Pushing for Progress: SHP Students Present at NCSS and Rally Support for WAPUSH

SHP students and educators continue the push for a stand-alone Advanced Placement United States Women’s History Course (WAPUSH) — this time in Boston! Created by SHP history teachers Kristen Kelly and Serene Williams, the course seeks to increase the representation of women in AP curriculum and share the traditionally untold stories of women in American history.
On November 21st, Sacred Heart Preparatory students and educators — Kelly and Williams, SHP seniors Kate Ragatz, Samantha Pyle, Shannon Bennitt, SHP junior Brooke Soderbery, as well as East Coast high school senior Clara Robinson ‘25 — traveled to Boston to further advocate for and continue to develop the curriculum of the proposed course. On Thursday, the team studied at the Schlesinger Library, a research library and center for archival study at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute. Brooke Soderbery spoke highly of the experience, recounting, “Beyond just being informative, the documents and photos I got to see at the Schlesinger Library were incredibly interesting and engaging — I only wish we had more time there!”
The location of study felt “full-circle” for the team, as the Schlesinger is where Kelly and Williams initially decided to create a stand-alone AP course on women’s history after being awarded Harvard University’s Schlesinger Grant to study. With the grant, the two were able to study at the library and realized the abundance of female-related information yet to be featured in history textbooks. This year, the students and teachers were able to read and observe historical archives on topics ranging from Arab feminists to Roe v. Wade and more. The insights from these sources will be incorporated into the team’s Course and Exam Description (CED), which is currently under review by scholars nationwide. The team hopes to share their knowledge from visiting the archives with all. Samatha Pyle spoke highly of her experience, saying that “it was an incredible experience getting to look at all of the archival material, especially the personal papers of people like Pauli Murray and June Jordan who [she has] read about in history books and through [her] own research.” Most crucially, for Pyle, the experience was particularly illuminating of the power of sharing female historical narratives within WAPUSH and beyond: “It was a reminder that all of these people that we might know for one (or a few) amazing things they’ve done have these unique, beautiful, personal, and struggle filled lives that we often do not get to see. I will hold onto the idea that any of us, regardless of our challenges, can relate to these people who have made a change in our world, so we all need to know that we can as well.”

The following day, the team ventured to Boston’s Hynes Convention Center to present at the 104th National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) conference — an annual event that brings together thousands of social studies professionals and educators to share resources, projects, and insights on a variety of historical topics. This year, the conference hosted renowned educational experts and speakers, including Academy Award nominee Ken Burns, presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, and more. WAPUSH students and educators presented their proposal for the women’s history course via a poster session, as they did last year at the 103rd NCSS conference in Nashville, Tennessee. Even prior to the official start time of their session, dozens of excited educators had gathered around their table to hear more about the course. Met with both familiar faces and new supporters, the team dove into sharing all they could about the course, and adorned listeners with WAPUSH-themed stickers, pamphlets, and sweets! “The NCSS conference was a great experience,” said Shannon Bennitt, “The amount of support we got was incredible and it really reinforced our commitment to seeing this project through.”

WAPUSH’s success at the annual conference is reflective of the immense national support for the course. Since the recent election, the course has received 40 additional letters of support from universities, bringing the total university support to 67 schools nationwide. Some notable supporters include Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Texas at Austin, Yale, and Columbia. To pilot the course, WAPUSH needs 100 letters of support from universities and 250 letters from high schools. With the current letter count, the WAPUSH team is confident that they will receive the required 100 letters of support from universities by year end.
At the forefront of this movement — alongside Kelly and Williams — is a team of students advocating for the course. “It is youth who are propelling the course forward,” wrote SHP Director of Communications & Public Relations Elizabeth Nixon in her news article about the recent presentation. Students have presented at multiple conferences to support the course, including the American Historical Association conference in San Francisco and the College Board conference in Las Vegas. In fact, the students at the College Board conference were the first student presenters at this annual event. Recently, students have undertaken multiple projects: a WAPUSH Wednesday social media campaign, creating a video series with information about women to augment existing AP curriculum, garnering support from women’s history museums, sharing a monthly newsletter, and recruiting students nationwide.
The movement is even supported by a local middle school Girl Scout troop under the leadership of Kristen Kelly. The team has been successfully gathering letters of support from middle school and high school principals as they work on their Silver Award for Girl Scouts.
With the collection of letters from universities and high schools underway, the team is looking to collect sample syllabi from universities currently offering an equivalent course and fundraise for a pilot of the new AP course. The opportunity to learn women’s history is exciting — not just to share new historical stories, but to celebrate and normalize the place of women in realms of influence.