St. Michael Teacher Selected for Summer NEH Institute

Mr. Paul Saboe, a teacher at Saint Michael Catholic High School in Fairhope, Alabama, has been selected to participate this summer in the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Institute on “Freedom’s Lawmakers: Black Leadership during Reconstruction” sponsored by the Center for Innovation in Higher Education and the Center for Civil Rights History and Research at the University of South Carolina.  

Mr. Saboe has been an active participate in the NEH summer programs, including the 2006 Summer Seminar on “Churchill in America”, the 2007 Summer Seminar on “The American South: Geography and Culture”, the 2014 Landmarks Workshop on “Abraham Lincoln and the Forging of Modern America”, and the 2017 Summer Seminar on “Muslim American Identities, Past and Present.”   

NEH summer programs are by application only and are very competitive with a national applicant pool.  Only 16 teachers are selected to participate in each Summer Seminar, only 25 for each Summer Institute, and only 36 for each Landmarks Workshop.  Despite the difficulty of being accepted, Mr. Saboe has been selected for a NEH workshop every summer he has applied.

For three weeks in July, Mr. Saboe will read and engage with his fellow Summer Scholars in lively discourse on a variety of primary source documents, will listen and converse with noted scholars from around the country, and will design and present a lesson plan to his fellow Summer Scholars that incorporates the seminar material into his teaching.  As part of his selection, Mr. Saboe will receive a $2850 stipend.  

“The St. Michael History Department believes that the best approach to studying history is to learn how to be a historian, basing our understanding and analysis on evidence presented in primary source documents,” said Mr. Saboe.  “This seminar will expand the documents that the St. Michael students can access, allowing a deeper understanding of the important role African Americans played during Reconstruction.  It is also important for students to see their teachers engaging in this type of study as teachers are life-long students and should model and embrace intellectual curiosity.” 

"Mr. Saboe's selection to this year's NEH Summer Institute is a testament to his hard work inside and outside the classroom as a professional," said Mr. Scimeca, Saint Michael Assistant Principal. "I can't wait to see how Mr. Saboe will add to his excellent classroom instruction with this added level of experience concerning African Americans' leadership roles during Reconstruction. Our History Department is strengthened every time our instructors are able to explore the world around us."