Carolyn Brown, a teacher that has been teaching at Notre Dame Academy for 28 years, has been nominated to receive a Golden Apple Award. 

“I’m honored, especially because of the company I keep here–an awesome faculty with everyone doing so much beyond the classroom expectations,” said Brown. 

The Golden Apple is an award given to teachers who go above and beyond their job expectations and impact their students’ lives in positive ways. 

Mrs. Brown didn’t originally plan on becoming a teacher but actually went to college with journalistic intentions. 

“I had been very involved with my school newspaper, wrote for the local paper, and was a ‘stringer’ for two big-city newspapers. In college I enjoyed the reporting, but journalism people at college weren’t my kind of people,” explained the NDA journalism teacher and newspaper adviser.

Instead, Brown was inspired to teach by her sophomore literature teacher at Texas Tech.

“Her name was Dr. Brewer, and people would come to our classroom and stand along the walls to listen to her teach,” said the nominee.

This teacher affected the life of Brown and pointed her down the path she now walks. 

Now, either intentionally or unintentionally, she is doing the same thing to her students that Dr. Brewer did to her–inspiring others to continue with their passions and dreams.