Voya awards $140,000 in grants to three educators with innovative teaching programs

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), a leading provider of retirement plans for educators, announced today the top three winners in the company’s annual Voya Unsung Heroes.

These individuals, chosen from 50 teams of overall winners who received $2,000 each, were awarded additional grants – $5,000 for third place, $10,000 for second place and $25,000 for first place. Now in its 26^th year, the Voya program has awarded more than $6 million in awards to educators across the United States.

The first-place winner, LeAnn Holden-Martin from Charles H. Flowers High School in Springdale, Maryland, received the top award of an additional $25,000. She will use the grant to help fund her innovative “Sonny House Job Skills Program” that is focused on helping high school students with severe cognitive disabilities develop real-world job skills.

Emily Bennett, a teacher from Neenah High School in Neenah, Wisconsin, won the second-place award of an additional $10,000. Her innovative “Hydroponics Lab,” is focused on supporting and expanding the crops in 13 hydroponics units that have provided students with the chance to see where their food comes from, while also promoting a healthy lifestyle.

The third-place award of $5,000 was given to Laura Wommack, an educator at Mansfield High School in Mansfield, Washington. Wommack's program, “Growing Science with Aquaponics,” focuses on expanding the number of aquaponic tanks at the school. Students will increase the number of experiments they’re conducting as they explore which plants grow best under different conditions.

“Voya has been committed to teachers and students for almost three decades, and we are once again proud to recognize and support these three outstanding winners,” said Angela Harrell, Voya’s chief diversity and corporate impact officer and president, Voya Foundation. “The Unsung Heroes grants are our way of showing our appreciation for their dedication and commitment as they help today’s students become tomorrow’s leaders.”

To learn more about this year’s winning projects, as well as those from previous years, visit the Unsung Heroes website. Applications for the 2023 Voya Unsung Heroes awards are currently being accepted through the website until April 28, 2023.

Unsung Heroes is part of Voya Foundation’s signature program, Voya Teacher Voices, which focuses on empowering teachers to become leaders by promoting the teaching career, recognizing high-achieving accomplishments, providing training opportunities and offering financial support to achieve their goals.

About Voya Foundation

Voya Foundation's mission is to improve the quality of life in communities where Voya Financial operates and its employees and customers live. Voya Foundation provides grants and establishes signature partnerships in the areas of financial literacy and children's education and fosters employee engagement to deepen our positive impact on the community. For more information, visit www.VoyaFoundation.com

About Voya Financial^®

Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA) is a leading health, wealth and investment company that provides products, solutions and technologies that enable a better financial future for its clients, customers and society. Serving the needs of 14.3 million individual, workplace and institutional clients, Voya has approximately 6,000 employees and had $711 billion in total assets under management and administration as of Sept. 30, 2022. Certified as a “Great Place to Work” by the Great Place to Work^® Institute, Voya is purpose-driven and equally committed to conducting business in a way that is socially, environmentally, economically and ethically responsible. Voya has earned recognition as: one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies^® by the Ethisphere Institute; a member of the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index; and a “Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion” on the Disability Equality Index. For more information, visit voya.com. Follow Voya Financial on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter @Voya.