H umanitie s G rant s growth opportunities for both faculty and
Westgate, Susan Smith, library director,
Payne was comfortable, however, generally
students.” Each year, three students receive
and Donna Gilbert, history department
endorsing charter schools as an option
grants from the endowment’s proceeds to
chair, for their help. “I don’t think there
for helping those desirous of helping
be used for research.
are very many schools of any sort that
themselves, feeling that time will only
offer such a rare opportunity to do history
improve the system as learning processes
research specifically and then give the
are refined and expanded.
Near scholar Max Isenberg, grade 12, chose a subject Churchill, as a former First Lord of the Admiralty, would have been very interested in: the use of on-station naval
leeway to explore the topic in such a thorough manner,” he said.
When it came time to write the paper, “sifting through the breadth of literature
power as a worldwide deterrent, something
Dwight Payne, grade 12, chose a current
was a difficult task,” said Payne, who will
at which the British were old hands.
social topic and, as he was out of town
attend the University of North Carolina
during the reception, delivered his
at Chapel Hill, majoring in business
address via video. His work, “Can Charter
administration with a possible second
Schools Close the Achievement Gap?” was
major in either economics or psychology.
Isenberg’s paper, “Arleigh Burke’s Submarine-Based Finite Deterrent: Alternative to the Nuclear Triad,” an examination of Admiral Arleigh Burke’s answer to ballooning costs involved
mentored by teacher Kelly Horan.
Another hurdle was maintaining
Payne’s closely researched paper delves
objectivity. “It was difficult to swallow
into the arcane world of evaluating charter
my own biases going into the process
school results. He located a number of
and accept that most of the literature I
studies which threw light on a portion
read presented inconclusive or conflicting
of the process of evaluation and allowed
data,” Payne said. “From that knowledge,
limited conclusions to be drawn on the
however, it was rewarding to conduct
Isenberg, who will attend the University
efficacy of the charter schools studied.
interviews that examined specific
of Pennsylvania for the Jerome Fisher
Payne identified some commonalities
examples of successes or challenges that
Management and Technology program
within the studies and used them for his
were illuminating despite the difficulty of
in the fall in a dual-degree program
next step, interviewing charter school
reaching an overall conclusion regarding
for business and engineering, noted,
administrators and examining the records
the effectiveness of charter schools in
“My favorite part of the entire project
of their schools.
closing the achievement gap. I particularly
with maintaining a three-point nuclear deterrent (aircraft, missiles and submarines all carrying nuclear devices), was carefully researched and covered the salient points of the argument.
was looking at the competing theories of nuclear strategy, and how they had consequences not immediately obvious until later in the Cold War.
enjoyed meeting with school leaders, and I The schools examined in this portion of the
was very inspired by their dedication. The
project had a spectrum of student results
administrators whom I interviewed were
and, although Payne found and used
incredibly helpful and eager to share their
common criteria for eliminating or at least
work; I am immensely grateful to them.”
“The most difficult part of the project
accounting for bias, the differences between
was finding solid first-person sources,
schools, including stability, age of students
especially considering the tight
(one was high school, the others lower and
classification of many details from the
middle schools), location, teaching methods
Cold War,” he added. “That difficulty
and teacher evaluation and training methods
partly contributed to my eventual focus
made drawing firm conclusions problematic.
Senior Cole Manaster, like Howells and Isenberg, chose a military topic with political ramifications. His effort, “The Changing Dynamic of Unconventional Warfare: The U.S. Special Forces in
on nuclear strategy as many of the major players in the development of the Triad and finite deterrence had published works, while a lot of the nitty-gritty details of submarines remain inaccessible.” Isenberg is appreciative of the grant, thanking teacher and mentor Ramsey
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“... it is exciting to see our papers truly come to fruition and to have this at the close of our senior year, as well.” —Cole Manaster, Near scholar