teacher at Thomas A. Edison Career and Technical High School in Queens, NY
  • Joan McCoo, a business and entrepreneurship teacher at Bryan Adams High School in Dallas, TX
  • Mary Ellen McCormick, a business and entrepreneurship teacher at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, VA
  • Bernadette Medina, a business and entrepreneurship teacher at the ASPIRA Business and Finance High School in Chicago, IL
  • Tamelya Moore, an entrepreneurship, hospitality and tourism teacher at Homestead Senior High School in Homestead, FL
  • Anne Nguyen, a marketing and entrepreneurship teacher at the Sports & Medical Sciences Academy in Hartford, CT
  • Walker Seligson, an economics and entrepreneurship teacher at Galileo Academy of Science and Technology in San Fransciso, CA

The 2018-2019 Model Teacher Challenge began last fall, at the start of the school year now ending. Teachers who entered the challenge were observed in the classroom and also submitted portfolios including their lesson plans and reflections as well as videos of themselves teaching entrepreneurship concepts.

The national finalists named today each won a $6,000 cash award when they took first place in their regional competition. Now they’re in the running for an additional $20,000 prize package, which includes a $15,000 cash award for the teacher who takes first place in the national finals and a $5,000 cash award for the winning teacher's school, intended to fund resources for entrepreneurship education. The national winner will be named at the NFTE Entrepreneurial Teacher Summit this July.

Shawn Osborne, President and CEO of NFTE, says, "These educators who are national finalists really exemplify the best of our Teacher Corps. They’re highly skilled, disciplined and passionate educators who believe that developing an entrepreneurial mindset can truly change the life trajectory of their students.”

The Model Teacher Challenge is made possible through the generous support of the Diana Davis Spencer Foundation, a private philanthropy that promotes entrepreneurship education as a driver of economic growth and innovation.

 

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