National History Academy Inspires Students Nationwide

National Heritage Area Academy students at James Madison' Montpelier-Blair Boswell.

Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area

The Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area successfully launched National History Academy Online this past July, serving hundreds of students from around the country. The Journey, like most heritage areas, museums and historic sites, has faced major challenges since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country this year. Since its launch in 2018, the Journey’s signature program has been the National History Academy, a five-week residential program based in the heart of its Heritage Area. The Academy inspires high school students from around the country to understand the foundations of American democracy, and the responsibilities of citizenship, through experiential learning.

The Academy was conceived to address the educational crisis laid out in a recent report by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which showed that only 18% of high school seniors have a proficiency in and understanding of American history and a mere 23% were proficient in civics. The Journey, extending from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to Charlottesville, Virginia, offers the perfect outdoor classroom to learn history and civics with its twelve National Parks, nine presidential sites, 30 historic Main Street Communities, dozens of Civil War battlefields, and over 100 sites related to the fight for Civil Rights.

Past speaker David Rubenstein addressing students at the National History Academy.

Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area

By late March 2020, the Journey NHA decided to tackle this challenge by shifting its residential Academy to be entirely online. Staff reoriented its efforts, building a new Academy structure, a new website at www.nationalhistoryacademy.org, and state-of-the-art learning management platforms. Through the Journey’s fundraising efforts, they were able to offer Academy enrollment for free to all high school students. 665 students from all 50 states, two U.S. territories and 20 countries ultimately enrolled. Over the summer, students visited 21 historic sites around the country, including 12 National Parks and many museums and historic houses including Monticello, Montpelier and Mount Vernon.

Evenings featured an online speaker series of ten prominent government officials, historians, and authors visiting with students about the country’s history and the challenges the country faces today. National Park Service Acting Director David Vela, a 30-year career veteran of the National Park Service who retired at the end of August, spoke about “Preserving and Presenting American History at America’s National Parks.” Author and Historian, Gretchen Sorin spoke about her most recent book Driving While Black - African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights. Elijah Heyward III spoke about the creation of the International African American History Museum in his talk “Building the International African American Museum.” Acting Director Spencer Crew of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African-American Museum of History and Culture spoke about his biography of Justice Thurgood Marshall, and The Honorable Tom Ridge, First U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, gave a presentation on “Leadership in Times of National Trauma.”

NHA Academy students visiting Monticello.

Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area

At the end of the session this past summer, one student commented, “I honestly loved everything about National History Academy Online. I am so grateful that I have had this opportunity, and I really hope that I will be able to be a part of the residential program. I enjoyed the class discussions, the site visits, and the guest speakers. Hearing from the guest speakers offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hear from amazing people who have found success in careers similar to what I hope to pursue.”

The Journey intends to expand its offerings of online programs in the coming year, and hopes it will be able to resume its residential Academy in the summer of 2021. Interested high school and middle school students can apply online for National History Academy’s future sessions, beginning on November 1.

Recordings of the important talks and lectures are on the Academy’s Facebook page. The lectures and live-streamed site visits are available to watch here,

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