Voya surprises Montana teacher with $27,000 to support her "Indigi-STEAM" program for the Crow Reservation

Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), a leading provider of retirement plans for educators, announced today that Connie Michael, a teacher with Crow Agency Public School in Crow Agency, Montana, has been selected as the grand prize winner as part of the company’s 2025 Unsung Heroes awards competition. In addition to the 50 $2,000 grants to K-12 educators, Voya provides additional awards to the top three educational programs. All the applications received from teachers are evaluated by Scholarship America, Voya’s partner in the Unsung Heroes program.

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Left to Right: Assistant Superintendent Angie Keltner, Debbie Vichot (Voya), Connie Michael (winner), Sherry Foote (School Principal)

As the first-place winner, Michael received the $25,000 award in a surprise check presentation in addition to $2,000 she received as one of the 50 national finalists — bringing her total financial award to $27,000. This money will be used to increase the number of resources used to bring her program to life, including books, videos, cultural speakers from the community, robotic kits and coding tools, night cameras, telescopes, rocketry and space materials, scientists, and environmental professional presenters, along with Yellowstone National Park and prairie field trips. The program aims not only to expose students to the connection between STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) and culture, but also expose them to a variety of career options as well.

The second-place winner is Stacy Trosin at Pinckney Community High School in Pinckney, Michigan, where she received a total of $12,000, and the third-place winner is a group of teachers (Jackie McMahon and Cinzia Bibb, with support from principal Julie DeLuca and assistant principal Brooke Concannon) at Thorntons Ferry School in Merrimack, New Hampshire, where they received a total of $7,000.

For 29 years, the Voya Unsung Heroes program has awarded grants to K-12 educators in the United States to recognize and support their innovative teaching methods, creative educational projects, and their ability to positively influence the children they teach. Since the program’s inception, Voya has awarded more than $6 million in support of educators through this nationwide program.