Knoxville High School math teacher Matt Heston has advanced to the semifinals of the “America’s Favorite Teacher” contest.

Voting for this round is underway and will last until April 24th at 9:00 pm. If Heston keeps securing enough votes he can potentially move onto the finals round with the grand prize winner being announced on May 31st. Heston has a profile for the contest in which he says he wanted to become a teacher because of his eighth grade math teacher Mr. Moore. Heston states his most memorable teaching experience is seeing his students go into education and be successful and that it is fulfilling to see them take strategies they learned from him and use them in their own classrooms.

The winner of the America’s Favorite Teacher contest will receive $25,000, a feature in Readers Digest, a trip to Hawaii and a school assembly with Bill Nye. To vote for Heston or to read more about him on his profile, find a link here.