NMS Teacher Mr. Donnelly Nationally Recognized

Mr. Donnelly - Grade 8 Social Studies

Christopher Donnelly, a local teacher from Normandin Middle School, has been selected as an NEH Summer Scholar from a national applicant pool to attend one of twenty-one NEH Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshops.  The National Endowment for the Humanities is a federal agency that each year supports summer study opportunities so that teachers can work with experts in humanities disciplines.

 Mr. Donnelly    will participate in a workshop entitled “The Underground Railroad.” The one-week program will be held at the University of Massachusetts and is directed by Lee Blake.

The eighty teachers selected to participate in the program each receive a $1,200 stipend to help cover their travel, study, and living expenses.

Topics for the twenty-one NEH Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshops offered for teachers this summer include the American skyscraper; the Civil Rights movement; the Erie Canal; African-American artisans, entrepreneurs, and abolitionists; exploration of U.S. Pacific coast; the Adirondacks in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era; early California settlement; Frank Lloyd Wright and the Prairie School; Gullah culture; the Shakers; the Hudson River in American history; the Industrial Revolution; Zora Neale Hurston; colonial New England; Mississippi Delta history and culture; mining in the Far West; the Underground Railroad; Kentucky during the Civil War; the transcontinental railroad; and the War of 1812.  The approximately 1,680 teachers who participate in these studies will teach more than 210,000 American students the following year.