photo by: Richard Gwin

Liberty Memorial Central Middle School math teacher Brittany Harrell-Miller talks with her class on Friday, April 8, 2016. Harrell-Miller recently competed on the NBC show Strong.

As the final episode has drawn closer, the Lawrence teacher taking part in a competitive reality show has been winning challenges and gaining fans.

Liberty Memorial Central Middle School algebra teacher Brittany Harrell-Miller is one of three finalists in the NBC reality show “Strong.” Harrell-Miller said students and staff at Liberty Memorial have been keeping up with the show, which airs on Thursdays, and have shown her a lot of support.

“I really feel like a celebrity on Friday morning,” Harrell-Miller said. “The students are coming up or the staff is coming up and they’re like, ‘We watched you last night and it was so awesome.'”

As part of the show, Harrell-Miller competed against nine other women in strength and conditioning challenges. Each woman is paired with a professional athletic trainer, and at the end of each week one team is eliminated. The show premiered last month on NBC, and episode nine of the show will be broadcast at 7 p.m. Thursday. The winning team will be awarded $500,000 next week.

In the fall, Harrell-Miller took a leave of absence to spend three months in Los Angeles filming the show. Since she is not allowed to talk about the outcome before an episode airs — not even with family — Harrell-Miller said watching alongside them has been a relief.

“It’s nice that they finally can see where I was at and what I was doing and know that it wasn’t just a walk in the park,” Harrell-Miller said. “Those challenges are pretty grueling and it’s nice to see that it looks as hard as it felt.”

No matter the outcome of the competition, Harrell-Miller said she hopes the show and her efforts can be motivating for others who want to get in better shape.

“I’m hoping that this show just encourages other people to get fit and change their life like I changed mine,” she said. “Maybe that will spiral down and I’ll get some people in my own family and my own community to reach out and ask me for some help.”

Liberty Memorial will be hosting a watch party for Thursday’s episode. The event is open to the public and will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the school, 1400 Massachusetts St.