Catherine Koch Schildknecht, teacher and member of the History Department at Mount Notre Dame High School, was recently selected from a national applicant pool to participate in a five-week summer study abroad seminar supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. The Endowment is a federal agency that each summer supports seminars and institutes at colleges and universities so that teachers can study with experts in humanities disciplines.
Schildknecht will depart in June for the “Dutch Republic and Great Britain: The Making of Modern Society and a European World Economy” seminar and spend five and a half weeks at the Historical Institute, London, and The Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies in Wassenaar. In addition, she will add two weeks onto her trip, traveling to London, Namur, Amiens, and historic sites in France and a few days along the Moselle River in Germany. Schildknecht will spend some time with family and do work for her Victorian England class, learn about St. Julie Billiart’s life and continue to advance her appreciation of World War I.
The purpose of the NEH Seminar for School Teachers is to investigate how a region of northwest Europe, centered on the North Seas, acquired the characteristics that historians have labeled ‘modern.’ Fourteen teachers from across the US will accompany Schildknecht at the seminar; they will be immersing themselves in subjects they have for so long simply studied and taught, but now, will experience first-hand.
“I consider myself very fortunate to have been chosen for such a prestigious award,” said Schildknecht of the honor, “…the opportunity to read, discuss, reflect, and write in an academic environment will be stimulating. I am excited to live the life of a scholar and bring back what I learn to my classroom.”
The subject of the seminar dovetails with the mission statement of Mount Notre Dame which is to prepare young women to live, lead and serve in the global economy. Schildknecht believes that in order to do this, one must also know the history of that economy. By completing this seminar, she hopes to help the students and faculty of MND to understand how such an economy was able to develop, grow and determine the course of first world economies and governments over the ages. Additionally, she hopes to set an example to students that education does not end at the school house door.
Schildknecht, the only teacher selected from the State of Ohio, has taught in the social studies discipline since 1977 teaching at MND for the last six years.