Maggie MacDonnell
Maggie MacDonnell is a Canadian teacher. In 2017, she won the Global Teacher Prize, an annual award presented by the Varkey Foundation that recognizes exceptional teachers who have made outstanding contributions to the profession. Maggie was awarded for her work in the Inuit community of Salluit, Quebec, an Inuit community of 1,000 people located in the Canadian Arctic and only accessible by air.
The community, like many Arctic communities, faces significant challenges. During her teaching career, Maggie took a holistic approach to education paying attention to academic achievement and students' emotional and physical well-being. Her work has resulted in improved school attendance, reduced teenage pregnancy rates and an increase in the number of young people from these communities applying to college and university.
Her initiatives include establishing a life skills program specifically for girls (which has seen a 500 per cent improvement in girls’ school attendance), a community kitchen including nutrition workshops and obtaining funding for an in-school nutrition program and creating a fitness centre, In addition, she has been a foster parent to some of her students. Maggie used the financial award from the Global Teacher Prize to establish the "Kuujjuaq Runs" project, a non-profit organization that emphasizes physical activity and engagement with the land, culture, and community as key components to learning for students and local youth in her community.