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Hancock Whitney, GCCF Award 10 Leo Seal Teacher Grants for 2025

Outstanding Mississippi teachers honored for teaching excellence, creativity 

For the 29th year, some of Mississippi’s most accomplished, creative teachers have received Leo W. Seal Innovative Teacher Grants for their commitment to educational excellence and to pay for original teaching projects designed to enrich students’ education with hands-on learning opportunities.

Funded by Hancock Whitney and administered by the Gulf Coast Community Foundation (GCCF), the Seal grants recognize exceptional dedication to teaching and fund teaching proposals that enhance students’ educational experiences and support state curriculum at K-12 schools in the eight Mississippi counties Hancock Whitney serves — Forrest, Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, Jefferson Davis, Lamar, Madison, and Pearl River.

Teachers earning one-time Seal grants for 2025 are Wendy Diane Chambers, Woolmarket Elementary School; Lamar D. Estis, Ocean Springs Upper Elementary School; Johnette Garcia, West Wortham Elementary School in Saucier; Christopher Gleason, Purvis High School; Richard A. Humphreys, St. Martin High School; Cecil Murphy, Ocean Springs High School; Scott Thomas Nelson, East Central Middle School in Moss Point; Bethany Seal, West Harrison High School in Gulfport; Lucretia Simpson, Lighthouse Academy for Dyslexia in Ocean Springs; and Erica D. Wilson, Singing River Academy in Gautier.

“At Hancock Whitney, we’ve embraced our founding mission to help people achieve their financial goals and dreams since our charter was established more than 125 years ago. Creating and funding the Leo W. Seal Innovative Teacher Grants program has enabled us to encourage and reward educational excellence and commitment to creative learning among outstanding teachers preparing students to pursue and realize their own dreams. We extend our heartiest congratulations and heartfelt gratitude to the 2025 Seal grant winners,” said Hancock Whitney President and CEO John M. Hairston.

Each Seal grant recipient receives up to $2,000 to activate their award-winning teaching initiative at their school. The 2025 grant recipients share insights about their commitment to teaching at https://videos.hancockwhitney.com/watch/pPd8HsmgZJJafbofwiMwe3?.

 

More about the Seal Grants

Hancock Whitney established the Leo W. Seal Innovative Teacher Grants in 1994 as a permanent endowment of the Gulf Coast Community Foundation Pat Santucci Friends of Public Education Program. GCCF and Hancock Whitney awarded the first grants in 1996. GCCF manages the grants and selection of winners by an independent committee not affiliated with Hancock Whitney.

Additionally, the program pays tribute to the legacies of the late Leo W. Seal, Sr., Hancock Whitney’s president from 1932 to 1963, and his son, the late Leo W. Seal, Jr., the company’s chief executive for 45 years. During their lives, both men championed countless educational and economic growth opportunities across the Gulf Coast.

Hancock Whitney and GCCF will announce availability of online applications for 2026 grants this summer.

 

The 2025 Winners

Wendy Chambers

 

Wendy Diane Chambers
Woolmarket Elementary School
Brighter Days with Our Renewable Ways

In a collaborative science learning experience, second through sixth grade gifted students harness the power of the sun to explore and comprehend alternative energy sources by using shoeboxes to build solar-powered ovens (and cook S’mores!); construct mini solar-powered homes grouped in an energy efficient village setting; and planting small gardens in the village to demonstrate community self-sufficiency and sustainability.

Lamar Estis

 

Lamar D. Estis
Ocean Springs Upper Elementary School
Gardening through STEM: Educational Gardens for STEM Learning and Health Benefits

Pioneering a larger scale teaching garden program in the district, approximately 400 fourth through sixth grade gifted students grow their minds while growing outdoor educational gardens, working in teams to compost, cultivate indigenous plants, observe pollinators, and harvest as they learn scientific inquiry and data analysis and build a better understanding of ecological systems, environmental stewardship, and food cycles.

Johnette Garcia

 

Johnette Garcia
West Wortham Elementary & Middle School
Washed Out Watershed

Approximately 100 fifth grade science students will study familiar real-world nature scenarios and indigenous wildlife to garner a base understanding of human impacts on the environment while building a broader vocabulary with words such as extinct, endangered, pollution, and run-off and a better comprehension of how important awareness, activism, and individual and community commitment can be in protecting nature and preserving natural resources.

Christopher Gleason

 

Christopher Gleason
Purvis High School
Mindful Moments: Creating a Wellness Space for Student Mental Health

A calming wellness space featuring ambience and resources conducive to mindfulness and meditation provides all students a dedicated safe haven in which to develop crucial social-emotional skills, manage stress, reduce anxiety, and improve overall mental well-being and to practice staff-led yoga and mindfulness sessions supporting increased academic performance, decreased behavioral issues, and the school’s commitment to nurturing the whole student — mind, body, and spirit.

Richard Humphreys

 

Richard A. Humphreys
St. Martin High School
Don’t Be Bored, Play Chess

After creating their own chess sets with a 3D printer, second-year engineering students put into play highly desirable 21st century skills for success such as communication, critical and creative thinking, collaboration, problem-solving, strategic planning, concentration, time management, tenacity, sportsmanship, and socialization as they learn, play, and teach to middle and elementary school students the time-honored “Game of Kings.”

Cecil Murphy

 

Cecil Murphy
Ocean Springs High School
STEMulure

In today’s screen-and-scroll obsessed age, high school students use the advanced technology of 3D scanners and printers and their own ingenuity to disconnect from personal devices and reconnect with people and nature as they design, create, and test functioning fishing lures, with feedback from and relationship-building interaction with family, friends, and community members who use and evaluate the students’ fishing lures for further refinements.

Scott Nelson

 

Scott Thomas Nelson
East Central Middle School
It’s Raining Hydroponics

Middle school students put into practice key Mississippi state science objectives, discover the importance of environmental stewardship, and answer the age-old question “Why do I have to learn this?” as they dive into a water reclamation project that entails monitoring the basic chemistry of rainwater, using the rainwater to nourish a hydroponic garden, and preparing an informational guide for their community about rainwater collection.

Bethany Seal

 

Bethany Seal
West Harrison High School
Graphic Novels: Embracing Literary Visuals & Creating Our Own to Teach Historic Texts

By pairing classic texts with their own graphic novel versions of those literary standards, 10th grade English students embrace classic works of literature through the visual imagery of illustrated novels they create; master speaking and listening, language, writing, and analytical standards to understand better theme, character developments, text structure, word choice, figurative language, tone, and rhetoric; and establish a graphic novel library to help future students learn.

Lucretia Simpson

 

Lucretia Simpson
Lighthouse Academy for Dyslexia
Harmonizing Strengths: Dyslexic Students in Music Production

Students in first through sixth grades who have been diagnosed with dyslexia demonstrate creativity and problem-solving, build confidence, support the arts, promote dyslexia awareness, and showcase their talents as they collaborate with music industry professionals to write and produce a song charted and recorded by musicians in Nashville, Tennessee, for public release to audiences in the United States and international streaming platforms.

Erica Wilson

 

Erica D. Wilson
Singing River Academy
WobbleBot Wonders

Fostering critical thinking, creativity, inclusivity, collaboration, robotics skills, and a basic understanding of kinetic energy and balance, robots built by fifth grade science students help young people learn multiple STEM disciplines, including coding, engineering design, and data analysis, as well as art, history, and social sciences, while reinforcing the real-world relevance of robots in helping solve community environmental issues such as waste sorting and water purification.


About Hancock Whitney

Since the late 1800s, Hancock Whitney has embodied core values of Honor & Integrity, Strength & Stability, and Commitment to Service, Teamwork, and Personal Responsibility. Hancock Whitney offices and financial centers in Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas offer comprehensive financial products and services, including traditional and online banking; commercial and small business banking; private banking; trust and investment services; healthcare banking; and mortgage services. The company also operates combined loan and deposit production offices in the greater metropolitan areas of Nashville, Tennessee, and Atlanta, Georgia. More information is available at www.hancockwhitney.com.