Michael Aw was chosen as the 2008 Milken Fellow by the Lowell Milken Center in Fort Scott, KS. He will serve the Fellowship in the summer of 2008. The Lowell Milken Center (LMC) Fellowship will be awarded each year on the basis of merit to those educators who have distinguished themselves in teaching understanding and respect through project-based learning.

Michael is a sixth grade teacher at the Memorial Elementary School in Hopedale, Massachusetts. Michael is a 2004 recipient of the Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award. Michael immigrated to the United States from Burma at the age of thirteen, speaking very little English. He made his way through the New York City Public Schools and went on to the State University of New York at Buffalo and Framingham State College to become a teacher. Michael received a Masters Degree in Education from Leslie University in 2001. After the tragic events of 9/11, Michael heeded the call to service and went to the Police Academy and became an Auxiliary Police Officer. Recently, Michael received a President’s Volunteer Service Award. He coordinates students in the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration. He is an avid practitioner of yoga who enjoys practicing yoga with his wife Caroline, cooking, and bike riding. This summer, Michael will be riding in his eleventh Pan Massachusetts Challenge, a 200 mile bike ride to raise money for the Jimmy Fund/Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

Michael’s Superintendent of Schools says, “Michael is one in a million. Were I dropped on a planet with nine other people to start a school or civilization, I would want Michael on my team.”