Ms. Carlson and Mrs. McKown’s Journey

These two went from teacher/student to coworkers/friends and it’s such a beautiful thing!

You all know Ms. Carlson and Mrs. McKown as two of our faculty members, but their story of how they both ended up at GCA began 16 years ago in Grand Rapids, MI…and it’s a story only God could write!

Mrs. McKown: A month after my wedding, I began my third year of teaching at a new school in the school district that I graduated from. I was excited to be teaching one of my favorite grades: 4th grade!!! One of my 4th graders was a girl named Mary. She was the most joyful, smart, energetic, and SPUNKY girl! I adored her from day one. She was one of those kids who walked into the class each morning and everything just felt brighter. I got to know her mom and her story, and I knew I’d be one of her biggest fans long after she left my classroom.

Ms. Carlson: People always ask me why I wanted to become a teacher. For a lot of kids, the reasons usually include getting to write on the whiteboard, decorating a classroom, and using the projector (even though those are gone now…ha!). Although I did always love the idea of doing those things, my reasoning was so much more than that. When I had Mrs. McKown in 4th grade, she was a light for what was at the time a pretty dark season in my life. My family had been going through some very hard things and Mrs. McKown had made school feel like a breath of fresh air. Lindsey always brought such genuine joy to her classroom, and made us feel like the most special kids in the world; she was intentional and patient and always took the time to listen to her students.

Mrs. McKown: During the summer of 2008 Mary Carlson and her mom were one of the first people to visit my firstborn, Greyson, at my house. That same summer, we moved back south. I kept in touch the best I could. A couple of years later when I was in town, I picked up Mary and her friend (another one of my amazing former students) one day from Middle School and they came with me to pick up the Thanksgiving turkey for my mom. Haha! After that, social media allowed us to keep up with each other. I always loved hearing from her and seeing all that she was doing (playing college soccer, and majoring in education). When she was a month away from graduating from Central Michigan University, I received a message from Mary asking for advice on applying for teaching jobs out of state or even internationally (she knew I had done both). I was shocked to hear that she had been student-teaching 7th grade math and coaching high school soccer (knowing that GCA had openings for both of those positions).

Ms. Carlson: If you told me 5 years ago I would be living in Tennessee and teaching my favorite teacher’s baby boy I’d held in 5th grade, I would have cracked up laughing. It is just so crazy how God has worked this out. After graduating from Central Michigan University, I had a job lined up in Texas to be a Graduate Assistant for a college soccer team - and then Covid hit. The university had a hiring freeze, and I had been told to look for other jobs just in case. That is when I immediately Facebook messaged Lindsey. We chatted on the phone and I told her I wanted to teach Middle School math and coach High School soccer. When she told me GCA just so happened to have those exact positions available, I just kept thinking there is no way, this is just too good to be true. I applied right away, and the rest is history!