Voting for advancement to the Final 16 ends Thursday at 8 p.m. Nelson was ranked in first place among her group at various junctures Wednesday.

In addition to the title of “America’s Favorite Teacher,” the grand prize winner will be featured in Reader’s Digest and will take home a $25,000 prize and a trip to Maui. Additionally, they’ll earn the chance to host a virtual assembly with Bill Nye for their school.

“It’s kind of, I don’t know, ego-boosting, I guess, when parents from past students have seen that I’m doing this and are like, ‘I love her. My students still talk about her,'” Nelson told the Standard-Examiner of the contest experience. “So, it’s nice to see the community, even if they don’t know me, take the time to vote for me. It’s awesome.”

Nelson’s journey into teaching took an unconventional path. Inspired by her fifth grade teacher — who, as a principal, would go on to hire her as an aide — Nelson said her interest in education also grew during youth while she worked as a janitor at her old school.

“Being able to not only be around my teachers as a high school student and have them treat me a little bit differently; I mean, I’m still their student and they still love seeing me, but seeing them interact behind the scenes as people and what they have to do as teachers, I was like, ‘Man, it looks amazing. It looks like so much fun,'” she recalled.

That thought stuck with her through the years, even after she hit the pause button on her own education at Utah State University to start a family. In the end, though, she was compelled to chase down her dream, completing her degree online.

“I felt like my brain was turning to mush,” she joked. “So I was like, ‘I’m just going to try the online route’ and it ended up working out.”

Before making the move to Silver Ridge, Nelson’s first full-time teaching job was at Hooper Elementary. And while she’s now a teaching veteran, her experience this school year has been different as she’s teaching her favorite subject in a rotational format.

“I’m doing science and it has been so much fun,” she said. “I really feel like I have flourished in this whole experience because my students like seeing not only just my class, but my other two teammates’ classes. Hearing them say, like, ‘Science is my favorite subject,’ and ‘I love science, and I used to hate science,’ just hearing that makes it all worth it. I’m a huge geek and a huge nerd, so I love all things teaching and any time I introduce a new subject, I’m super energetic.”

Nelson said the most rewarding part of her job is seeing struggling students make progress.

“I get chills whenever I see them understand a concept … The light that comes on in their eyes,” she said. “Just those kids that are kind of the underdogs, I like them to feel like they have done something, and something they’re proud of.”

If she wins the contest, Nelson hopes to travel with her deputy sheriff husband and their five daughters. However, she also wants to stock up for her students.

“I would probably get more supplies for my classroom, because, man, I’ve had to pay for so many supplies this year,” Nelson said. “We were just lamenting today how many pencils we have gone through in one year. Like, where did all the pencils go? Where are all the dry-erase markers?”

Nelson’s America’s Favorite Teacher profile is viewable at https://americasfavteacher.org/2025/kristen-nelson/.