August 13, 2008

A save our history grant will give Charlottesville students a hands-on approach to learning about the past.

The History Channel gave the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society the grant. They partnered with Charlottesville High School, to give students a chance to tell the story of their schools history.

Nikki Lewis teaches government at CHS.

"Most of our students think that history is something you're forced to do in school and talk about what people did forever ago," she says.

But thanks to the grant, her students are getting a different glimpse of history.

"This will be a chance for them to be hands on," she says.

They'll be interviewing, researching, documenting, and recording the voices of those who lived through desegregation in the Charlottesville school system.

Lewis adds, "our students are going to be working with oral historians and digital historians and archivists at the special collections library at UVa."

Steven Meeks, President of the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society, says, "it's a fantastic program to get the students involved in learning about where they come from and how the community has gotten to where it is."

For most of the upcoming school year, 12th grade CHS students will work on the project.

"It will be a great opportunity for our students and the school in general to become a bigger part of the overall Charlottesville community," Lewis says.

Students working on the project now, can help get future generations of students excited about their past.

Once the project is finished, the society will display a museum exhibit and host a website about the project.

The Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society was one of eleven recipients of the Save our History national grants for 2008 to 2009.