AURORA | Coleen Thurber, a teacher at Rolling Hills Elementary School in Aurora, beat out more than 620 other educators from across the country Wednesday, March 16, to be named the National “LifeChanger of the Year” by the National Life Group, a Vermont-based financial services company.
A longtime fixture at Rolling Hills, Thurber leads the school’s Positive Behavior Support Program, the Student of the Month Recognition Program and helped to develop the coursework for the Assets Program, a quasi-life sciences course offered at the school on South Biscay Street.
“In assets class, all students in grades K-5 have the opportunity to learn about and practice important life skills and character education to help them be the best person they can possibly be,”Thurber said in a statement issued last week. “It takes practice to turn out great, and in Assets class, the students get lots of practice. We do units around powerful values and life lessons to lead the students down a positive path as they grow and develop into fabulous people.”
The annual award is granted to exemplary public school teachers around the country who are nominated by their peers. This year, K-12 public school employees were nominated from every state and the District of Columbia, according to a press release.
“Mrs. Thurber … always has a smile on her face and lights up any room that she enters,” according to her nomination profile on the National Life Group website. “She is encouraging and supportive to any teacher or TA in need. Mrs. Thurber facilitates ways to acknowledge staff, and on a regular basis, she nominates others to be recognized at the Celebration with the Superintendent…She will leave behind a long legacy of teaching students how to live happy and healthier lives because they have known her.”
Thurber was honored during a surprise ceremony in the Rolling Hills gym Wednesday afternoon.