Folger Award

Central Middle School Teacher, Mindy Summers, receives 2024 Edna V. Folger Outstanding Teacher Award

Mindy Summers of Central Middle School received the 2024 Edna V. Folger Outstanding Teacher Award during a special presentation at the school on March 27, 2024. Summers will also be recognized during the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting on April 2 and at the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation Board Meeting on April 15.

Summers teaches seventh and eighth grade Language Arts, is the CMS Yearbook and Speech Club Advisor, and coaches the Spell Bowl Team and the Academic Super Bowl Interdisciplinary Team. CMS teams consistently rank among the top across the region. Summers encourages her students to enter local, state, and national writing and poetry competitions to showcase their talents and even win scholarship awards.

Summers is passionately dedicated to the teaching profession and often leads professional development for her colleagues. She is committed to making a difference in the lives of her students and encouraging all those around her to be a better version of themselves.

Summers meets her students where they are – designing a safe, rigorous learning environment with attainable expectations. She encourages her students to become expert learners as they track evidence of their academic growth over time.

Former student, Grace Wang, referred to Summers as a role model who showed Grace the power of storytelling and self-expression. Wang noted that Summers has unlimited passion and energy and “teaches beautifully” giving her students a piece of her heart with each lesson. Wang said, “Ms. Summers helps shape the hearts of her middle school students – helping to grow real, authentic writers who develop a passion for the craft and a devotion to the art form. As a middle school student beginning to mature socially and academically, having a role model like Ms. Summers to tirelessly guide me through so many experiences was invaluable. She helped me find the pathway to become a published writer, a nationally awarded poet, and a student at Harvard.”

As part of this recognition, Ms. Summers received a monetary gift from SIHO Insurance Services; an inscribed clock from the IU Columbus Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL); and her name will be added to a permanent plaque in the Columbus Learning Center which lists all previous Folger Award winners.

About the Award

Edna Folger set the early standard for teachers. In her honor, Arvin Foundation originally established the award, which was designed to raise awareness about the immeasurable influence teachers have on their students and to recognize the image of teachers as important community role models.

Sponsored by SIHO Insurance Services, the Community Education Coalition, and the IU Columbus Center for Teaching and Learning, the award includes a stipend and a personal

award from the Center for Teaching and Learning. The recipient’s name will be added to a permanent plaque located in the Columbus Learning Center. Any full-time, elementary, or secondary teacher or educator working in a Bartholomew County public, private, or parochial school is eligible to receive the annual award. Classroom, special education, or specials teachers; certified educators; counselors; and administrators are all eligible.

For more information about the Edna Folger Outstanding Teacher Award, contact Marsha VanNahmen at the IU Columbus Center for Teaching and Learning via email at mvannahm@iu.edu or by phone: 812-375-7576.