ABOVE: Sandy Soelter, a parent educator in Fairmont Elementary School's Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) program, is in the running for America's Favorite Teacher.

FAIRMONT–Sandy Soelter, a parent educator in the Fairmont Area School District’s Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) program, has been advancing through the America’s Favorite Teacher contest.

This is her 9th year as a parent educator in the Fairmont Area Schools District. She started out in the early 2000s and left for a time to focus on her family after having her fourth baby but returned in 2018.

Prior to coming to Fairmont, Soelter taught high school math in the Rosemount/Apple Valley/Eagan area. She explained how she made the switch from teaching high school to teaching her current combo of parents and young students.

“When I stopped teaching math, I was a stay at home parent for the most part but then there was an opening for a parent educator and the coordinator at the time approached me and asked if I would be interested,” Soelter recalled.

She had already been participating in ECFE as a parent and enjoyed the program so decided to try out the other side of the program and serve as an educator.

“Now I’m finishing my Master’s in Family Education. I’ll be finished in about two weeks. It’s an area I’m super passionate about,” Soelter said.

She went on to say that parenting is very difficult and that she’s seen both the challenges and joys through her own journey as a parent.

“I want to help walk along side parents and make that journey a little more possible and fun,” Soelter said.

As a parent educator, Soelter works with both the children, ages 0-5, and the parents. She thinks it’s the best of both worlds.

“I get to interact with the families and connect with them and it helps me get a good feel for the kids and I think it’s easier to relate to the parents when they have a question if I know what their child is like, too,” Soelter said.

Despite being satisfied with and passionate about the position she’s in now, it was actually her experience as a high school math teacher that qualified her to run in the America’s Favorite Teacher contest.

Soelter said she stumbled across the contest and decided to apply. By the next day she was notified that she was one of the contestants.

The weekly rounds of voting started right away with one vote per person per day. People can choose to submit more than one vote per day if they make a donation to the Teach for America Program, which the contest is a fundraiser for.

So far, Soelter has made it through the top 20, top 15, top 10 and top five rounds.

“With each round that I made it through, I became more passionate about making it to the next one,” she said.

Soelter explained that the contest is open to only those who teach or have taught grades K-20, making her colleagues unable to apply.

“Most of them teach preschool or ECFE. The further I have gone, the more I’ve felt like I’m bringing awareness to the those teachers who are so important as well and I want to be able to advocate for them and how important their job is,” Soelter said.

It’s now the second half of the contest and Soelter needs to be first in her group of people by May 2. If she makes it that far, she’ll be in the quarterfinals and so far. The grand prize winner will be announced in early June and the prize includes $25,000, a trip to Hawaii and a feature in Reader’s Digest.

While anyone would enjoy the prizes that come with the honor, Soelter is oct looking forward to shedding a light on the importance of ECFE.

“I really do want to make it to the end so I could help the state of our education system refocus on how important early childhood education and supporting parents in raising their children is,” Soelter said.

Voting can be done online at americasfavteacher.org.