Recently she was named as the recipient for the Otago Girls’ High School 2022 Highgate Fellowship, which is awarded to a long-serving teacher to further their personal and professional development.
Ms Nielson said she found out she won the award only two weeks ago but had already been dreaming up ways to spend the money.
She planned to go to Denmark, where her great-grandparents had lived before coming to New Zealand, and visit the church where they were married.
Also on the agenda were hiking in Switzerland and doing the Tour du Mont Blanc, a trek which circles the Mont Blanc massif mountain range through France, Switzerland and Italy.
She was a big fan of hiking and walking, which she said was an "underestimated and under-utilised way of making sense of the world".
She hoped to return to the classroom feeling inspired and energised, she said.
In the classroom, she was always encouraging her pupils to make a choice about their mindset, she said.
Life was complicated and hard, but people could choose to be joyful.
She believed it was important to exemplify that belief as a teacher.
Throughout her 16 years at the school she had acted as a dean and a head of house and was involved in pastoral care.
She had been a teacher for over 30 years and had taught all over the country and the world.
One of the highlights of her career was being a founding member of Jerudong International School in Brunei.
The school was founded with about 25 pupils, but it now had about 4000.
Upon returning to New Zealand with her husband and young children she settled at Otago Girls’, a school she loved.
It was a leading school in many aspects, but its positive attitude towards the arts was particularly important to her as an English teacher.
She was humbled to receive the award and there were many others at the school who were just as deserving, she said.
Principal Bridget Davidson said although the award was usually given annually, it was the first time it had been awarded since 2019 due to a lack of interest in the funds.
She was delighted it had resumed, she said.
