Stanley Teacher Named Winner In Thank A Teacher
iHeartRadios’ Thank A Teacher, powered by DonorsChoose recently named their February winners and a Stanley teacher was selected as one of their winners of a $5,000 gift card.
Kindergarten teacher Courtney Sem’s nomination said that her childhood dream was to be a kindergarten teacher. It continued by saying, “She makes an everlasting positive impact on all of the young lives she teaches. She taught for eight years, took a break for maternity leave, and got the opportunity to start teaching again in Stanley.”
With 60,000 teachers nominated since the program began and ten final winners selected in the past year, iHeartRadio and DonorsChoose teamed up to thank teachers in a big way.
For more than a decade, iHeartRadio has partnered with DonorsChoose, an education nonprofit that empowers public school educators to request the classroom supplies they need to educate their students. In July of 2025, they launched the Thank a Teacher contests, reaching over 160 radio markets to ask listeners to nominate their favorite teacher for a chance to be celebrated on-air and transform their classrooms with a $5,000 DonorsChoose gift card.
“iHeartRadio’s Thank a Teacher is making sure that educators feel appreciated for going the extra mile,” said Alix Guerrier, CEO of DonorsChoose, at the partnership launch, “especially as they work hard to get students what they need to kick off a new school year.”
“iHeartRadio’s Thank a Teacher aims to shine a light on the quiet and positive work happening in classrooms across the country and to offer a very public thank you to the teachers who are doing so much,” said Jon Zellner, President of Programming Operations and Digital Music for iHeartMedia.
Over the course of the 2025-26 school year, more than 600,000 teachers were nominated across all 50 states. iHeartMedia donated $500,000 worth of public service announcements to highlight the mission of DonorsChoose, encouraging listeners to directly invest in the success of their local public schools through www.DonorsChoose.org. In September, DonorsChoose randomly selected the first five winners to each win $5,000 DonorsChoose gift cards. Now in February, the last five winners were selected.