CHCCS teacher named finalist for statewide teacher recognition

Lauren Oliver said most of her teachers growing up would be shocked if they found out she's a teacher now. 

Oliver, an eighth grade English teacher at Culbreth Middle School, said she struggled with social anxiety all throughout elementary school — causing her parents to drive 40 minutes to sit with her at lunch once a week. 

Now, at 25 years old, Oliver was a finalist for the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching 2025 Burroughs Wellcome Fund NC Beginning Teacher of the Year Award. She joined 26 other state-wide finalists who were recognized for their dedication, innovation and ability to inspire students to succeed. Summer Espinosa, a kindergarten teacher at W.R. Odell Primary School in Cabarrus County Schools, won the award. 

In 2024, Lauren Oliver was announced as Chapel Hill-Carrboro Promising New Teacher of the Year. 

“Secretly, I always wanted to be a teacher. When I was at home I would play school, but no one would ever know,” Oliver said.

Oliver said her high school English teachers inspired her to pursue a career in education.

Oliver studied Toni Morrison’s novel “Home"her junior year of high school. She said reading the book, whose protagonist is an African American veteran in the Korean War, caused her to question her privilege as a white woman for the first time.

“Reading that book and having that teacher at that time really inspired me to want to go into education and share other people's perspectives, specifically through English classes and through literature,” Oliver said.

Now in her second year teaching at CMS, Oliver focuses on community projects connecting the middle school with different cultures. In conjunction with the immigration focus in the students’ social studies class, Oliver organized a panel of recent U.S. immigrants from Carrboro High School to share their experiences.

CMS Principal Luke Paulsen said what sets Oliver apart from other beginning teachers is that she is willing to take risks. 

 “She does such a phenomenal job of building relationships with kids,” Paulsen said. 

Every Thursday during lunch break, Oliver runs a creative writing club. The club has more than 30 eighth graders now and was founded last year.  She said she hopes to host a creative writing showcase this spring, where community members could see the students' work.

Oliver also coaches varsity women’s lacrosse and field hockey at East Chapel Hill High School. She said that last year, she went into the school nearly every Saturday to finish grading and other work. 

Eighth grade CMS ELA teacher Matt Hayes said Oliver is always looking for ways to make language arts experiential. Oliver has hosted a Jane Austen tea party for students and decorated her classroom with foliage and candles when students were learning Shakespeare’s "A Midsummer Night’s Dream." 

Matt Cone, a CMS teacher and Oliver's former mentor, said that Oliver wants to provide a calm space for her students to help them learn about themselves and the world through their writing. 

Oliver said that she has eyes for the shy students, sharing her own school experiences to encourage them to participate in group projects. One student emailed the teacher with a novel that they had written. 

“In a non-cheesy, non-Hollywood way, she’s straight up changing some students’ lives,” Cone said.

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