South Bronx Educator Is Crowned PETA’s High School Teacher of the Year

For Immediate Release:
May 6, 2025

Contact:
Sara Groves 202-483-7382

To celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week (May 5–9), TeachKind—PETA’s humane education division—has named South Bronx Community Charter High School educator Dena Ferreira its 2025 High School Teacher of the Year for integrating compassion for animals throughout her lessons and inspiring her students to question the world around them.

At South Bronx Community Charter High School, Ferreira cultivates empathy through her impactful lessons, including her Food, Inc. unit, which uses the powerful documentary to encourage students to consider the lives of animals used for food by conducting research and analyzing their own food choices. As Ferreira likes to say, “Our brains are beautiful vessels waiting to be filled with knowledge!” Her curriculum, rooted in compassion for animals, has inspired many of her students: motivated by a writing prompt, one student penned a moving poem from a chicken’s point of view, while another crafted a compelling essay titled “Lost Lives,” about the cruelties of the meat industry.

Ferreira also shares delicious vegan treats with her school community—including baking plant-powered cupcakes for school celebrations—and she encourages colleagues to screen other impactful documentaries, such as Seaspiracy, that show how exploiting animals for food is detrimental to all species.

“Dena Ferreira’s life-changing lessons inspire her students to question norms, share eye-opening facts with their families, and make everyday choices that spare animals’ lives,” says PETA Vice President Marta Holmberg. “TeachKind’s High School Teacher of the Year deserves a round of applause for proving that compassion belongs in every classroom.”

A vegan since 2019, Ferreira decided to ditch meat, eggs, and dairy after coming across a video of a mother cow and her calf being cruelly separated—a standard practice in the dairy industry. 

“The cow moaned and cried for her calf, tears were in her eyes, and the calf fought desperately to get through the fence, but to no avail,” says Ferreira. “This resonated with me in a powerful way and forever changed the way I see animals and food.”

In addition to teaching at South Bronx Community Charter High School, Ferreira, a Harlem resident, enjoys writing, bike rides through the city, cooking delicious vegan dishes, and spending time with her two daughters and the family’s beloved rescue dog, Graham.

Ferreira will receive a framed certificate and a prize package of animal-friendly goodies, including an artisanal vegan cheese box from Rebel Cheese. TeachKind also plans to work with Ferreira throughout the year to help her develop ways to support other teachers in bringing similar lessons into their classrooms.

TeachKind—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit TeachKind.org or follow TeachKind on Facebook or Instagram.