Alyssa Bright’s career in education came full circle in a short time.
Bright, a 2017 Carmel High School graduate, has returned to Carmel Middle School as a social studies teacher.
The Indianapolis resident graduated from Ball State University in 2021. She spent the last two years teaching sixth grade world history at Eastwood Middle School in Washington Township in Indianapolis.
Bright, whose maiden name is Fleckenstein, attended Carmel Clay Schools’ Smoky Row Elementary and then Carmel Middle School before becoming a student at CHS.
Nearly 15 percent of the Carmel Clay Schools new teacher hires for the 2023-24 school year are CHS alumni (11 of 75).
“It’s a really great district, and I always thought it would be cool to go back to Carmel Middle School where so many people inspired me,” Bright said. “I thought it would be cool to give back to the community by being a teacher.”
Bright said it’s been nostalgic to return to the middle school.
“We actually found the old yearbook I worked on,” she said.
Bright is working with teacher Jen DasGupta to help develop her plan to teach the curriculum. DasGupta was Bright’s sixth-grade social studies teacher.
“When I was set to interview, I was thinking, ‘I hope I’m not interviewing for Jen’s spot because I hope I get to work with her,’” Bright said. “Then she was in the interview. That was awesome. She was one of my favorite teachers. I thought her class was so fun. It helped me fall in love with the subject of social studies and history.”
Bright said it was in sixth grade she decided she wanted to be a teacher.
“There were other teachers at Carmel that were also amazing teachers who helped me think this job seems so awesome,” she said.
Bright said history teachers have always been her favorites.
“I love history because so many teachers made it almost like telling a story,” Bright said. “I was lucky to go to Carmel High School because we were able to have so many (advanced placement) classes. I was the social studies aide at the high school, getting to work with the teachers in their office.”
At first, Bright thought she wanted to teach government classes at the high school level. Now she said she is able to teach government to sixth-graders because of the new civic standards the state recently adopted.
Bright had four siblings that went through CCS, including her identical twin sister, Emily.
The past two CCS Teachers of the Year, 2023 winner Christine Daviduke and 2022 winner Katie Overbeck, are CHS graduates. In fact, Daviduke, a Woodbrook Elementary School teacher, was a student of Overbeck’s at CHS.
