Chadwick Stokes, shown in the History Lab he created at EB Frink Middle School, is one of 17 teachers in the state chosen as an America 250 Freedom Fellow and will take part in in a unique professional development initiative connected to the state’s America 250 programming, marking the approaching 250th anniversary in 2026 of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

EB Frink Middle School social studies teacher Chadwick Stokes will join 16 other educators from across the state in a highly selective fellowship program designed to enhance their teaching of issues related to and emanating from the nation’s founding.

As members of the inaugural cohort of America 250 Freedom Fellows, Stokes and his colleagues will take part in a unique professional development initiative connected to the state’s America 250 programming, aligned with the national initiative, for marking the approaching 250th anniversary in 2026 of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

“I think any time we can celebrate the founding of the country deserves our excitement and deserves our enthusiasm,” Stokes said Friday, the day after the 17 Fellows used Zoom to get acquainted and learn more about the program.

“This fellowship will provide teachers with tools and resources to help students understand our state’s unique and diverse history and the important role it played in the American Revolution,” Reid Wilson, secretary of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources (NCDNCR), said in a news release.

Wilson’s department and Carolina K-12, a program at the University of North Carolina that provides professional development opportunities for teachers in the state, are the chief supporters and organizers of the America 250 NC Freedom Fellowship.

The six-month fellowship will take the 17 educators to N.C. Historic Sites around the state, provide virtual learning opportunities to enhance their teaching practices and lay the groundwork for networking among the Fellows as well as the historians, scholars and authors who’ll work with the program.

“Networking is always important, no matter what career you’re in,” Stokes said. “A big reason I’ve had some of the success I’ve had is because of relationships I’ve developed with a number of people in our community. I’ve been able to help them, and they’ve been able to help me. So I envision something similar from a networking, relationship-building perspective with these other teachers.”

The Fellows will also play a pivotal role in advising NCDNCR on meeting the evolving needs of K-12 students and teachers. Their insights will shape the implementation of North Carolina’s America 250 initiative and its accompanying resources in classrooms statewide.

Stokes teaches his eighth graders about a broad swath of American history in his classroom and in the History Lab he created at Frink, a room crammed with artifacts that literally put history within reach of students. But he is unabashed in his enthusiasm for the Revolutionary period.

“It’s my favorite. I think it’s the most important,” he said. “I think it should be celebrated the most because once you have that anything that comes after, that’s the basis.”

He is a re-enactor with the 1st North Carolina Regiment and the 3rd North Carolina Regiment of the Continental Line and has brought fellow re-enactors, as well as history interpreters from New Bern’s Tryon Palace, to school so that students can be shown as much as told about life in the colonies around the time of the Revolutionary War.

During his seven years at Frink, he has led field trips to Washington, D.C., and to Williamsburg Jamestown and Yorktown, all important signposts on America’s colonial map. In mid-December he tossed tea into Boston Harbor, recreating the actions of the Sons of Liberty on the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party.

“He continues to do inspiring work and his passion for history is infectious,” Frink principal Michael Moon said. “It has been a pleasure watching him ignite that same passion in many of his students.”

-30-

Cutline: