Rochelle, Illinois (December 4, 2015) – Farmers Insurance® announced today Vic Worthington, of Rochelle Middle School, is one of six winners in the $100,000 Dream Big Teacher Challenge as part of the company’s Thank America’s Teachers℠ program.
Worthington will use the $100,000 Dream Big Teacher Challenge grant to develop a cutting edge STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) program for students that ties classroom learning to technology and mentorship from local business and agricultural leaders.
"It was incredible to see the community of Rochelle and surrounding communities step up and come together to help Vic win the $100,000 Dream Big Teacher Challenge grant,” said local Farmers Insurance Agent, Mark Gillis.
The Thank America’s Teachers program, launched at the 2015 Farmers Insurance Open, enables people everywhere to say thank you to teachers who made an impact on their lives. In addition to awarding 180 grants valued at $2,500 throughout the year to recognize the great work that teachers do every day, Farmers took the program one step further by developing the Dream Big Teacher Challenge, offering teachers a chance to compete for six $100,000 educational grants. In total, Farmers will award teachers across the country more than $1 million in educational grants in 2015.
“Farmers encourages teachers from around the country to continue to dream big and start thinking about proposal ideas for next year’s $2,500 and $100,000 grant opportunities, which will be open for submission as early as January,” said Gillis. “Also, anyone can visit ThankAmericasTeachers.com to thank a teacher. It takes less than two seconds.”
