Photos   All Photos

Ben Nguyen Wins Milken Award in Las Vegas

 

 

Holding his oversized Milken Educator Award check, Ben Nguyen talks with a student after his surprise notification. Sunrise Mountain is a high-transience, high-poverty school, and Ben makes a point of recruiting at-risk students to join his programs. Driven and dedicated to the young people he teaches, Ben paints a picture of their future success and helps them believe in their ability to achieve it. SMHS graduates have gone on to study manufacturing, automation and computer science; a handful now hold skilled labor jobs at Tesla. In the five years Ben has taught at SMHS, the school’s graduation rate has risen from 34% to 94%, with Ben's efforts earning significant credit.