Mandy Brown wins Golden Apple, after being nominated by more than 30 students

MAPLETON, Minn. (KEYC) - Mandy Brown, a teacher at Maple River Secondary School, received the Golden Apple Award on Wednesday, Mar. 25, after more than 30 high school students launched a campaign to nominate her.

Students like junior Claire Caven pushed for the nomination because of Brown’s ability to make connections with her students both inside and outside of the classroom.

“She tries to make sure you’re doing okay in her class, and if you’re struggling, she tries to pull out of class or she’ll sit next to you and make sure you’re doing well with your work,” Caven said.

Senior Maddie Ward said that Brown also makes a habit of talking about students’ extracurriculars and hobbies, checking in on how they’re doing.

Ward says Brown has frequently shown up for her basketball.

“If you look at her up in the stands, she’s cheering as loud as she can and she looks so happy to be there, and then you look at her in the classroom, she’s very concentrated on making us better,” Ward said.

Brown says she wasn’t expecting her students to launch a campaign like this.

After teaching speech, literature and writing for juniors and seniors for 19 years, she says her hands-on approach to teaching was inspired by her own high school experience.

“One of my favorite teachers in high school, Mr. Statde, who is still a history teacher [at] Butterfield, always made an effort to come to our activities and he’d ask us the next day, how did you do? How many points did you have? And that really made an impact on me,” Brown said.

Brown says she enjoys getting the chance to work with juniors and seniors as they get ready to make the transition into adulthood, so that she makes sure their high school experience is special and they are taking full advantage of the opportunities they have when they are young.

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