Geneva High School teacher awarded $5,000 grant to promote civics education

As the nation approaches its 250th anniversary, one educational nonprofit sought to improve civics education through grants — to one teacher in each state.

Geneva High School social studies teacher Lucas Rojas was the Illinois recipient of a $5,000 Teaching America250 Awards grant. It was given by The Jack Miller Center, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit “committed to solving the national crisis of uninformed citizenship by teaching America’s founding principles and history,” according to its website.

Rojas, a teacher for eight years and chair Geneva High’s Social Studies Department for four, teaches U.S. government, AP U.S. government, and political campaigns and elections. He’s already got a project mapped out with the grant money.

“Our idea is to create a wall that honors students from Geneva High School who have gone on to serve in the military,” Rojas said.

It would include an interactive television screen where visitors could scroll through and see the veterans and their profiles, he said.

“One of the big roles students will have in taking the lead is identifying veterans and interviewing them,” Rojas said. “That’s the main piece of the project. It would be a database of veterans from GHS and an opportunity for the public and students to engage in the profiles and click through.”

The second piece of the project would be creating a mural that honors the nation via the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence, Rojas said.

“We may reach out to local artists or our own art students,” Rojas said about the mural. “One thing the Jack Miller Center is incorporating in this grant, is making sure students and the community — everyone who receives a grant — is aware of the founding principles of the country.”

The project has to be completed by December.

Rojas teaches 90 to 150 students per semester. They will all be involved, as will the Social Studies National Honor Society.

“I was one who got the grant, but they are as much recipients in my mind,” Rojas said. “We always try to think of ways we can get students involved in civic education.”

In the current political climate, Rojas said students are a little hesitant to engage.

“This is actually a great time to teach this course,” Rojas said of his campaigns and elections class. “I get students talking with each other about the issues of the day and talking about the importance of getting involved in their community to see that they can have an impact on the world and the community around them.”

Jason Bhatta, another Geneva High social studies teacher, said the Wall of Honor will give students deeper understanding of the Constitution and what it means in their daily lives.

“To have kids connected to the project, to have the community connected to the project and to honor vets that came from GHS — the historical perspective and tying it to our Constitution — it’s a really cool project,” Bhatta said.

Rojas also received a Fulbright Teachers for Global Classroom Program Scholarship.

“As part of the program, I participated in a graduate-level course last semester on Global Education and I will be traveling to Uruguay this June to further research global education, along with Uruguay’s education system,” Rojas stated in an email.

Principal Tom Rogers praised Rojas’ work in the classroom and in representing the school.

“He is a great ambassador for the social studies department, as well as Geneva High School as a whole. … We are very proud of him at the high school and how he represents us,” he said.