Brown County High School students gathered in the Larry C. Banks Memorial Gymnasium for an assembly on Oct. 28 for what they thought was a talk about voting procedures.
But once everyone was in the gym, they were told that was merely a ruse. The real reason was to officially present history teacher Emily Lewellen with the 2021 Indiana History Teacher of the Year award by Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
Surprised and honored, Lewellen made her way to the floor of the gym as students applauded and cheered.
Though she was awarded with the title in August, the presentation of a plaque was a surprise.
The award is presented annually by “the nation’s leading organization dedicated to K-12 American history education,” a press release from Gilder Lehrman stated.
Kevin Cline presented the award to Lewellen. He is a teacher at Frankton High School in Frankton, Indiana and was the 2016 Gilder Lehrman National History Teacher of the Year. He currently serves as a Master Teacher for Gilder Lehrman.
This year 8,510 nominations for the History Teacher of the Year award were submitted by students, teachers and administrators nationwide from elementary through high school. Lewellen was then selected from a “very competitive field” to be named the teacher of the year for Indiana, according to the release.
Lewellen has been teaching in Brown County since 2013 and has represented Brown County on the national and state levels multiple times already.
Earlier this year, Lewellen was selected to work on a project with the National History Day program. She and 14 other selected teachers from across the country worked with NHD and the Library of Congress staff to write and test five student guides based on the NHD project categories: Documentary, exhibit, paper, performance and website. The guides “will help students find, analyze and integrate primary sources from the Library of Congress into their NHD projects.”
Previously, she participated in the Memorializing the Fallen program where she studied World War I in France. She also participated in the Operation Liberty program where she traveled to the Netherlands with a student to study World War II. She also has written a lesson plan for an NHD collaboration with the National Endowment for Humanities.
Lewellen was asked to represent Indiana on the Women’s Suffrage Float in the 2020 Rose Bowl parade in California. That year was the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gave women their right to vote.
At the school district’s 2018 Veterans Day program, Lewellen was named Teacher of the Year for the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6915 in Brown County. Her students nominated her for the award, and Lewellen then had to write an essay detailing her work with veterans in the schools and in the community. She was selected as the district competition winner, then named the 2018-2019 High School Teacher of the Year by the VFW for the entire state.
For this most recent award, Lewellen received a $1,000 award and an archive of American history books along with educational materials from Gilder Lehrman. She also will be recognized at a state ceremony.
Indiana’s Sen. Eric Koch was in attendance in the gym on Oct. 28 and spoke to history’s importance.
“An understanding of our history is foundational to our development,” he said.
Brown County High School Principal Trent Austin said he “could not be more proud.”
“I am so proud of Emily’s recognition as Indiana’s History Teacher of the Year,” Austin said. “She is a fantastic teacher and coach who has earned this prestigious recognition.”
Austin said that Lewellen challenges her students daily to be “well-educated, productive and civically-engaged citizens.”
“Students in Mrs. Lewellen’s class describe her lessons as engaging and interactive and are able to own their learning and apply this knowledge to their life and explain why it is important to understand historical events,” he said.
Austin also added thanks to Cline for the recognition.
“Mr. Cline led and organized the committee which chose Mrs. Lewellen for the prestigious 2021 Indiana History Teacher of the Year Award,” Austin said. “Mr. Cline shared that they had many fantastic candidates, and Emily stood out as the best.”
Brown County Schools Superintendent Emily Tracy also expressed a gratitude for Lewellen.
“I am incredibly proud of Mrs. Lewellen,” Tracy said.
“I have spent the last 12 weeks listening and learning as much as I can about Brown County Schools and the impact that Emily has on our students, our staff and our programming has been exciting to learn about. … She has a true passion for her work and I am grateful that she is on our team here at Brown County. Emily Lewellen truly believes in our vision of BCS each and everyday and is very deserving of this award.”
