Past Scholarship Recipients
This transformative experience created lasting memories for these deserving educators and inspired them to return home with new teaching tools and heightened conservation awareness. We appreciate their efforts and those of teachers everywhere—THANK YOU for helping guide current and future generations in caring for the monarchs!
Mireille Hess is a 2010 graduate of University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a degree in early childhood education. She currently teaches third grade at Edgewood Elementary in Greenfield, Wisconsin. Mireille is a member of the Monarch Teachers Network and Friends of the Monarch Trail, a collaborative effort to preserve and restore an essential butterfly migration stopping point in this urban setting. Throughout the year, Mireille teaches many lessons about the monarch butterfly in her classroom and community. She is adding stories, pictures and lessons from her Kingdom of the Monarchs adventure to her presentations.
Read Mireille's story from her monarch butterfly migration adventure.
Trevor Hance
Trevor is Coordinator for Enrichment and the Environment at Laurel Mountain Elementary in Austin, Texas. From backcountry weeks with his daughters to developing inclusive outdoor spaces for people on the autism spectrum and teaching environmental law, Trevor is dedicated to exploring curiosity and building a better tomorrow. He believes we are collectively stronger when everyone participates, and when we are all connected to the natural world. Cultivating these foundations creates a lasting legacy, creating support for successful stewardship and sustainability.
Read Trevor's story from his monarch butterfly migration adventure.
Beth Smith is a veteran educator, currently teaching sixth grade science and math at Childs Elementary School, coaching the robotics club, and serving as the STEM Fellow for her district in Bloomington, Indiana. She developed her school garden, expanding it over many seasons into multiple plots including a large vegetable garden, rain garden, prairie garden, vermiculture compost system and her personal favorite, a monarch milkweed garden. Students work in the garden during recess and after-school garden clubs. Monarch migration is Beth's favorite unit to teach, and each August, her students raise monarch butterflies while journaling about their development.
Dennis Foreman
Dennis Foreman teaches 8th grade science at Zane Trace Middle School in Chillicothe, Ohio. A passionate environmental educator, he launched a wide-reaching recycling program in his school district and participates in the Ohio Energy Project, which provides curricula for his students to learn about energy conservation and incorporate energy-saving practices into their homes. Dennis also teaches the monarch life cycle in the classroom, as students oversee each stage from egg to pupa to larvae to butterfly, then tag and release the monarchs. A teacher for more than 20 years, Dennis has also been a councilman in his small town. He grew up in a rural Appalachian community, though he has ventured far afield since, trekking through Europe and touring the U.S. and Europe as a drummer with various bands.
Princess Harris is the Sustainable Food & Land Use Senior Coordinator for Faith in Place, a Chicago-based organization devoted to empowering people of diverse faiths to advance environmental and racial justice. She manages the organization’s “Migration & Me” story circles, nature outings and other related programs. She has worked on and managed an inner-city farm and farmers market and understands the importance of having access to fresh fruits and vegetables.
Read Princess’s story from her monarch butterfly migration adventure.
Stacey Leffler
Stacey Leffler is a science teacher at Timberstone Junior High School in Sylvania, Ohio. Passionate about endangered species—and monarch butterflies in particular—she integrates monarch biology into her classroom by teaching students about the significance of milkweed in the butterfly’s life cycle, along with the importance of pollinators. She has also helped spearhead a partnership with Ohio’s Toledo Zoo to add a prairie plot to its property to aid migrating monarch butterflies.
Read Stacey’s story from her monarch butterfly migration adventure.
2019
Mireille HessMireille Hess is a 2010 graduate of University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a degree in early childhood education. She currently teaches third grade at Edgewood Elementary in Greenfield, Wisconsin. Mireille is a member of the Monarch Teachers Network and Friends of the Monarch Trail, a collaborative effort to preserve and restore an essential butterfly migration stopping point in this urban setting. Throughout the year, Mireille teaches many lessons about the monarch butterfly in her classroom and community. She is adding stories, pictures and lessons from her Kingdom of the Monarchs adventure to her presentations.
Read Mireille's story from her monarch butterfly migration adventure.
Trevor Hance
Trevor is Coordinator for Enrichment and the Environment at Laurel Mountain Elementary in Austin, Texas. From backcountry weeks with his daughters to developing inclusive outdoor spaces for people on the autism spectrum and teaching environmental law, Trevor is dedicated to exploring curiosity and building a better tomorrow. He believes we are collectively stronger when everyone participates, and when we are all connected to the natural world. Cultivating these foundations creates a lasting legacy, creating support for successful stewardship and sustainability.
Read Trevor's story from his monarch butterfly migration adventure.
2020
Beth SmithBeth Smith is a veteran educator, currently teaching sixth grade science and math at Childs Elementary School, coaching the robotics club, and serving as the STEM Fellow for her district in Bloomington, Indiana. She developed her school garden, expanding it over many seasons into multiple plots including a large vegetable garden, rain garden, prairie garden, vermiculture compost system and her personal favorite, a monarch milkweed garden. Students work in the garden during recess and after-school garden clubs. Monarch migration is Beth's favorite unit to teach, and each August, her students raise monarch butterflies while journaling about their development.
Dennis Foreman
Dennis Foreman teaches 8th grade science at Zane Trace Middle School in Chillicothe, Ohio. A passionate environmental educator, he launched a wide-reaching recycling program in his school district and participates in the Ohio Energy Project, which provides curricula for his students to learn about energy conservation and incorporate energy-saving practices into their homes. Dennis also teaches the monarch life cycle in the classroom, as students oversee each stage from egg to pupa to larvae to butterfly, then tag and release the monarchs. A teacher for more than 20 years, Dennis has also been a councilman in his small town. He grew up in a rural Appalachian community, though he has ventured far afield since, trekking through Europe and touring the U.S. and Europe as a drummer with various bands.
2024
Princess HarrisPrincess Harris is the Sustainable Food & Land Use Senior Coordinator for Faith in Place, a Chicago-based organization devoted to empowering people of diverse faiths to advance environmental and racial justice. She manages the organization’s “Migration & Me” story circles, nature outings and other related programs. She has worked on and managed an inner-city farm and farmers market and understands the importance of having access to fresh fruits and vegetables.
Read Princess’s story from her monarch butterfly migration adventure.
Stacey Leffler
Stacey Leffler is a science teacher at Timberstone Junior High School in Sylvania, Ohio. Passionate about endangered species—and monarch butterflies in particular—she integrates monarch biology into her classroom by teaching students about the significance of milkweed in the butterfly’s life cycle, along with the importance of pollinators. She has also helped spearhead a partnership with Ohio’s Toledo Zoo to add a prairie plot to its property to aid migrating monarch butterflies.
Read Stacey’s story from her monarch butterfly migration adventure.
Monarch Butterfly Scholarship Grant
