Sara King receives $25,000 Milken Educator Award
It's not where you come from but where you're going that truly matters. And nowhere is that truer than at Ala Wai Elementary in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, where UH Mānoa graduate Sara King (BEd '08, MEd '12), is Title I coordinator paving the road to a better future for her students. A hands-on educator and administrator, King strives to boost student support systems, parental involvement and technology development at Ala Wai, particularly for the low-income students Title I is designed to aid. A former first-grade teacher and grade level leader, King is an advocate for project based learning and promotes student leadership and ownership of their own education. Helping students attain their full potential requires a multifaceted approach that encompasses individual needs, a responsive local educational system and compliance with state and federal standards.
But it was King who got an assist in reaching her full potential today at a surprise school assembly where she was presented with a Milken Educator Award by Milken Educator Awards Senior Vice President Dr. Jane Foley and Hawaiʻi State Superintendent of Education Dr. Christina Kishimoto. An appreciative King was named a 2018-19 recipient of the national recognition, which comes with an unrestricted $25,000 cash prize. She is the sole Milken Educator Award winner from Hawaii this year, and is among the 33 honorees nationwide for 2018-19.
The Milken Educator Awards, hailed by Teacher magazine as the "Oscars of Teaching," has been opening minds and shaping futures for over 30 years. Research shows teacher quality is the driving in-school factor behind student growth and achievement. The initiative not only aims to reward great teachers, but to celebrate, elevate and activate those innovators in the classroom who are guiding America's next generation of leaders. Milken Educators believe "The future belongs to the educated."
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