JA Teacher and Two Alumni Nominated for Top Global Prizes

September 13, 2021

JA Worldwide is thrilled to announce the designation of Leonardo Durante, a JA teacher from “Enrico Fermi” Industrial Technical Institute, Rome, Italy, as a top 50 finalist for the Global Teacher Prize 2021, and JA Malaysia alumnus Howard Leong Yiq Zhenn and INJAZ Al-Arab alumnus Aya Yousef as top-50 finalists for the first Global Student Prize.

Spanning more than 110 countries, the JA network is made possible by the innovative teachers and volunteers who work with students across six regions. The Varkey Foundation has recognized JA teachers for the past three consecutive years, honoring them as finalists for the Global Teacher Prize, a prestigious award that recognizes the impact the world’s greatest teachers have had on their students and their communities and awards US$1 million to the winner.

Professor Leonardo Durante was selected from more than 8,000 nominations for this year’s Global Teacher Prize. An electronics engineer, Leonardo teaches Automatic Systems and Controls and is also a JA Entrepreneurial Lecturer through JA Italy. He has sparked passion for mathematics, electronics, computer science, and automation in students since 2015, utilizing learning-by-doing and problem-solving methods of teaching. He also teaches English and Spanish and facilitates student educational trips at home and abroad.

In 2021, the Varkey Foundation and Chegg.com announced the creation of the Global Student Prize, which acknowledges exceptional students who have made an impact on learning, the lives of their peers, and society. The winner of the Global Student Prize will receive US$100,000.

Howard Leong Yiq Zhenn is not only an alumnus of JA Malaysia, but also a former JA Worldwide Gather Reporter and the architect of the JAM Mall, a digital sales platform for JA Company Program students in Malaysia. As one of JA Worldwide’s first cohort Gather Reporters in 2020, Howard represented the JA Asia Pacific region to the world, presenting alumni news and opportunities to the global network on Gather, the JA global alumni community for JA students, who have developed employment and entrepreneurship skills through Junior Achievement, Young Enterprise, INJAZ, Impulsa, and many more locally resonant names.