Teacher Nicole Bollerman is a guest on the Ellen network television show.

A third-grade teacher at the UP Academy Charter School and a South Boston resident, Bollerman had won an essay contest a month earlier and donated the entire $150,000 prize to the school. On the show, linked live to the students in her classroom in Boston, host Ellen DeGeneres presents the teacher with a $25,000 check, backpacks of school supplies and a $100 gift card for each of her students, and $500 gift cards for each of 70 other teachers at the school.