“Second Mom” Honored for Loving Her Students

SARA TRIGG P’22, ’24 WINS TEACHER OF THE YEAR

“Warm. “Kind.” “Nice.” “Best hugs. “Caring.” “Supportive.” “Special.”

These are the descriptions from Cushing students about Sara Trigg P’22, ’24, last year’s Teacher of the Year. A math instructor who also coaches volleyball and lacrosse, Trigg is quick to say she does not have any magical math abilities. What makes her teaching special is that she builds real relationships with students and cares about them as people.

“Ms. Trigg is one of the most genuinely warm humans I have ever met,” wrote one of the students who voted for her. “She is endlessly kind and thoughtful. She roots for her students [and] she wants them to succeed. I have never had her as a teacher, only a coach, but every time I see her outside of the season she provides a massive hug and keeps up with how we are all doing and what we are up to. No one deserves this more than her.”

Knowing students deeply is at the heart of how Trigg engages. “One of the things that I love most about boarding school is you get the whole person and you get to work to develop the whole person,” she says. “I love coaching, I love teaching, I love the all-encompassing nature of boarding schools, and Cushing Academy just has been such a great fit for me because Cushing’s community values just really match mine. I’m not a real flashy person, but I’m just someone who’s sort of based in love and caring, and respecting every individual.

“I operate from a place of humility, but also a place of love and respect,” she continues. “I try my very best in the first weeks of school to really establish relationships, to say, ‘Look, this is a safe place. This is a place where it’s okay to make mistakes and we’re going to get through this together.’”

At Cushing, the process of picking the teacher of the year award is very student-driven. Students vote in the first round. The nominees are narrowed down and faculty vote on that smaller group, and then they return a final group of names for the students to pick the winner. When they voted, several students said that Trigg is like a parent figure to them. “Ms. Trigg [is] like my second mom here,” wrote one student. “She always gives me a hug when I feel not good. She makes me feel I can tell everything to her and she always will give a response no matter how busy she is.”

For Trigg, a veteran boarding and independent school teacher and administrator in her fourth year at Cushing, an extra special part of winning was having her children Talia ’22 and Tobias ’24 present the award to her. “The award is wonderful, but their presenting the award just meant the world to me,” she says. “It was so well done.”

SCAN ME! Watch the full coverage of 2022 Commencement.