Representatives from the Missouri History Museum shared the stage with First Lady Michelle Obama today as they accepted the 2014 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award on behalf of the Museum’s Teens Make History program.
Elizabeth Pickard, director of interpretive programs for the Missouri History
Museum, and Amesha Payne, a current Teens Make History student and senior at Carnahan High School, represented the program at the White House ceremony on Monday, November 10, 2014. Teens Make History was one of 12 after-school programs chosen from across the country for this prestigious honor.
The award recognizes the country’s best creative youth development programs for using engagement in the arts and the humanities to increase academic achievement, graduation rates, and college enrollment. The awardees—chosen from a pool of more than 350 nominations and 50 finalists—are also recognized for improving literacy and language abilities, communication and performance skills, and cultural awareness.
First presented in 1998, the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award is the Signature program of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH).
The awards are presented annually in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Receiving this honor from the First Lady means so much to all those who have
worked so hard on the Teens Make History program across the institution,” said Pickard, who founded the Tee ns Make History program for the Missouri History Museum in 2007. “We began this program with the desire to make a lasting impact in a kid’s life beyond the school hours and to ready them for work. We wanted to bring together young people from across the region and with diverse backgrounds, and challenge them to rise above their expectations for themselves.”
The Missouri History Museum’s Teens Make History (TMH) is a work-based
learning program that encourages high school students in their sophomore, junior or senior year to develop key professional skills, build self-confidence, and explore the complexities of history. Students first complete the TMH Academy, an eight-week introductory museum studies workshop, before they may apply for one of the paid, long-term apprenticeships in TMH. Apprentices complete real work projects as a member of either the TMH Players—the group that researches, writes, and performs plays—or the TMH Exhibitors—a group that conducts exhibition projects, including oral history interviews. Through their projects, teens learn skills such as accountability, teamwork, time management, written and spoken communication skills, and responsibility—skills that the U.S. Department of Labor has identified as necessary to workplace success.
“Teens Make History has become family to me,” said Payne. “Any path I go down, any trial I may face, I’ll be able to look back at all I learned through the Teens Make History program and working at the Missouri History Museum. I know I will carry what I have learned into any profession I choose in the future.”
“One of the unexpected effects of our Teens Make History program was the rise in
the apprentices’ grades,” says Pickard. “We are not a tutoring or study program. However, the kids are learning how to relate to people of the past as human beings through vigorous research and writing and this has translated to elevated GPA’s for 60% of our students.”
This is not the first time that the Missouri History Museum has been recognized by the White House for its innovative community programs. The Missouri History Museum was the first recipient of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) National
Award for Museum Services in 1994.
“You can’t help but be moved by these kids, who show us the transformative power of the arts and humanities,” said Rachel Goslins, executive director of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. “They are staying in school longer, getting better grades, graduating from high school and going on to college at significantly higher rates than their peers. And they’re building skills that will last them a lifetime.”
“The staff here at the Missouri History Museum has built a truly innovative and remarkable program for youth in this community. Teens Make History offers an unmatched opportunity for students to develop job skills, gain a historical perspective on the region, and build self esteem through the valued work they do for the Museum,” said Dr. Frances Levine, president of the Missouri History Museum. “We are honored to receive the esteemed National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, but even more honored that the Missouri History Museum could play such a pivotal role in the lives of so many young people.”
In addition to their recognition at the White House, each of the 12 community based programs will receive $10,000 and a year of communications and capacity-building support from the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. For more information about the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Awards, visit
www.pcah.gov.
The Missouri History Museum is currently accepting applications for the 2015 Teens Make History Academy. For information on how to apply, visit
mohistory.org/TMH/apply.