From the Nominator

At the start of the 2023-24 school year, the Milton Hershey School (MHS) Office of Communications coordinated a series of op-eds to strengthen branding and our institution’s thought leadership on a regional and national level. The first of these pieces was titled “Nearly 10K teachers are missing in Pennsylvania: We need to do something about it.” For the op-ed, our team worked with MHS alumna Thalia Vega, class of 2019, and focused on the significant teacher shortage across Pennsylvania. Prior to arriving at MHS, Thalia attended 13 different schools and endured a disadvantaged childhood. Who forever changed Thalia’s life and steadied her along the right path? Her MHS teachers. In her op-ed, Thalia—who is now a teacher herself in a Philadelphia charter school—argued that a teacher shortage is a critical issue that can only be addressed by providing more aspiring educators with the training, resources, and opportunity to graduate and pursue their dreams. Thalia’s piece was published in PennLive, the Gettysburg Times, and the Northeast Times in Philadelphia—publications with a combined reach of nearly 4 million readers. The piece successfully kicked off a new thought-leadership initiative, with op-eds that have generated coverage for MHS throughout Pennsylvania and in national education publications. Each month since September 2023, a different MHS expert has been published, addressing topics such as Black history, childhood literacy, houseparenting, and the philanthropic legacy of Milton S. Hershey.

From the Judges

A well-written and thoughtful piece that presents the reader with great statistics on the need for more teachers. Part of a coordinated series of op-eds meant to strengthen branding and MHS's thought leadership. Great job understanding the target audience!