Karen Larson is the kind of teacher who inspires her students to wield their pens like swords when they are attacking difficult, college-level writing assignments. It’s that kind of dedication to helping her students see the power in writing well and often that has prompted Salt Lake Community College to give her a major award.
 
To her surprise, the Brighton English teacher, who also advises the National Honor Society, was named by SLCC as this year’s Outstanding Concurrent Enrollment Instructor. She will be feted April 30, 2013 at the college’s Concurrent Enrollment Awards program, to be held in the Student Center at the Redwood Campus.   
 
“There are so many outstanding teachers,” said Larson, who was nominated by Brighton High’s Career and Technology Education Coordinator Carolyn Chipman, “and that’s what makes this so meaningful.”
 
The ceremony is a homecoming of sorts for Larson. In fact, her first teacher post was as an English instructor at the college, where she led discussions and pored over assignments to help freshmen and sophomores hone their writing skills. Many of her students had limited English proficiency. Others had returned to school after decades in the workplace. “What I found,” she said, “is that it mostly gave students the confidence that they could do it.”
 
Larson took the Alternative Route to Licensure when she came to Brighton seven years ago, and enjoys working with high school students on college-level writing tasks. “I think that because the high school kids have had English every year, their writing skills are fresh and the transition isn’t as tough,” she says. “I feel that, a lot of times, students in high school have an advantage. Everything is fresh in their minds.”
 
Even on summer break from Brighton, Larson continues teaching – at SLCC. The best part of being a teacher is that “you are never bored,” she says. “I learn far more from my students than they ever learn from me. Students are the very best teachers.”