DEPARTMENT HEAD
Susie Cirone My interest in history actually comes from a difficult experience when I was in high school where I didn’t feel connected to the content. I actually went to college thinking ‘This is an open curriculum. I can avoid ever taking a history course.’ Then my first semester, I had an elective that really drew me in — that I thought was really relevant — and I ended up becoming a history major! I appreciate that not every student comes into the classroom feeling connected to the stories we tell. They might have had experiences where it’s felt hard or irrelevant, and so part of what we do is take on the challenge to find those connections and foster their curiosity. In Modern World History last year, there was a student whose project evolved from researching the Holocaust into researching the Nanjing Massacre — and he presented that research at our Cushing Expo, our culminating research showcase where students investigate a historical topic and present their work publicly. This young man did work that was so complex and so sophisticated that he advanced to the national finals at National History Day. This is a student who self-identifies as a strong math and science student, and this year he decided to compete at National History Day again and is taking two AP history courses. So I think we have helped him see himself as a social science person, too! Research is an intentional focus in our department, and is an essential part of our school culture. There was a student who didn’t do the research program last year, but she was watching. She knew about the Expo. She knew about the successes that a lot of our students had. As soon as the National History Day theme was published in the summer, she pursued research, and she came into the year already having read books and knowing what her theme
was going to be. While we’re not asking students to do that, it does become part of the culture, and students then see something outside of school that connects with them and realize they can use our curriculum to explore it further. Our research process is so inclusive. That really fits our mission of taking students from every level of interest and helping to build their skills and build their curiosity. This fall, there was a student that we weren’t sure was going to understand how to find sources and build annotations, but he got a lot of teacher help and help from his peers, who had done the project last year and had signed on to be student research advisors to help the next generation. The pride that he felt presenting his research project at the Cushing Expo was visible in both his smile and the confidence with which he spoke.
“The Cushing Expo is aspirational. It gives students a public forum
to be curious and to show what they’ve discovered.” SPRING 2026
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