MATT NIELSON ’06 M.ED. ’17

Matt has earned both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from VCSU. He is a science teacher at Valley City High School and recent ND Teacher of the Year finalist. Matt also coaches the boys and girls tennis programs at Valley City High School. He has been named EDC Girls Coach of the Year (X3) and State Girls Coach of the Year (X2). Matt was named Outstanding Graduate of Business Education and Chemistry Education his senior year at VCSU. 

Matt served in the North Dakota National Guard for 19 years, taking a year and a half off of college when he was deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. During his time with the National Guard, Matt was given the Iraq Campaign Medal, Army Meritorious Service Medal and the Army Achievement Medal (X3). He has since retired from the national guard where his services assisted hundreds of civilians in a variety of ways.

Matt received the VCPS Teacher of the Year in April of 2020. His nomination from his colleagues stated, “Matt has a passion and desire to meet every student’s individual needs in his classroom. He goes above and beyond the call of duty to create lessons that are engaging, fun and innovative. Matt is also very concerned about each student’s social and emotional well-being. He cares deeply about each of his student’s and is committed to helping them achieve success in the class and all throughout the school.”

Matt wasn’t able to narrow down to just one special memory of his time at VCSU he had many including: electron jumping in the planetarium, Tuesday night chemistry labs, being involved with theatre, dances, sporting events, fruit fry experiment with Hilde and life lessons with Dave Bass. And of course the most important memory would be meeting his wife, Annette, in Hilde’s biology class!