7 “A New Way to Teaching” alumni were included in this year’s education category of Darik Radio’s 40 Under 40

Three individual Teach For Bulgaria alumni and a team nomination were awarded for their work in the education category of Darik Radio’s 8th annual edition of 40 Under 40. The alumni who made this year’s cut and were included in Darik Radio’s leadership and innovations ranking are:

• Ivelina Pashova, Head of Teach For Bulgaria’s program “Model Schools” and former participant in the first class of “A New Way to Teaching”;
• Maria Ivanova (class of 2013-2015), vice principal and Bulgarian language and literature teacher at Private Secondary School “Tsar Simeon the Great”;
• Ivan Dragomirov (class of 2018-2020), the teacher who created a Minecraft version of his school during the first lockdown;
• Plamnina Foundation – Elena Tatarova, Marin-Asen Kodzhaivanov, Yanko Morunov, Maria Velazques.

Darik Radio’s ranking also includes the names of 36 other young Bulgarians under 40 years of age whose work and ideas are changing our society for the better. 

The new 40 Under 40 were announced today, April 7, on Darik Radio’s website. The list of names includes popular young leaders from 13 different professional areas. Over 185 nominations were submitted. The final selection was made by a jury whose members are distinguished professionals from the business, NGO, and media sectors. 

The jury looked for answers to the following questions: Did the nominee have any actual added value to our society? Does the nominee provide a unique perspective? Has the nominee helped anyone in need? Has the nominee made any breakthroughs in their area of expertise? Has the nominee created a product that adds value to our lives? Are the nominee’s ideas sustainable? Would we be interested in listening to their story? Would their story impress or inspire us?

Many people from Teach For Bulgaria’s community have been awarded throughout the years: founder of Teach For Bulgaria and chairperson of the board of directors Evgenia Peeva-Kirova (2013), CEO of Teach For Bulgaria Trayan Trayanov (2015), and Teach For Bulgaria alumni Emilian Kadiyski (2016), Stanimira Hristova (2016), Rosen Bogomilov (2017), Velizar Stefanov (2017), Evgeniy Dimitrov (2017), Tomislav Rashkov (2018), Radostina Boycheva (2019), Blazhka Dimitrova (2019), Daniel Simeonov (2019), School Miracles (2019).