Alumna and educator honored with national teaching award

From teaching about inflation in an inflatable suit, to making sure each of her students understands the economic impact of their choices in life, Crystal Johnson never shies away from going the extra mile.

Johnson is in her 11th year of teaching, and currently teaches economics and government at Park Center Senior High School in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. She serves as an educator specialist with the Minnesota Council on Economic Education and teaches college economics through St. Cloud State University's Huskies in the High School concurrent enrollment program.

"I've taught every grade from five through 12 throughout my experience," she said. "I first decided to go into teaching because I had done a couple volunteer experiences at my kid's daycare and really liked working with kids."

Johnson initially enrolled at SCSU to become an art educator.

"I took art history at the same time as taking a general history class, and then switched to social studies," she said. "After doing my field experiences, I really loved even more working with kids. It was a really good fit."

A single mother at that time, Johnson appreciated that St. Cloud State supported her educational journey with a number of different resources. She enjoyed being able to turn around and start paying that support forward, even as a student.

"I got involved with the tutoring center, got involved with student disability services as a notetaker. I worked my way up to getting the support that I needed and also offering support to other people," she said. "I finally found what I needed as a student and I thrived: true encouragement, someone believing in me when I doubt myself, and fun. These are qualities that I try to bring to my teaching today."

Johnson earned her bachelor's in social studies education from SCSU in 2016, and later went on to earn her master's in economics and entrepreneurship from the University of Delaware.

Economics and social studies are favorite subjects for Johnson.

"Social studies as a whole I feel like has a lot of really good connections to understanding us and our experiences. There's always some sort of good practical connection, whether that's in a history class looking for patterns and purpose and repetition; or geography: understanding place and understanding culture; sociology: understanding people and our interactions; psychology: understanding the way our brains work; government: understanding the rules and systems in which we live," she said. "Economics is more about making choices and the decisions that we make; how to make informed choices to be the most successful for the future. I think that's one of the most practical things kids take away from high school. A lot of them take economics as seniors when they're faced with a lot of those choices for next year."

While Johnson doesn't expect each of her students to want to become economics teachers, she still works to make an impact.

"Most people don't go about their daily lives as adults and think back to that one teacher they had in high school and how that thing they learned really changed their life. But I do think there are a lot of skills that are super transferable between economics education and helping to think about making choices later in life," she said. "I really just hope to give kids some skills to think a little bit deeper about their choices, think about choices they make that impact others, that impact themselves, that impact their future, and also think about choices other people make that impact them in certain ways. To understand their place in decision-making as a whole — I think that's a huge impact."

Still, every once in a while students surprise Johnson by continuing their educations in her fields of study.

"I love, of course, when I find out that kids I've worked with have decided to study more in college. Last year, one of my students told me at the end of the year that she decided to major in economics. That just made my day," she said. "I had another student the year before who didn't tell me directly, but I ended up teaching their younger sibling. They said, 'Hey, do you remember my brother? He's studying economics in college. He said your class is the best class to take and it changed his life.' That's like a moonshot. I don't hope every kid drops everything and studies economics in college, but it really makes my day to know some of the stuff I do is really important for kids."

Johnson's students aren't the only ones who recognize her impact as an educator. In October 2026 she was honored with the John Morton Excellence in the Teaching of Economics Award, a national honor presented by the Council for Economic Education. Johnson was one of three educators nationwide selected for the recognition, which celebrates outstanding K-12 educators who use exemplary teaching practices to improve students' economic understanding.

"To be nominated at all or recognized for some of the work that I do is really, really wonderful. To find out that I actually won the award is also incredibly amazing, because I feel like teachers don't teach for awards," she said. "I feel like a lot of really good teachers don't always receive that recognition, let alone the actual honor of receiving the award. I'm super, super grateful to win anything at all."

A couple of Johnson's nominators for the award were SCSU faculty Dr. Lynn MacDonald and Dr. Cindy Fitzthum ’07, ’20.

"As co-directors of the St. Cloud State University Center for Economic Education, Cindy and I were proud to nominate Crystal for this award," MacDonald said. "Her dedication to economics education, leadership in the profession, and impact on students and fellow educators make her exceptionally deserving of this national recognition."

Johnson thanked both women in her award acceptance speech.

"Dr. Cindy Fitzthum was my economics education professor at St. Cloud State University. We played games and did simulations and then made them make economic sense. I was so inspired by her ability to take something challenging and make it fun. I have worked to bring this to my classes, whether making sugar-cube pyramids in history, or in my current economics classes when we do skits with silly costumes to learn about comparative advantage. She is not afraid to show up in rhinestones and sequins to share her take on 'Swiftynomics,' and that is the energy and enthusiasm economics needs," Johnson said. "Dr. Lynn MacDonald is a professor at St. Cloud State, who I work with on my concurrent enrollment economic course. What a challenge, but Lynn has been an encouragement to me every step of the way, believing in me when I doubted myself. I was thrilled to find out that in addition to being an economic genius, she wasn’t afraid to teach a lesson on the economics of the WNBA in a hot pink stud buds wig. How could you not be interested?"

Johnson was excited to get back to work following the awards ceremony.

"Good teachers should keep teaching. If people think I'm good at what I do, then I think the students always appreciate having a good teacher to work with," she said. "For now, my plan is to keep teaching and keep doing what I do. I work at a really nice school that I love. The kids here are lovely. And as long as the kids are lovely, I'm happy to be here."