Congratulations to our entire Teacherpreneur cohort! We are so proud of the work they put in and are excited to see what is next for them and their ideas.
First Place
Kathleen Shepherd
Kathleen Shepherd designed an idea to provide engaging literacy kits for multi-lingual students and families to use together at home, both increasing students’ reading and writing skills and celebrating the many languages and cultures within her school community.
Second Place
Ashley Giddens
Ashley Giddens, a school counselor at East Nashville Magnet High School, earned second place for her idea to ensure students who are incarcerated in the juvenile court system receive the necessary academic supports to transition back to the public school setting on track to graduate and pursue a postsecondary career option.
Community Favorite
April Greene
Create. Refine. Pitch. Pilot.
The Teacherpreneur program is designed to harness educator innovation to remove barriers to success so that all students thrive.
This professional learning opportunity will help teachers identify an issue, research root causes of the issue, and create innovative solutions while developing their skills as change-makers both in and beyond the walls of their classroom.
The Teacherpreneur cohort will participate in professional learning from December through February to design and refine their solution to a challenge they see in their classroom or school. The cohort experience will culminate in a pitch event awarding $25,000 in cash prizes to the top concepts.
The top three winners will also receive seed funding to implement their innovative solution as a pilot program.
Here’s what past cohort members have to say about participating in Teacherpreneur:
"The opportunity to become a Teacherpreneur with NPEF shifted my perspective to view how I might package my ideas and get them into the hands of people who want to know more. This training expanded my knowledge in ways that I did not know existed."
“I learned strategies for networking, marketing, and change management. I feel empowered as a teacher leader to now use these strategies in a variety of contexts. Teacherpreneur was unique in the opportunity to develop interpersonal skills that can initiate and cultivate lasting changes in an organization.”
“The NPEF facilitators effectively crafted development sessions that attended to our time, engagement, expanded our resources, and more. This experience helped me to deepen my understanding in a whole new direction. After 30 years of teaching, this was the first professional development that provided a new paradigm shift of how my expertise can be harnessed for others to succeed in and outside of the classroom.”
