Maryland Humanities Collaboration Wins Award

(Baltimore, MD) – Maryland Humanities is pleased to announce that Four Rivers Heritage Area has awarded the Maryland Veterans Oral History Project the 2018 Heritage Partnership of the Year Award. The program is a partnership between Southern High School in Anne Arundel County – under the leadership of teacher Ms. Jennifer Davidson – and Maryland Humanities. This award recognizes an outstanding regional partnership in heritage interpretation, preservation, stewardship, and/or education.

Four Rivers Heritage Area will honor the Award recipients at 5:00 p.m. on November 8 in the Blue Heron Room at Quiet Waters Park, located at 600 Quiet Waters Park Road in Annapolis. Tickets cost $15 and are available here.

The Veterans Oral History Project begins with five in-classroom training sessions at Southern High School, led by Dr. Barry Lanman, Director of the Martha Ross Center for Oral History at University of Maryland - Baltimore County. The students then interview military veterans, filming the conversations and editing the footage into short documentary videos. The program culminates in a spring ceremony honoring participants and featuring screenings of select oral histories.

The partnership began in 2015 and has involved more than 300 students and 60 veterans. It is part of Southern High School’s Signature Program, a workforce-related program that seeks to expose students to real-world situations. Veterans Oral History Project was supported in part by Northrop Grumman in 2017–18.