Previous Winners of the Susan B. Wilson Award
2025
Winners
Grand Prize -- Janine Lee (Left) Community Preparatory School, Providence
Janine is a music therapist and educator, deeply committed to enriching students'
understanding of their civic rights and responsibilites. She believes that the arts
and technology provide powerful, dynamic avenues to engage students in mean-
ingful civic participaton. Over the years, she has integrated discussions of pivotal
civic events—both historical and current—into her music, visual arts, dance and
performing arts instruction, as well as her technology and digital literacy lessons.​
Jury Prize -- Diane Randall (Top right) The Compass School, Kingston
Diane has been an educator and an advocate for the arts her whole career. She has a Bachelor's degree in Elementary Education and Fine Arts. She is a certified Art Teacher (K-12), and Elementary Education Teacher (1-6). She recently earned her Right to Read act Literacy endorsement. Diane believes that teaching young people how to look at and talk about art helps young people to critically think about the world in which they live.​
Honorable Mention -- Christine Costa (Bottom right) Tiverton Middle School, Tiverton
Christine has devoted nearly three decades to teaching sixth-grade social studies at Tiverton Middle School. She is a passionate advocate for civics education, creating engaging learning experiences for students through initiatives such as mock elections, efforts to improve voter turnout in Tiverton, Civic Learning Week, and Law Day. Christine is currently pursuing a second master’s degree in American History from Gettysburg College.
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Link to Ceremony: https://youtu.be/xEjuLhJhksA
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2024
Winners
Grand Prize --Tara Seger (Top left) Scituate High School
Tara Seger has been a dedicated teacher at Scituate High School for 19 years. She is a veteran teacher of Modern World History, US History II Honors, and Middle East Conflicts, in Scituate, Rhode Island. Her research has included traveling to the United Arab Emirates with the World Affairs Council.
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Jury Prize -- Jacquelyn Keable (Top right) Burrillville High School
Jacquelyn Keable has spent the last seven years as a social studies teacher at Burrillville High School. During her first year of teaching, she assisted in the creation of the Law and Public Safety Pathway; teaching civics through law in the elective course, Law and Society. For the past two years, she has taught AP US Government and Politics.
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Honorable Mention -- The Highlander Charter School Team of Providence - Megan Sullivan, Dan Baldassi, Lindsay Robinson, Sharon Murphy, Courtney Brennan-Rand, and Sue White (not pictured, Holleigh Bergstrom)
At Highlander Charter School, it is the goal of these educators to ensure their students have an understanding of social justice and their civic duties, that civics is much more than voting. Civics is also about giving back to the community and uplifting the community around them.
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Link to ceremony: https://youtu.be/3TzMh7vrz0s
2023
Winners
Grand Prize – Heidi Lamb, The Grace School, Providence
Ms. Lamb has contributed to an international and student-centered, multi-year approach that empowers students to be agents of change and betterment in their schools, communities, and on the state and national level. She prioritizes critical engagement with United States governance and incorporates justice and equity as meaningful components to civics.
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Jury Prize – Christopher Stanley, Ponaganset High School, North Scituate
Mr. Stanley moves the AP US History Program out of the classroom into the larger community where students experience history and civics firsthand. The current project “Where the Rivers Meet” stands as a multidisciplinary project between local organizations. Students worked hard to enhance the “place of public history at Ponaganset High School and surrounding communities.
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Honorable Mention - Serena Mason, North Kingstown High School
Ms. Mason teaches a comprehensive and nuanced civics course that gives students the context and history they need to be informed and critical citizens. In addition to the coursework, students exercise their civic muscles by engaging with their community on democracy night. Ms. Mason’s multi-dimensional work in education is an important part of our state’s ecosystem of knowledge.
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Watch the ceremony here: 2023 Susan B. Wilson Civics Award Ceremony
2022
Winners
Grand Prize -- Hanna Resseger (Left) South Side Elementary Charter School of Providence
Jury Prize -- Kate Ray (Top Right) of Cranston High School West, Cranston
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Honorable Mention -- Thalia Wood (Bottom Right) Toll Gate High School, Warwick
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Link to award ceremony recording: https://youtu.be/jSrIHxP21w0
2021
Winners
GRAND PRIZE - Natalie O'Brien (top left)
Teaching social studies, specifically civics, and engaging students at the North Smithfield High School is Natalie O’Brien’s passion. When she found out at the end of her first year of teaching that she would be teaching civics beginning the following year, she went to work to learn all she could to ensure her class was engaging and impactful. Through the Center for Civic Education, Natalie attended sessions at Northeastern University as well as other sessions throughout the country over the years. In 2002, she introduced the We the People program to the high school, engaging students directly in the philosophical and historical foundations of our government as well as developing an understanding of citizenship. This program has brought North Smithfield High School students to Washington D.C. as state champions for the past decade. She has canvassed with students in a presidential primary, heard students speak about their views at local meetings, and most recently, brought students to testify at the State House for the Civic Literacy Act.
JURY PRIZE - Alenoush Hagopian (top right)
Alenoush began at Highlander as an AmeriCorps team member working in classrooms and the afterschool program to bridge in and out of school learning. She then took a teaching position at Highlander where her passion for educational equity, social justice, and civics education was shared in the 4th grade classroom. But, her efforts do not end there. She and her students have been taking on a leadership role in addressing issues of racism and equity in the school and greater community.
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This nominee’s activities have created a safe space for important community conversations that result in civic action. Students have been able to make deep connections within the community by exploring recent and past history and determining what resources are available to them to help them grow into engaged community members. They learned how to research about other organizations doing good in the community, how we can support each other in building a welcoming and safe community for all, and how they can use their skills in core subjects in a real-life project for deeper learning. The Highlander community came together to support the students in their efforts and learn from one another. Highlander has student leaders working together towards a more just community.
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HONORABLE MENTION - Amy Goldblatt (bottom left) and Sara Craft (bottom right)
Amy Goldblatt in her first year of teaching, and Sara Craft, who has four years experience, introduced a program to their 3rd/4th grade classrooms called The Discoverers. Students engage in activities around a main idea and theme, vocabulary, character description, comparing and contrasting, comprehension, and summarizing. This unit also engages students in social studies standards through the domains of history and civics & government.
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This unit provided students with the opportunity to use a primary source from the civil rights movement for literary analysis and learning about history by focusing on Ruby Bridges' memoir, Through My Eyes, which tells the story of Ruby Bridges as she integrated the New Orleans public school system in the 1960s. The Discoverer team selected this text because it is an inspirational story about a pivotal event in history.
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Their students were so impacted by Ruby Bridges’ story that they requested funding to support a ‘virtual visit’ with Ms. Ruby Bridges. Following their meeting, the students spoke at a council meeting. Some excerpts from their speech include: “It was an incredible experience to ask someone who made history our questions. Before learning about Ruby Bridges we never thought about our opportunity to attend an integrated school. Now, we recognize the importance of integrated schools and that kids have not always been able to experience school like we do now. After learning about Ruby Bridges, we feel that it is important for Compass students to learn more about history. We should be learning about injustice and descrimination. We should also learn about historical figures who created change. It is important for students to realize that this history is recent and many people who experienced it are still alive.”
Charlestown, East Greenwich, Exeter, Hopkinton, Narragansett,
North Kingstown, Richmond, South Kingstown, Westerly.
Directly to LWVSC