This annual award provides up to $7,500 to a teacher at the Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School for a self-designed summer international travel experience. The goal is to enhance classroom instruction through global perspectives.
Award recipients are chosen by a committee of gifted education experts from outside the Governor’s School community. After their trip, recipients share their experience and insights with colleagues and the Governor’s School community, highlighting how the travel has enriched their teaching.
Patricia E. (Pat) Taylor was instrumental in the creation of the Governor’s School. She taught math and served as coordinator of curriculum and instruction at MLWGS from 1991 until she retired in 2010.
Congratulations to the 2025 recipient of this prestigious award, Dr. Christine Anderson!
A Social Studies teacher, Dr. Anderson will travel across France to deepen her understanding of:
- The portrayal of women and their national contributions from 19th-century first-wave feminism through the aftermath of World Wars I and II;
- The tension between French republicanism, first-wave feminism, and women’s roles in both world wars;
- The delayed granting of women’s voting rights and legal equality in France compared to other Western European countries;
- How women are remembered in French history and national identity today; and
- The added intersection of ethnicity and religion in the politics of the veil following 21st-century Muslim immigration to France.
Through this experience, Christine aims to expand her students’ perspectives on identity and history, emphasizing “why identity matters and why it needs to be a lens used to study history and politics.” Her proposal is titled “The Politics of Gendering National Memory: Women, War, and Feminism in France.”
