BRI Teacher Council Member, Student Earn Prestigious Hawaii Study Trip

An Arkansas teacher and her student have earned a prestigious opportunity to travel to Hawaii this summer to study World War II history and memorialize our fallen heroes.

Jessica Culver, a history teacher at Ozark High School in Ozark, Ark., and a member of the Bill of Rights Institute National Teacher Council, will travel to Hawaii this summer courtesy of National History Day, a nonprofit that works to improve the teaching and learning of history nationwide.

Accompanying Culver will be her student, Morgan Nietert.

Culver and Nietert were chosen with other teacher-student teams across the United States, including American Samoa, Guam, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, and South Dakota.

As part of the “Sacrifice for Freedom” program, each team will research the context of World War II in the Pacific region and select a “Silent Hero” from their specific location who died during World War II and is buried in or memorialized at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Culver said she and Nietert “are incredibly happy to be selected for the ‘Sacrifice for Freedom’ program.”

Each team will research their “Silent Hero” and present their “eulogies” of that individual graveside at the cemetery. At the end of the program, each student will write a profile of their “Silent Hero” that will be published during the 2023-2024 school year on the National History Day’s Silent Hero website.

“We are very proud to represent our school, our community, and our state while learning and traveling in Hawaii this summer,” Culver said. “Most importantly, we are ready to study a ‘Silent Hero’ from our local community who gave his life in service of his country during World War II. It is an honor to learn more about World War II in the Pacific, and we are very appreciative of this amazing opportunity.”