A 12th grade English teacher in Prince George’s County won a global teaching prize Wednesday worth $1 million, one of the biggest awards for educators worldwide.

Keishia Thorpe is a Howard University graduate and a 17-year teaching veteran. A teacher at the International High School Langley Park, she received the Global Teacher Prize, awarded by the Varkey Foundation and presented this year at the Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in Paris.  Thorpe was selected from a pool of more than 8,000 applicants from 121 countries. She works in a school with mostly immigrant and refugee students; more than 85% are Hispanic and 95% identify as low-income.

In her virtual acceptance speech Wednesday afternoon, Thorpe said the prize was for her students.

“Education is a human right and all children should be entitled to have access to it. So this recognition is not just about me, but about all the dreamers who work so hard and dare to dream of ending generational poverty,” she said. “We must ensure all students have the opportunity to succeed and no laws or policies should strip them of that.”

In an interview with Fox5 last month when Thorpe made the top 10 list of candidates for the prize, she said she intends to use the money to help her immigrant and refugee students.

“Most of them are very smart, they finish their four years of high school and it’s unfortunate that they’re unable to move forward in terms of receiving a college level education,” Thorpe explained. “So I’d really like to dive into some of those policies, some of those policies that can make my students successful.”

She added, she hopes she can be a part of her students’ “American dream story.”

The prize has been awarded annually by the Varkey Foundation, a London-based philanthropic organization, in partnership with UNESCO, to acknowledge the impact of teachers on their students and communities. Irina Bokova, former director general of UNESCO, congratulated Thorpe on her win.

“Thorpe’s story has so much to tell us about the need for courage and sacrifice in the face of adversity, but most of all the importance of education and teachers,” Bokova said in a video.

Thorpe is originally from Jamaica and won a track-and-field scholarship with her twin sister to attend Howard University in the United States. She graduated in 2003 with a degree in English and pre-law.

She said in her finalist video in October that at Howard she “witnessed and experienced the transformative power of education and how it has allowed children of color to realize they too can be successful in society.”

In 2005, Thorpe and her sister founded the U.S. Elite International Track and Field, Inc., a nonprofit organization that helps high school and college students seek scholarship opportunities.  As a teacher at the International High School, Thorpe was tasked with revamping the 12th-grade English curriculum to give it a “global perspective and culturally responsive lens,” as she told the Washington Post.

Thorpe is the second American to win the prize. The first was Nancie Atwell, the founder of the Center for Teaching and Learning in Maine.