“ There’ s absolutely no question that our West Virginia teachers care and are doing an extraordinary job,” says Chad Prather, president of Huntington Bank’ s West Virginia region.“ They are essential to shaping West Virginia’ s future leaders, which is why Huntington is proud to help provide this meaningful experience.”
In May, West Virginia educators from Kanawha, Wayne and Harrison counties traveled to Charleston to hear Clark speak at an Ignite the Classroom event. To their surprise, many learned they were chosen as scholarship recipients who would soon be boarding flights to Atlanta for the RCA.
“ When we made that announcement, the atmosphere was like watching kids on Christmas morning,” Prather says.“ There were so many hugs, thank yous, tears— you name it. That’ s how excited our educators were and still are. In my professional career, I’ ve never experienced anything quite like it.”
At RCA, visiting teachers watch real classrooms in action, learn practical strategies and receive ongoing support to make those strategies stick. To maximize impact, the academy recommends at least six educators from each school attend, including at least one administrator, so the energy and methods are present throughout an entire school.
Kanawha County Schools Superintendent Paula Potter attended RCA with her team and says the training was unlike anything her district had ever seen.
“ The biggest takeaway from this type of opportunity is that it was a motivational professional development opportunity that can be implemented immediately,” she says.“ It’ s not a program or a curriculum to follow. There’ s nothing to purchase. It’ s how you should be doing business in your classrooms. It gave our teachers the motivation to evaluate what they’ re currently doing and step it up a notch and to make education more engaging and rigorous and increase learning expectations for all students.”
Potter says without Huntington Bank’ s support, the district would never have been able to afford sending such a large group.
“ Our people were treated like professionals, and we saw businesses wanting to work with us to make our community better. It has been more rewarding than you can imagine,” she says.
For Huntington Bank, the trip to Atlanta is more than just a training.
“ This an opportunity for us to love on educators,” says Christina Brown, Huntington Bank’ s national director of Ignite the Classroom.“ We cover all expenses— the flight, incidentals, food, a fun excursion— everything you can think of. This isn’ t one and done for us. We continue working with the teachers, including providing follow-up support when they return from Atlanta.”
Potter says Kanawha County teachers and administrators are already implementing what they learned, and the shift is noticeable.
“ Most of the strategies learned at RCA are strategies any teacher can use,” she says.“ We think of it as teaching kids to also be decent humans and setting high expectations for our children.”
That idea of setting the bar high and lifting every child to meet it is central to Clark’ s philosophy.
“ One of Ron’ s messages is teaching to the top student and developing strategies and practices to increase performance of the students not performing at that level,” Potter says.“ Our teachers heard that loud and clear. This is now our approach on a county level, K-12, so we are addressing the highest student and bringing everyone else up to their level.”
West Virginia’ s second group of educators will attend RCA for their training in summer 2026.
“ We’ re fully invested in this initiative,” Prather says.“ Huntington and our partners want every child educated in West Virginia to have the opportunity to perform to the best of their abilities. We believe that Ignite the Classroom and RCA will help all kids have that chance.”
At the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce’ s annual Business Summit in August 2025, Prather shared that Huntington Bank would ultimately like to send every eligible fourth through seventh grade West Virginia educator to RCA.
“ One unique aspect of this initiative is the synergy it is creating between the business and education communities,” Prather says.“ Whether you’ re a small business owner or CEO of a billion-dollar company, the quality of education our kids receive will directly impact your business. Yet, traditionally, many businesses don’ t always lean into education. We see this partnership as a way for not only Huntington Bank but the entire business community to step up and say,‘ We’ re here. We need each other. How can we help?’” •
West Virginia teachers visiting the Ron Clark Academy.