GREENSBORO, N.C. — Northern Guilford High School's very own Leah Carper is the 2002 Burroughs Wellcome Fund North Carolina Teacher of the Year.
On Friday, the school held a surprise assembly for her crowning moment with help from the drumline and her fellow sophomore teachers.
The English teacher is a Triad native who has been teaching since 2006.
She said she always knew she wanted to be a teacher.
"When I was six-years-old I taught my little brother how to read and he was three. I remember very specifically the feeling of knowing I helped someone achieve something. t felt amazing and I wanted to continue to feel that," Carper said.
She said it's the students that make her want to come back everyday to the classroom.
"The thing I look forward to the most everyday is the smile on my student's faces, the interaction I can have with them and then hope that something I say sparks something inside of them that they'll remember," Carper said.
She said she wants to be able to reach every kid that sits in her class.
"Kids need to know that there are people in this world that care about them and want to see them be successful, who are here to help them become successful and who are rooting for them," Carper said.
Carper first won the title of Northern Guilford's teacher of the year before going on to win the district and regional titles.
As teacher of the year she will spend the next school years traveling the state as an ambassador for teachers. She also gets a handful of prizes including more than $8,000 in cash and a trip to the International Space Camp.
"Imposter syndrome creeps in, of course. I feel grateful. I feel blessed. I feel shocked. I feel humbled, but its mostly grateful. To be the teacher of the year for over a 100,000 educators in NC, to be the teacher of the year for the 1.5 million public school students in NC... So humbling," Carper said.
Carper said as an ambassador she hopes to bring perspective to those who make decisions about education.