COLUMBUS, Ind. – Mindy Summers of Central Middle School received the 2024 Edna V. Folger Outstanding Teacher Award during a special presentation at the school on Wednesday, March 27. Summers will also be recognized during the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting on Tuesday, April 2.
Summers teaches seventh- and eighth-grade Language Arts, is the CMS Yearbook and Speech Club Advisor, and coaches the Spell Bowl and Academic Super Bowl Interdisciplinary Teams. CMS teams consistently rank among the top across the region. She encourages her students to enter local, state, and national writing and poetry competitions to showcase their talents and even win scholarship awards.
Grace Wang, a former student, referred to Summers as a role model who showed her the power of storytelling and self-expression. Wang noted that Summers has unlimited passion and is someone who “teaches beautifully” giving her students a piece of her heart with each lesson. ” 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, 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 that lists all previous Folger Award winners.