The duo of history teacher Angela Lee and sophomore Chelian Subbiah has been accepted into the Albert H. Small Normandy Institute, a program in which they will learn more about WWII and the Normandy Campaign of 1944 by taking a course followed by travel to Washington, D.C. and Normandy, France this summer.
Each year the institute carefully selects 15 teams, each made up of one student and one teacher, using a thorough application process. One key aspect of the application were the essays. Lee had to submit one essay about her personal interest in the institute and one regarding why Subbiah would be a good candidate, while Subbiah had to write one explaining his personal interest in the topic.
“I had a friend whose dad was in the Navy and I talked to him a lot about [WWII]. He told me some stories that were really interesting, and I started to research the strategy behind all of the stories,” Subbiah said. “I became really interested in what actually happened and the sacrifice these people made.”
Demonstrating this enthusiasm on the subject of WWII is pivotal for acceptance into the program, and Subbiah’s friends have noted that he possesses that quality academically and in his endeavors outside of school.
“Chelian has talked a lot about the program. He really enjoys U.S. history and he’s passionate about it; he knows a lot about the presidents and he’s excited for AP U.S. next year,” sophomore Riley Ortega said. “It will look good for college, but he’s also excited to do it for himself.”
A major part of the program includes memorializing a soldier who is buried in the American Cemetery in Normandy, France. It requires extensive research that, once completed, will be added to the cemetery’s archive to ensure that information can be found on each soldier buried there.
“We are researching Raymond Dunn from Lowell, Massachusetts. It’s weird because you can’t just Google him,” Subbiah said. “We have found information through Ancestry.com, and we’re emailing Lowell High School, the Lowell Historical Society, and other places.”
The students in the program will each use their research to deliver a eulogy at their soldier’s gravesite in France.
“[The soldier’s] family members likely never got to mourn him in that way, so I think that it’s going to be really emotional and moving,” Lee said. “We are trying to see if we can reach out to his living family members because they might have information, or they can become part of the collaboration if they want to.”
Currently, Lee and Subbiah attend bi-weekly classes over Zoom with the other teams and professors from George Washington University, the school that provides the necessary classroom component.
“[For the classes] we have readings, lectures, and videos, and then we have to write discussion posts,” Subbiah said. “During the meetings we are able to discuss everything and get to hear what our professors thought about it, which is great because they are experienced and can give us special insight.”
To conclude the program, the teams will spend a week in Washington, D.C., arriving on June 18, and will depart for Normandy, France for a second week on June 23. While Lee and Subbiah will benefit most from this experience, others at WHS are excited to learn from their experiences in the Institute.
“Oftentimes it’s difficult to see the connections between things that happened in the past or far away and our lives and where we live today,” history department head Kimberly Young said. “I’m really excited for Ms. Lee and Chelian to go to France; there’s nothing like learning about history in the place where it happened. It really makes history come alive and changes its impact on anyone who’s learning.”
In Washington D.C., the teams will have access to historical archives, will work with Albert H. Small’s personal archive that is housed at George Washington University, and will visit an array of museums. In Normandy, they will see specific historical sites related to D-Day and the ensuing liberation of France.
Along with the research about a soldier, each team will also complete a briefing paper related to the Normandy Campaign, and each student will share this knowledge on the topic during the trip.
“We have to do a briefing: there is a specific spot that we have to go to and then we act as a tour guide for the rest of the group, which will be a good opportunity [to highlight] the research I’m doing right now,” Subbiah said. “Our briefing is on the naval involvement at the Azeville Battery, so we have to research how the Navy involved themselves in it and what transpired there.”
While history can be difficult to comprehend given the time gap, humanizing the past can make it feel not so far away.
“History is made up of people, and a lot of their stories aren’t told because they’re not the famous generals or the famous politicians or the world leaders,” Lee said. “What captures kids’ attention most, I think, is really digging in and finding the human story behind it.”