By Brenda Ortega
MEA Voice Editor

It wasn’t until her last year of high school that MEA member Stephanie Johnson figured out what career to pursue. She found her path in senior English class.

Johnson always loved school, and that ye

ar she especially enjoyed breaking down phrasing and vocabulary from Shakespeare and Chaucer to piece together meaning like a puzzle. Sometimes she walked a struggling classmate through it — and found she loved that, too.

“That was my first experience with the lightbulb moment, watching somebody get it and seeing it click, and it was such a wonderful feeling,” she said.

Now 10 years into a role teaching middle school English Language Arts in Osceola County’s Pine River Area Schools, Johnson was “completely shocked” to be named Michigan’s Milken Educator Award recipient for 2025-26, a recognition dubbed “the Oscars of teaching.”

Educators are not formally nominated for the national award and do not know they’re under consideration until the winner is announced at a surprise school assembly. Typically bestowed in early to mid-career, the honor comes with an unrestricted $25,000 cash prize.

Johnson was selected for her creative and student-centered approach, said Milken Educator Awards Vice President Jennifer Fuller, who presented the award in February.

“Her innovative curriculum, focus on data, and involvement in school leadership advance excellence and inspire students to take charge of their learning,” Fuller said.

Keeping middle-grade students engaged can take extra effort, because they’re going through significant social and personal changes, Johnson said in an interview. She works to ensure lessons are relevant, and students have ownership of their learning.

She described a Holocaust unit in her seventh-grade ELA class in which students learn background knowledge, choose related novels to read in mixed-ability book clubs, meet a descendant of a survivor, and visit the Zekelman Holocaust Center in Farmington Hills.

“It’s incredibly relevant because we can talk about things we see in the world today, things that maybe reflect stereotypes or prejudice and echo what we’ve been learning about. Most of my students, when they come back later, say to me, ‘That was the best thing we did in seventh grade.’”

Other examples of how she hooks students in learning include mock trials of characters in stories and multimedia projects to demonstrate learning.

Johnson also teaches intervention classes to build students’ skills in reading informational text — the result of studying data as part of her school’s ELA team and the district improvement team.

She finds high-interest readings connected to topics students are learning about in science and social studies. She worried they would not enjoy the class, but they follow her lead: “If I’m excited, the kids get excited.”

Johnson loves working in a close-knit community where her husband was raised and her kids go to school. She grew up in a village in Hillsdale County and earned degrees from Saginaw Valley State University.

She now joins a national network of Milken educators empowered to broaden their impact on the profession. She is using her cash prize to endow a scholarship fund for aspiring educators.

The Milken & Johnson Future Educators Scholarship has been set up through the Fremont Area Community Foundation to support Osceola County high school graduates pursuing a degree in elementary or secondary education. Top of Form

Anyone can donate to help build the fund.

“It feels like a gift but also a responsibility, and I feel very strongly pulled to do something that’s going to benefit others,” she said. “I’m really hoping now that I have a platform that maybe I can put some good out in the world and make some positive change.”