Celebrating Laura Nietzer

Laura NietzerMY HERO

Laura Nietzer is an incredible educator and long-time friend and participant in The MY HERO Project. For the last six years she has served as our Director of Education Outreach—managing the MY HERO Global Learning Circle, curating lesson plans and other valuable resources in our Teacher’s Room, and overseeing the art gallery and contests. As Laura begins her retirement, MY HERO wish to celebrate Laura and her invaluable contributions over the last sixteen years.

Laura began using MY HERO in her classroom through iEARN (International Educators and Resources Network). The first project she did was the MY HERO Learning Circle, an annual multimedia project in which students from classrooms across the globe share their heroes through stories, art, and short films. Keen to implement more iEARN projects into her teaching, Laura started teaching sixth graders so she could teach more subjects like geography. Laura told MY HERO

It puts you in touch with a small circle of schools - it's all about getting to know each other and then sharing our stories, our heroes together. One student in Morocco did a really great hero story about his donkey. To learn that someone across the world finds a donkey heroic for what it does for his village - for my students, that's eye-opening.

As part of the Learning Circle, Laura had her students write essays about their chosen heroes. One of her students, Emmy Glick, wrote her essay on her dad, Jeremy Glick, who was on one of the four planes that was hijacked on September 11^th, 2001. Jeremy had attended Emmy’s school (the school Laura was teaching at), Saddle River Day school.

Inspired by Emmy’s story and after learning more about 9/11, Laura's class decided they wanted to do something in Jeremy's honor. When a devastating earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, they realized that they could fundraise for those affected in Jeremy’s name and asked Jeremy’s Heroes - the nonprofit set up by Jeremy’s sister Jen - to join them. The class also made a film about their efforts called Call to Action, with the help of MY HERO. Laura explained

MY HERO sent us a camera and mic, put me in touch with Skip Blumberg and he taught us how to use the equipment. A lot of the film was done the day Skip was there. He really worked well with the students, filming interviews and teaching them how to set everything up. Shooting, sound, etc.

Laura spent many of her years as a teacher sharing MY HERO with others, particularly as she attended International Education Conferences with iEARN in various countries around the world. In 2019, Laura joined the MY HERO staff as our Director of Education Outreach and started running the MY HERO Learning Circle. She also managed MY HERO’s art gallery and contests, as well as curating lesson plans and resources in the Teacher’s Room on a vast array of subjects for various grade levels.

Over the years, Laura’s work has impacted students from across the USA and in China, Taiwan, Sierra Leone, Moldova, Ukraine, Poland, Azerbaijan, Romania, Iran, Senegal, Hong Kong, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Botswana, Uganda, Kenya, Russia, France, England, Morocco, Algeria, Slovenia, and Poland. All of us at MY HERO are incredibly grateful to Laura for her unwavering dedication and support and wish her the very best as she begins her retirement. On her time at MY HERO, Laura said

Upon discovering MY HERO in 2009, I was immediately inspired by their mission and knew I had to incorporate it into my curriculum. Teaching students to distinguish between celebrities and true heroes, emphasizing that heroism is not about fame but about making a meaningful difference in the lives of others, is invaluable. Having the opportunity to work with teachers and students around the world as MY HERO Education Outreach Director during my last six years as an educator was an incredibly special experience, one I will always cherish.