Trumbull High Educator Named CT History Teacher of the Year

From Trumbull Public Schools: Katie Boland, a teacher at Trumbull High School, has been named the 2017 Connecticut History Teacher of the Year, an award presented annually by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the nation’s leading organization dedicated to K-12 American history education.

Inaugurated in 2004, the History Teacher of the Year Award highlights the crucial importance of history education by honoring exceptional American history teachers from elementary school through high school. The award honors one K-12 teacher from each state, the District of Columbia, Department of Defense schools and US Territories. In fall 2017, the National History Teacher of the Year will be selected from the pool of state winners.

In 2001, Katie Boland received her bachelor’s degree at College of the Holy Cross in History and Education and in 2009 she completed a master’s degree in American Studies from Fairfield University. Boland has been teaching for fifteen years, seven of those at Trumbull High School and eight at neighboring Warren Harding High School in Bridgeport. While at Trumbull, Boland has led her Advanced Placement ECE American Government course to six straight state championships with the We the People: The Citizen & the Constitution program through the Center for Civic Education. Boland’s 2017 team placed 13th in the nation.

Boland’s passion for early American history is exemplified in her classroom on a daily basis from the bobble heads of George Washington and Alexander Hamilton that sit proudly on her desk to the banners in the back of the room that display state championship victories. Boland says, “There is a story that upon exiting the Constitutional Convention Benjamin Franklin was approached by a group of citizens asking what sort of government the delegates had created. His answer was simple and direct: "A republic, if you can keep it.” It is my job and my duty as a social studies teacher to meet Dr. Franklin’s challenge with each future citizen that appears before me each year.”

In addition to a $1,000 honorarium and an award ceremony in Connecticut, Katie Boland’s school library will receive a core archive of American history books and Gilder Lehrman educational materials. Boland will also receive an invitation to a 2018 Gilder Lehrman Teacher Seminar, a weeklong program that offers teachers daily discussions with eminent historians, visits to historic sites, and hands-on work with primary sources.

The National History Teacher of the Year award will be presented by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Eric Foner at a ceremony in New York City on November 8, 2017. Past presenters at the ceremony include the Honorable Sandra Day O’Connor, Good Morning America's Robin Roberts, First Lady Laura Bush, former US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Nominations for the 2018 History Teacher of the Year awards are now open. Students, parents, colleagues, and supervisors may nominate K-12 teachers for the award by visiting gilderlehrman.org/nhtoy. The deadline for 2018 nominations is March 30, 2018.

About the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

Founded in 1994 by philanthropists Richard Gilder and Lewis E. Lehrman, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is the nation’s leading organization dedicated to K-12 American history education. The Institute’s mission is to promote the knowledge and understanding of American history through educational programs and resources. Drawing on the 65,000 documents in the Gilder Lehrman Collection and an extensive network of eminent historians, the Institute provides teachers, students, and the general public with direct access to unique primary source materials. The Institute’s programs have been recognized by awards from the White House, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Organization of American Historians.

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