School-garden advocate a finalist for $1 million prize

CLAREMONT, N.Y. — A South Bronx teacher who founded a nonprofit with his students that has led to more than 100 community gardens at schools throughout New York City and helped combat health issues in the borough will fly to Dubai next month as one of 10 finalists for a $1 million teaching prize.

Stephen Ritz, who teaches science, math and literacy for kindergartners through fifth-graders at P.S. 55 on Saint Paul's Place, is a finalist for the Global Teacher Prize, which launched in March of 2014 and seeks to increase the prestige of teachers and award educators who are role models for the profession. It is often referred to as the "Nobel Prize for Teachers."

"It’s humbling, it’s flattering and it just speaks to the fact that this is our moment," Ritz said. "I’m blessed to work with some of the most inspirational teachers in the world. I don’t feel it’s about me. I feel it’s about us."

Ritz is well known for his Green Bronx Machine, a nonprofit he and his students started, which has installed gardens at schools throughout the city and focuses on green-jobs training and urban farming, aligning with his belief that learning how to garden is a helpful skill for kids to have.

"We believe that plant-based education is at the heart of stellar academic success, that if kids learn to grow food, plant food and eat healthy food, they can grow themselves," he said.

He described teaching students through having them work in the garden at P.S. 55 as an educational, fun and tasty way for them to learn.

"They keep data, they keep records, and then they get to eat it," he said. "How cool is that?"