Community High social studies teacher Joslyn Hunscher-Young receives National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship

Community High School social studies teacher Joslyn Hunscher-Young has been accepted to participate in The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation’s workshop for educators.

Sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, Echoes of History: Mistreatment and Incarceration in the American West will teach educators about the mistreatment of marginalized groups in the American West, primarily Native Americans, German immigrants during World War I, and the 120,000 Japanese Americans, two-thirds of them U.S. citizens, who were incarcerated at Heart Mountain, Wyo., and nine other camps around the country.
“I’m honored and excited to be able to attend the “Echoes of History: Mistreatment and Incarceration in the American West” Educator Workshop at Heart Mountain this summer,” said Hunscher-Young. “Receiving this fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities is an important and powerful learning opportunity for me to grow as an educator. I look forward to learning more about how Japanese Americans and their allies resisted and continue to resist racist actions to help improve our society, and I cannot wait to bring what I learn to my classes and other teachers in Ann Arbor Public Schools in the fall.”

The educators will spend six days learning about the Japanese experience in the United States,
the racism and prejudice faced by the immigrants, how their paths intersected with Wyoming’s
Native American communities and the multigenerational mental health trauma that many members of the incarcerees’ families still suffer today.

Hunscher-Young is one of 72 educators selected from a group of more than 175 applicants. She will
receive a $1300 stipend to cover her travel and lodging costs.

Added Hunscher-Young: “This is also an incredible opportunity to continue building upon the relationship AAPS is developing with Huron High alumna Shirley Higuchi. I am thrilled to see how we can deepen this working relationship to help better inform and engage our students in real-world applications of what they learn in their social studies classes.”