2 . The $1 million Global Teacher Prize has been awarded to an American teacher, who helped to make college education accessible to low-income, immigrant, and refugee (难民) pupils. Keishia Thorpe, an English teacher in Maryland, was selected from more than 8,000 teachers in 121 countries.

Ms. Thorpe teaches English to 12th-graders at the International High School Langley Park, where 95% of pupils are from low-income families. She redesigned their courses for the English department to make it culturally relevant to her pupils who are mostly from Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean, and South America. As a consequence, her English language learners have shown a 40 percent increase in their reading.

Ms. Thorpe encouraged her pupils to apply for college, helped them with their applications and even obtained fully-funded scholarships. Between 2018 and 2019, She helped her senior pupils win more than $6.7 million in scholarships to 11 colleges, with which most of them did not have to pay for their education.

When it comes to the prize money, she decides to given less well-off pupils an opportunity of receiving a third level education. “Every person deserves the right to education and I want to be the person who champions that for them. I plan to donate the money to help students worldwide access higher education,” she said. “Students are the reason why I’m here, so I intend to use that to promote them and create a better future for them.”

Organized by UNESCO and first awarded in 2015, the Global Teacher Prize is an annual award to a teacher who has made an enormous difference to the profession. The winner of this year was announced at a virtual ceremony in Paris on November 10th, 2021.