Delaware Student-Teacher Team Chosen for National History Day Summer Institute in Hawaiʻi

Two women standing next to each other and smiling,, one wearing a green dress and the other wearing a green long-sleeve shirt

Cab Calloway School of the Arts teacher Erin Sullivan and student Ivy Hoffman, 2021

January 31, 2022 – National History Day and Pearl Harbor Historic Sites Provide Learning, Research, and All Expenses Paid Trips to Hawaiʻi

Cab Calloway School of the Arts teacher Erin Sullivan and student Ivy Hoffman have been selected to participate in Sacrifice for Freedom®: World War II in the Pacific Student & Teacher Institute, a student-teacher cooperative learning program. The program, coordinated through National History Day®, is sponsored by the Pearl Harbor Historic Site Partners, including Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum, Pacific Historic Parks, USS Missouri Memorial Association, and Pacific Fleet Submarine Museum at Pearl Harbor.

During spring 2022, students and teachers in the program will read historical texts and primary documents, participate in online discussions, and research the life of a fallen military member from the student’s region who is buried or memorialized at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.  In July, teams travel to Hawaiʻi to engage in on-site learning opportunities, such as spending a night aboard The USS Missouri and visiting with military and local historians at the Pearl Harbor Historic Sites and across the island of Oahu. Travel and program expenses are provided for all participants.

At the culmination of the Sacrifice for Freedom program, the students will develop a Silent Hero® profile to be published online during the 2022-2023 academic year at NHDSilentHeroes.org.

This year, 54 teams from across the U.S., Guam, and Singapore applied for the competitive summer institute and 16 were selected to participate. Sacrifice for Freedom began in 2019 as an opportunity for student-teacher teams to study World War II in the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawai’i. Past teacher participants noted that the Institute was a significant professional development experience that changed the way they view World War II in the Pacific. Student participants reported that the research and Hawaiʻi-based learning activities challenged their thinking and expanded their perspective of history.

Erin Sullivan is a National History Day Master Teacher. She has taught for 17 years and has participated in National History Day for 7 years. In addition to supporting students in the state and national competition, Erin has served as a judge, designed teacher resources, provided professional development, and been both a student discussion leader and facilitator for National History Day graduate courses. This year Erin is working with the United States Institute of Peace as a Peace teacher.

Ivy Hoffman is an eleventh-grade Technical Theater major at Cab Calloway School of the Arts. She loves to learn everything she can about world history, but she is especially interested in the stories and lives of individual people and the way their actions can affect the bigger picture. Outside of learning history, she enjoys working behind the scenes for stage productions, writing poetry, serving on Student Council, and acting as a lawyer for her school’s Mock Trial team.

 


About National History Day in Delaware

National History Day in Delaware is a year-long history education program that challenges students in grades 6 through 12 to engage in historical research, analysis and interpretation, and creative expression through project-based learning. National History Day in Delaware promotes civic, career, and college ready skills necessary for the 21st century. National History Day Delaware has been sponsored by the Delaware Historical Society for more than 20 years. For more information email Director of Education, Rebecca Fay at rfay@dehistory.org or visit www.dehistory.org.

About National History Day (NHD)

NHD is a non-profit organization based in College Park that seeks to improve the teaching and learning of history. The National History Day Contest was established in 1974 and currently engages more than half a million students in conducting original research on historical topics of interest. Students present their research as a documentary, exhibit, paper, performance, or website. Projects compete first at the local and affiliate levels. The top entries are invited to the National Contest at the University of Maryland at College Park. NHD is sponsored in part by HISTORY®, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Park Service, and Southwest Airlines. For more information, visit nhd.org.

About the Delaware Historical Society

The Delaware Historical Society owns and operates the Delaware History Museum; the Jane and Littleton Mitchell Center for African American Heritage; a nationally recognized Research Library; Old Town Hall; Willingtown Square, four 18th-century houses surrounding a picturesque urban courtyard located in downtown Wilmington; and the Read House & Gardens, a National Historic Landmark. For more information, call (302) 655-7161, email deinfo@dehistory.org or visit www.dehistory.org.