HARTFORD –Theresa Vara-Dannen, a teacher at the University High School of Science and Engineering in Hartford, has won the Connecticut History Teacher of the Year award from the Gilder Lehrman Institute for American History.
Vara-Dannen is receiving this recognition for a multi-year project in her American Studies class at UHSSE in which her students have researched a number of relatively unknown but historically significant African-Americans in Connecticut.
The work of 27 of her students has been accepted for publication in the African-American National Biography, which is edited by Dr. Henry Louis Gates of Harvard University and published by Oxford University Press. (This is quite a significant achievement for high school students as the majority of entries in the African-American National Biography are written by academicians and scholars.)
A Gilder Lehman Institute representative presented Vara-Dannen with the award on on Friday during a brief ceremony at UHSSE. Vara-Dannen received a certificate of recognition and a $1,000 award.
The high school will be recognized as a Gilder Lehrman Affiliate School and receive books and other material for its library.
Vara-Dannen’s students’ projects required that they do research in primary documents at the Connecticut State Library and the Connecticut Historical Society as well as local town historical societies. Until now, the achievements and contributions of these Connecticut African-Americans were largely unknown. Through research and writing the biographies, the students have essentially given these individuals their deserved place in written history.
Vara-Dannen says the students enjoy discovering history right in their own backyards, and walking the same streets and neighborhoods where many of these distinguished African-Americans walked. “Each of their subjects became a real person to these students,” said Vara-Dannen.
“Perhaps, most importantly, the students are getting a view of how their person lived and still succeeded in spite of the issues of slavery, oppression and a lack of political power,” she continued. “It is inspiring to discover and document how they were able to do great things. My hope is that our University High School students will take heart from the stories of these eminent people and let no obstacle block their way to achievement.”
Vara-Dannen, who has been teaching at UHSSE since 2006, has more than 20 years of teaching experience. She previously taught French and English for six years at Chase Collegiate School in Waterbury, and at a variety of parochial and public schools from elementary through adult education instruction levels.
She recently earned her Ph.D. in English from Swansea University, Wales, and had a chapter from her thesis, which is entitled “Benevolence and Bitterness: the African-American Experience in Nineteenth Century Connecticut,” published in Connecticut History.
Vara-Dannen, who lives in Middlebury with her husband Chris, earned a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Liberal Studies from Wesleyan University and a B.A. in French and English at Manhattan College. She also earned a juris doctorate from New York Law School, but found that the legal profession was not for her. She grew up in the Bronx and was the first member of her extended family to graduate from high school and then college Vara-Dannen previously had a book of her poetry, Profligate with Love, published by Antrim House Press.
The class for which she is being recognized, University of Connecticut ECE American Studies is a class for which her students can earn college credit and high school credit. As an “early college” model high school, students at the University High School can qualify to take University of Hartford college courses on campus or take University of Connecticut courses taught by adjunct professors like Vara-Dannen, and earn college credits prior to their high school graduation. Each year, dozens of eligible students take advantage of this opportunity and finish their high school careers having already earned credits that may be applied at the colleges or universities they attend.
The University High School of Science and Engineering, an intra-district magnet school in the Hartford Public Schools system with a focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) disciplines, was established in 2004 as a partnership with the University of Hartford and is located on the campus of the University.
The University High School of Science and Engineering is one of Hartford’s top performing schools. In 2012, it received the Secondary School of Merit Award from Magnet Schools of America designating it as the top magnet high school on the United States. UHSSE was also on the U.S. News and World Reports list of America’s Best High Schools.
Founded in 1994 by Richard Gilder and Lewis E. Lehrman, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is a nonprofit organization devoted to the improvement of history education. The Institute has developed an array of programs for schools, teachers, and students that now operate in all 50 states, including a website that features the more than 60,000 unique historical documents in the Gilder Lehrman Collection, www.gilderlehrman.org. Each year the Institute offers support and resources to tens of thousands of teachers, and through them enhances the education of more than a million students. 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.
