KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It's Nickalas Collins' fourth year teaching, and second year at Kansas City Public Schools' Lincoln College Preparatory Academy Middle School.
He's making sure students are learning, while also having fun during a time when education has been tested.
"Unfortunately with Covid, it's forced a lot of our kids to grow up quickly," Collins said. "And even though they've grown up this quickly, they are still the same stigma, stereotype, the same type of pressures that exist even if Covid wasn't around; Covid just accelerated that and just put a magnifying glass on some of those issues."
It's one of the reasons why he's been sharing some of his passions with his students, such as gardening.
"I'm kind of the plant guy around school and then my administrator was like, 'hey, why don't you make this a club, kids have been talking about this,' and I'm like 'sure,'" Collins said.
More than 35 students showed interest.
"It became a release for them to also go outside and have some fun, have some ownership and this little idea turned into a full fledged club," Collins said. "In the summer, it was beautiful. We had 10, 11 foot sunflowers, we had tomatoes. We had pumpkins and cantaloupes that had completely taken over the space and it was great."
Collins also helped form the Latinx club at the middle school.
"It was a niche that needed to be filled. Here at Lincoln, about 35% of our population is Hispanic and we were talking and we were just looking at, where do these students have to go get these resources, to get support, to really have that safe space where they can share about their experiences, their shared experiences and about where the stereotypes of the culture is and how do we address that?"
His lessons for students are impacting those in his classroom, but outside his classroom, Collins' colleagues say he's not only an incredible educator, but great co-worker and friend.
Others are also recognizing the hard work he does, including his mom.
"His passion was to be a teacher, to be in front of students, to cultivate young minds, to make a difference and an impact that way," his mother, CiCi Rojas, said.
It's one of the reasons she wanted to nominate her son for the award.
"Instead of birthdays or whatever, you know, he asked his friends and family to fund whatever initiative, whether it's school supplies or whatever it is that's going to make it a positive impact for his students in his classroom," Rojas said.
Collins isn't just showing for his students, but his family as well. When Rojas received a cancer diagnosis, her doctors stated she needed a bone marrow transplant. Her son, Nickalas, was her donor.
After receiving the $500 award, Collins said he will split the money evenly between the gardening club and the Latinx club.
To nominate an educator you believe is deserving, click here.
