If you were to trace the arc of Mindy Frier’s transition from personal to professional  life, you’d need only follow a few clearly drawn lines. A Macomb native, class of 1997, and a proud product of Macomb Schools, Mindy is not just teaching in her hometown—she’s living what she always imagined.

“I knew when I was young that I wanted to be a teacher,” she says. “I used to play school. That’s just always where my heart was.”

Today, she teaches fifth grade at Edison Elementary, the same school she once attended herself. In fact, her own sixth-grade math teacher—now principal Mrs. Sullivan—helped shape her idea of what a great teacher could be. “She was calm, soft-spoken, and just understood you,” Mindy recalls. “That stuck with me. I try to be that for my students.”

Fifth grade is a year of stretch and transition. It’s the last stop before middle school, and Mindy knows how critical that moment can be. “There’s such a range in fifth grade,” she says. “Some of them are already hitting puberty, some are still very young emotionally. You’ve got kids trying to figure out who they are—and how to manage all the feelings that come with that.”

She meets that range with empathy, steadiness, and a deeply rooted belief in the power of relationship.

“I try to check in with each of them,” she says. “Ask about their ballgames, their dance competitions, their choir concerts. It builds trust. They know you see them.”

For Mindy, that awareness isn’t just a classroom strategy—it’s a way of life. She’s raising three boys in the district herself, and two of them are students at Edison. “My fifth grader asked why he couldn’t be in my class,” she laughs. “But I love seeing him with his friends. It gives me a window into how he’s growing socially, too.”

She’s not just part of the staff—she’s a client, a stakeholder, a parent walking the same halls she once walked as a student. And for all the changes since her own childhood—technology, demographics, pace—Mindy believes the heart of Macomb is still intact.

“It’s close-knit,” she says. “People look out for one another. You feel comfortable here. You feel like you can succeed here.”

That sense of belonging carries into her teaching team as well. She’s one of six fifth-grade teachers at Edison, and the collaboration among them is strong. “We plan together, we support one another, and we’ve become friends—not just coworkers,” she says. “That makes all the difference.”

Over her years in the classroom, Mindy has watched students grow into adults—graduates who remember her in the grocery store, who invite her to weddings, who say, “You mattered.” That kind of long-view impact isn’t something you plan for. It’s something you earn.

“I’ve had thousands of students,” she says. “And they remember. They carry something with them. And hopefully it’s something good.”

She sees herself as a first responder of sorts—someone who notices when a child walks through the door with something heavy on their heart. “Sometimes you have to set the lesson aside and just be there,” she says. “Give them a moment. Then, when they’re ready, you teach again.”

She’s also quick to credit the broader system. “We have great support here—school counselors, social workers, psychologists. But it often starts with the classroom teacher. We see it first.”

In many ways, Mindy is the embodiment of Macomb’s promise: a local kid who came home, gave back, and grew a new generation from the very soil she sprang from. Her own children are walking the same hallways she did. Her students become neighbors, colleagues, contributors.

“I think I’d tell my younger self, ‘Keep doing what you’re doing,’” she says. “It’s all going to turn out okay. You’ll get to do what you love, in a place you love, surrounded by people who care.”

And for the students lucky enough to land in her classroom, that’s exactly what she helps them believe, too.