Champions of Change
Tracey Van Dusen, 2010 U.S. Department of Education Classroom Fellow, Pioneer High School. After watching Peter Jennings talk about the National Commission on Excellence in Education’s report, A Nation At Risk, Tracey, a Political Science major, decided to dedicate her life to education. For 24 years, Tracey has taught American history, Western civilizations, and government at accelerated and AP levels, as well as general levels, at Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Tracey has designed curriculum and created units for the University of Michigan’s Center for Russian and Eastern European Studies on “The History of St. Petersburg in Architecture,” which are available online and have been accessed by many teachers around the country. In 2009, she was selected for a Summer Teaching Fellowship with C-SPAN in Washington, D. C, during which she worked with C-SPAN’s Education Team to develop and enhance its online resources for teachers. One of eleven national Ambassador Educators, Tracey currently works for C-SPAN conducting workshops and exhibits at educational conferences and making contacts to educational leaders across her region. In the Fall of 2009, Tracey created interactive assignments using the Virginia Governor’s race as a case study for units on campaigns, voting, and elections. More recently, Tracey has worked on bringing the community to the classroom through sponsoring a student panel discussion with local congressmen and inviting professors and instructors from local institutions of higher education to speak to students regarding various topics in American history.