{"id":12213,"date":"2025-09-03T15:08:51","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T15:08:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/?p=12213"},"modified":"2025-09-03T15:09:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T15:09:16","slug":"nominations-encouraged-for-michigan-lotterys-excellence-in-education-awards-to-honor-outstanding-educators-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/03\/nominations-encouraged-for-michigan-lotterys-excellence-in-education-awards-to-honor-outstanding-educators-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Nominations Encouraged for Michigan Lottery\u2019s Excellence in Education Awards to Honor Outstanding Educators"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/mi-lottery-excellence.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4939 size-medium alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/mi-lottery-excellence-300x64.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"64\" srcset=\"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/mi-lottery-excellence-300x64.jpg 300w, https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/mi-lottery-excellence.jpg 700w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Parents, students, school staff members, and others are encouraged to nominate outstanding public-school educators for the Michigan Lottery\u2019s 2025-26 Excellence In Education awards.<\/p>\n<p>All public-school employees may be nominated for the Excellence In Education awards, which recognize educators who go \u201cabove and beyond\u201d to make a difference in the lives of children. To nominate a public-school educator, go to <em>https:\/\/www.michiganlottery.com\/excellence-in-education<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Excellence in Education awards are our way of honoring the phenomenal work being done by educators in communities throughout Michigan,\u201d said Lottery Commissioner Suzanna Shkreli. \u201cThese dedicated professionals do so much more than teach; they are a constant, supportive presence who instill lifelong skills and inspire students to believe in themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Michigan Lottery established the Excellence in Education awards in 2014 to recognize outstanding public-school educators across the state during the school year.<\/p>\n<p>One outstanding educator will be selected each week and will receive a $2,000 cash prize. At the end of the school year, one of these weekly award winners will be selected to receive the Lottery\u2019s Educator of the Year award and will receive a $10,000 cash prize.<\/p>\n<p>The winner of the 2025 Educator of the Year award was Kelly Herberholz, a science teacher and administrative intern with Dakota High School in Macomb.<\/p>\n<p>Hundreds of educators were nominated during the 2024-25 school year, which was the 11th year of the Excellence in Education awards program. Thirty-four of these nominees, including Herberholz, were selected to win a weekly award.<\/p>\n<p>Previous winners of the Educator of the Year award:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>2024 \u2013 Samantha TwoCrow, the director of the Indigenous Education Program for Suttons Bay Public Schools in Suttons Bay.<\/li>\n<li>2023 \u2013 Kathryn Kluzak, a kindergarten teacher with Robert L. Green Elementary in East Lansing.<\/li>\n<li>2022 \u2013 Spencer Vanderheide, a high school teacher with Kenowa Hills High School in Grand Rapids.<\/li>\n<li>2021 \u2013 Janice Smith, a school social worker at Fisher Magnet Lower Academy in Detroit.<\/li>\n<li>2020 \u2013 Megan Sidge, an Autism Spectrum Disorder teacher at Hickory Woods Elementary in Walled Lake.<\/li>\n<li>2019 \u2013 Stewart Kieliszewski, an Earth science, biology, mechatronics, and media teacher for eighth through 12 graders at the Ubly Community Schools.<\/li>\n<li>2018 \u2013 Kerri Moccio, a first-grade literacy intervention specialist at Bedford Elementary School in Dearborn Heights.<\/li>\n<li>2017 \u2013 Linda Holzwarth, a social studies teacher at Portage West Middle School in Portage.<\/li>\n<li>2016 \u2013 Daniel Carr, a Spanish and sports marketing teacher at Waverly High School in Lansing.<\/li>\n<li>2015 \u2013 Michael Craig, a special education teacher at the Charles Drew Transition Center in Detroit.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Excellence In Education award nominees should demonstrate the following qualities:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Excellence \u2013 Their work consistently helps students and\/or their schools or school districts advance to higher levels of academic achievement.<\/li>\n<li>Dedication \u2013 They consistently go above and beyond expectations to help students succeed.<\/li>\n<li>Inspiration \u2013 Their work inspires others around them to exceed expectations either academically or professionally.<\/li>\n<li>Leadership \u2013 They demonstrate clear leadership skills in their positions with their school or school districts.<\/li>\n<li>Effectiveness \u2013 The nominee\u2019s work has clear and positive results on the educational advancement of students within the school or school district.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Parents, students, school staff members, and others are encouraged to nominate outstanding public-school educators for the Michigan Lottery\u2019s 2025-26 Excellence In Education awards. All public-school employees may be nominated for the Excellence In Education awards, which recognize educators who go \u201cabove and beyond\u201d to make a difference in the lives of children. To nominate a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4939,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_rtcl_gb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[275],"class_list":["post-12213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"aioseo_notices":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/mi-lottery-excellence.jpg",700,149,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/mi-lottery-excellence.jpg",700,149,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/mi-lottery-excellence.jpg",700,149,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/mi-lottery-excellence-150x149.jpg",150,149,true],"medium":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/mi-lottery-excellence-300x64.jpg",300,64,true],"large":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/mi-lottery-excellence.jpg",640,136,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/mi-lottery-excellence.jpg",700,149,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/mi-lottery-excellence.jpg",700,149,false],"rtcl-gallery":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/mi-lottery-excellence.jpg",700,149,false],"rtcl-thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/mi-lottery-excellence-320x149.jpg",320,149,true],"rtcl-gallery-thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/mi-lottery-excellence-150x105.jpg",150,105,true],"psacp-medium":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/mi-lottery-excellence.jpg",500,106,false],"rpwe-thumbnail":["https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/mi-lottery-excellence-45x45.jpg",45,45,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"LaPrensa Newspaper","author_link":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/author\/laprensa\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/category\/articles\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Articles<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Parents, students, school staff members, and others are encouraged to nominate outstanding public-school educators for the Michigan Lottery\u2019s 2025-26 Excellence In Education awards. All public-school employees may be nominated for the Excellence In Education awards, which recognize educators who go \u201cabove and beyond\u201d to make a difference in the lives of children. To nominate a","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12213"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12214,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12213\/revisions\/12214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12213"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laprensanewspaper.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=12213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}