Innovations in Attracting Students to Archives: The Lawrenceville School Heely Scholars Program
Explore how The Lawrenceville School's Heely Scholars Program creatively engages students in archival research, fostering a passion for history through hands-on experiences and innovative projects across various historical topics. From curricular beginnings to resulting products, discover the program's impact on students' learning and exploration of primary resources.
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Innovations in Attracting Students to Archives and Special Collections: The Lawrenceville School Heely Scholars Program Jacqueline Haun Archives Librarian The Lawrenceville School April 21, 2015 NJLA, Long Branch, NJ
Curricular beginnings New position, new teacher, new program Goals of program Introduce students to the disciplinary methods historians use to discover historical information Give them experience with working with primary resources Patience and curiosity Encourage them to share their research results with school community
Typical curricular process Looking for nuggets model for early sessions Small group work to focus in depth on a topic Repeat visits Sample topics: Women at Lawrenceville, Lawrenceville in the Air (WWII), Early travel writing (Richard Halliburton), Cold War at Lawrenceville (bomb shelters)
Gradual addition of assignments based on our collection strengths The Gilded Age WWI and WWII (Norris and Heely letters) 1960s, Vietnam Newest assignment: What would de Tocqueville have reported about Lawrenceville?
Expanding use of collections Newspapers Trustees minutes Headmasters papers WWI and WWII correspondence Open student records from 1890s-1930s New collections (Hamill Papers) New this year will be oral histories collected concerning 1960s
Resulting products Documentary films Prezis (brief flirtation) DBQs (document based queries) PowerPoint presentations Exhibits Not only information from our own archives, but research that brings back information from other archives about school history and joins our collections
Other curricular uses History: Women and Gender; History of Japan (student records); other teachers following Smit model English: Mark Twain (scrapbooks); Creative Non-Fiction; Truth about Trenton Art: Design class (revealing hidden history using design elements) Hutchins Scholars: environmental history on campus
Visibility factor More faculty aware of archives More students aware: increased use for independent research and newspaper Alumni visibility through alumni magazine and school news website Archives blog: stephanarchives.org Other social media
The Stephan Gift (2009) Pre-gift, all programming done as part of classroom setting Student luncheon with our big donor ($20,000) on Alumni Weekend 2009 Donor becomes an even bigger donor ($2M $7M) Mandate from administration to set aside $10,000 annually from gift for student and faculty research Hutchins Scholars model
Heely Scholars First year, selected by teacher; now nominated by history teachers and approved by program director Two-week summer commitment Required to complete research projects Document Based Queries (DBQs) Exhibit or documentary
Heely Scholars 1stYear Pilot program June 10 21, 2013 Topic: Lawrenceville and World War I 4 day students Total cost $5,000 Stipend $3,900 (Director) Student food (lunches) Field trip expenses
Pilot year results Student exhibit on World War I Student assistance with data input in Archives department New prestige program for students Problems getting students to follow through on finishing exhibit work after summer
Heely Scholars, 2ndYear June 8-15, 2014 Topic: de Tocqueville at Lawrenceville 8 students, expansion to boarding (1 early departure) New requirement to take fall advanced research seminar class as follow through Total cost: $7,940 Stipends $5,040 (Director + summer boarding supervision) Student meals $1,900 ($2,300 allotted, lunch and dinner) Off-site expenses
2ndYear results Continued work in classroom DBQs for use by other history teachers Documentary film (still a WIP) Student participation in school meeting and presentations as ambassadors for program Increased awareness of program on campus
Round 3! Student selection currently in process June 14 26, 2015 Topic: Pivotal year of 1968 10 students, boarding Requirement to take research class in fall Total cost: $9,500 Stipends $5,900 (Director + residential coverage) Student meals $2,880 Off-site expenses more off-site visits
Future of Heely New project archivist with background in public history to assist with program Possibility of independent funding for established history program Moving beyond history in summer program? English curriculum projects Environmental research on campus
Take aways Begin with collection strengths Build relationships with educators Increase visibility in multiple ways Students are intrigued once they begin to discover things in the archives
Contact Information Jacqi Haun Archivist The Lawrenceville School jhaun@lawrenceville.org 609.895.2034
