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- An Oklahoma teacher took a leap of faith. She ended up winning state Teacher of the Year.</p>
<p>Nuria Martinez-KeelJuly 4, 2025 at 1:28 AM</p>
<p>2025 Oklahoma Teacher of the Year Melissa Evon, right, holds her award with state Superintendent Ryan Walters after being announced the winner at a gala Friday in Norman. (Photo provided by the Oklahoma State Department of Education)</p>
<p>OKLAHOMA CITY — Those who knew Melissa Evon the best "laughed really hard" at the thought of her teaching family and consumer sciences, formerly known as home economics.</p>
<p>By her own admission, the Elgin High School teacher is not the best cook. Her first attempt to sew ended with a broken sewing machine and her mother declaring, "You can buy your clothes from now on."</p>
<p>Still, Evon's work in family and consumer sciences won her the 2025 Oklahoma Teacher of the Year award on Friday. Yes, her students practice cooking and sewing, but they also learn how to open a bank account, file taxes, apply for scholarships, register to vote and change a tire — lessons she said "get kids ready to be adults."</p>
<p>"Even though most of my career was (teaching) history, government and geography, the opportunity to teach those real life skills has just been a phenomenal experience," Evon told Oklahoma Voice.</p>
<p>After graduating from Mustang High School and Southwestern Oklahoma State University, Evon started her teaching career in 1992 at Elgin Public Schools just north of Lawton. She's now entering her 27th year in education, a career that included stints in other states while her husband served in the Air Force and a break after her son was born.</p>
<p>No matter the state, the grade level or the subject, "I'm convinced I teach the world's greatest kids," she said.</p>
<p>Her family later returned to Oklahoma where Evon said she received a great education in public schools and was confident her son would, too.</p>
<p>Over the course of her career, before and after leaving the state, she won Elgin Teacher of the Year three times, district Superintendent Nathaniel Meraz said.</p>
<p>So, Meraz said he was "ecstatic" but not shocked that Evon won the award at the state level.</p>
<p>"There would be nobody better than her," Meraz said. "They may be as good as her. They may be up there with her. But she is in that company of the top teachers."</p>
<p>Oklahoma Teacher of the Year Melissa Evon has won her district's top teacher award three times. (Photo provided by the Oklahoma State Department of Education)</p>
<p>Like all winners of Oklahoma Teacher of the Year, Evon will spend a year out of the classroom to travel the state as an ambassador of the teaching profession. She said her focus will be encouraging teachers to stay in education at a time when Oklahoma struggles to keep experienced educators in the classroom.</p>
<p>Evon herself at times questioned whether to continue teaching, she said. In those moments, she drew upon mantras that are now the core of her Teacher of the Year platform: "See the light" by looking for the good in every day and "be the light for your kids."</p>
<p>She also told herself to "get out of the boat," another way of saying "take a leap of faith."</p>
<p>Two years ago, she realized she needed a change if she were to stay in education. She wanted to return to the high-school level after years of teaching seventh-grade social studies.</p>
<p>The only opening at the high school, though, was family and consumer sciences. Accepting the job was a "get out of the boat and take a leap of faith moment," she said.</p>
<p>"I think teachers have to be willing to do that when we get stuck," Evon said. "Get out of the boat. Sometimes that's changing your curriculum. Sometimes it might be more like what I did, changing what you teach. Maybe it's changing grade levels, changing subjects, changing something you've always done, tweaking that idea."</p>
<p>Since then, she's taught classes focused on interpersonal communication, parenting, financial literacy and career opportunities. She said her students are preparing to become adults, lead families and grow into productive citizens.</p>
<p>And, sure, they learn cooking and sewing along the way.</p>
<p>"I'm getting to teach those things, and I know that what I do matters," Evon said. "They come back and tell me that."</p>
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