Kim Lorengo is in the running for 'America’s Favorite Teacher'

Reader’s Digest is a beloved publication that has been around since 1922, and part of that longevity can be attributed to fun and inspirational contests like the America’s Favorite Teacher competition sponsored by Teach for America. And one local teacher, Kim Lorengo, is in the running.

“I thought, why not? I’ll throw my name in there and then I felt kind of weird because who wants to brag about themselves? Not me,” Lorengo said. “I’ll just do my job and I’ll do it the best I can, and if I get the accolades for it, great. And if not, I’ll keep doing my job to the best of my ability.”

It’s clear to see that the beloved choir and orchestra teacher embodies a deep-seated humble nature. Self-promotion isn’t exactly her forte. However, with $25,000 on the line and an opportunity to utilize most of that money to help her music program, she stepped out of her comfort zone.

“They ask you in the questions when you build your profile, 'if you won what you would do with this money?' and I started to think about it and I thought – 'I do want to have more things for my program. I want to have music. I want to have better instruments.' So I would love to have the majority of that money go towards the kiddos and my program,” she explained.

The process of elimination for the national contest started yesterday with the top five qualifiers from every group, and during next week’s elimination round only the top candidate will excel to the next round. During the month of May they will have quarter-finals, semi-finals, and final-finals. How Readers Digest compiles the groups is unknown.

Each participant creates their own profile and Lorengo’s says, “Help Kimberly Lorengo become America’s Favorite Teacher while helping support Teach for America and its mission to create a world in which all children learn, lead, and thrive.”  

“They offer different programs for teachers and students. So people can go on my dashboard and vote once a day for free. Like my mother,” she said with a chuckle. “She’s so cute. She said, I donated $50 once and got 50 votes and this last time I donated $25 and got 25 votes. So it was pretty cool that you can actually donate to the organization Teach for America and get votes at the same time,” she said.

Lorengo expressed that self-promotion feels very foreign to her, but she felt she wanted to throw herself out there for her students.

“Honestly, I feel like I have learned more from my students than I feel like I’ve taught them. They teach me about the ways that music can be healing – even though I try to teach them the same thing, they show it. They live it. They teach me about trying to work in situations. They have to learn how to navigate being in groups of people that they normally don’t run around with, right. They’ve taught me about resilience,” she said. “Especially in the years where we’ve lost students, even students themselves who have experienced loss or change, they have risen to the occasion. They’ve thrived, they’ve healed. I feel like there are a lot of lessons they’ve taught me. So, teaching music has been far more than just me being able to share my passion with my kiddos, it’s been this shared experience between all of us.”

She added that she enjoys dabbling in other passions like curriculum, working on a national grant, and is the current state president for the Montana Music Educators. Admittedly, however, she stated that all roads lead back to her teaching job at Anaconda Junior/Senior High School.

“I think that the best part of my job is, like I said, I get blessed. Just as much as these kiddos feel like I’ve blessed them, I truly am the one who’s been blessed by these kiddos,” she said.

When asked what her future goals, dreams, and aspirations are, her answer was admirable and heartfelt.

“I’m still figuring that out. I love what I get to do and I can’t imagine doing anything else. I mean, obviously, I’ve been doing this for 26 years so I don’t know. But for now I feel complete and full doing what I get to do, which is to come here every single day to teach,” she said.

As if that weren’t enough, Lorengo has a trip planned for this summer where she’s taking 12 of her students to Europe for the Northern Musicians Abroad program. She was previously on the tour with her students in 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019.

“I’m super excited. And this is our first year where we get to have an orchestra and I get to be the orchestra director over there which is pretty awesome,” she said.

To cast your vote for Kim Lorengo, visit americasfavteacher.org or visit her facebook page. You can vote once a day for free. More information on the Northern Musicians Abroad Program will be provided when it becomes available.