HELENA - Carroll College is pleased to announce that Sari Chabot, class of 2018, was awarded a prestigious 2019 James Madison Fellowship through the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation. Chabot was one of 53 James Madison Fellows selected in its twenty-eighth annual fellowship competition.
Named in honor of the fourth president of the United States and acknowledged “Father of the Constitution and Bill of Rights,” a James Madison Fellowship funds up to $24,000 of each Fellow’s course of study towards a master’s degree. That program must include a concentration of courses on the history and principles of the United States Constitution. The award is intended to recognize promising and distinguished teachers, to strengthen their knowledge of the origins and development of American constitutional government, and thus to expose the nation’s secondary school students to accurate knowledge of the nation’s constitutional heritage.
Chabot, from Missoula, Mont., graduated from Carroll College with a degree in History, Political Science and Social Studies for Secondary Education in May 2018 and will be pursuing her Master of Arts in American history beginning this fall at the University of Montana.
Recipients of the fellowship must be committed to teaching American history, American government, or civics classes where they will teach topics on the Constitution full-time in grades 7–12 for one full year for each academic year of aid received under a fellowship, preferably in the state from which the recipient won the fellowship.
Only one James Madison Fellow is awarded per state annually, as such, Chabot was the only 2019 recipient from Montana and the first-ever from Carroll College.
“I'm incredibly excited to pursue my passion in history and teaching and very, very excited it will all be paid for,” said Chabot. “Learning more about the content I am teaching will only make me a more passionate and knowledgeable instructor. I will also be in the network of superb social studies educators so I will be able to get ideas from them and hopefully one day contribute to the wealth of knowledge involved with teaching.”
In addition to providing funding for her master’s degree, the fellowship also requires Chabot to attend the four-week Summer Institute at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. The centerpiece of the Institute is a graduate course, "The Foundations of American Constitutionalism." In addition to the graduate coursework, Chabot will have the opportunity to meet Supreme Court justices, learn from constitutional scholars, visit historic sites associated with the institutions of American government and the Constitution's framers, and network with key players in government.
Applicants compete only against other applicants from the states of their legal residence. Applicants are evaluated on their demonstrated commitment to a career teaching American history, American government, or civics classes where they will teach topics on the Constitution at the secondary school level; demonstrated intent to pursue and complete a program of graduate study that emphasizes the Constitution and offers instruction in that subject; demonstrated devotion to civic responsibility; demonstrated capacity for study and performance as classroom teachers, and their proposed courses of graduate study.