LifeChanger of the Year Nominee Profile

Ashlee Larsen was nominated by her colleague, Kim Julander.

Ms. Larsen has been an educator at Monroe Elementary School in Monroe, Utah for over 17 years. She embodies the core belief of the Sevier School District to “Inspire the mind, create a passion for learning, and educate for success in life." Every day, she incorporates this motto into her teaching style with her students. She is a compassionate and caring teacher, not only with her students, but the entire student population at Monroe Elementary School.

When students say, "I don't know how to do this," or “I can't do this," Ms. Larsen would reply: "You do not know how to do this yet," or “I can not do this yet!" She always speaks positively about her students and others. Additionally, if a conflict arises, she holds a class discussion about what happened and what better choices could have been implemented to avoid the conflict.

When issues need to be addressed regarding a student's academic progress, she will discuss strategies with her team members to help find solutions to facilitate decreasing the gap in the student’s learning. Ms. Larsen also reaches out to parents to help them support and encourage their child’s learning at home.

Ms. Larsen listens intently to students when they have issues, whether it is at home or at school. She helps obtain resources for these students, and she will follow up to make sure their needs are being met. She is always happy and friendly to everyone, and she is a delight to work with.

Ms. Larsen has a passion for making sure that students in the school, as well as their families, have enough to eat. Ms. Larsen realizes the correlation between adequate nutrition and student success. Each year, Ms. Larsen helps motivate her class to donate to the local food bank. For this school year, Ms. Larsen’s class has already collected over 800 food items for the food bank! Moreover, for the past several years, Ms. Larsen’s class has donated the most food to the food bank!

Lastly, Ms. Larsen has a commitment to producing a nurturing atmosphere with the highest moral and ethical standards. Ms. Larsen instills in her students a desire to learn and ask questions to become critical thinkers.

"She is a passionate educator who demonstrates every day how important her students are to her and how much she cares about each and every student in her class," said Julander.