At the Edison Park Creative and Expressive Arts school in Fort Myers, there’s a rich history.
Not just with the building itself, but also with some of those who teach inside it.
“This school creates confidence,” fourth-grade math teacher Kelsey Olsen said. “This school creates intellectual abilities. This school brings out the best in every single kid.”
Olsen would know. Long before she taught at the school, she learned there.
It was at Edison Park, as a student, when Olsen first dreamt of becoming a teacher.
While she started her career as an educator in Lehigh Acres, the hope was always to come back to where it all began.
That hope was only strengthened amid a personal struggle.
“I didn't know if I was able to have children. I had struggles with it. I had lost a few,” Olsen explained. “When I had my daughter, I made a determined, I set forth to make sure that I was back here so that my daughter could also experience the wonderful school her mom experienced.”
Olsen has now been teaching at Edison Park for three years, sharing not only her passion for math but also her passion for chess.
“It teaches kids so much more than just moving pieces on a board,” she said. “It teaches them so many skills they can use for life, and critical thinking skills they can use in the classroom.”
In just a small amount of time, Olsen has already made a big impact.
“Who you see is what you get with her. She's real,” Sherri Wipf, the principal at Edison Park Creative & Expressive Arts, said of Olsen. “She loves her kids, she loves math. Math is her world. Chess is her world. And I think her passion just comes out in her ability and her teaching."
“She’s an amazing math teacher, but she's not only that. She's, like, really kind and sweet,” fourth-grade student Caroline Kaye added.
For Olsen, to earn a Golden Apple at Edison Park, of all places, is the greatest honor possible.
“I'm so happy to bring it back to Edison Park. Cause this school deserves all the awards, all the things, all the recognition,” she said.