Rachel Morrison: When History Becomes a Relationship

What they made happen

What makes a student return after a course ends to stand beside someone they met through an assignment? At Goochland High School in Virginia, Rachel Morrison has built a history project with room for that kind of connection. One example is when two former students stayed close to a veteran they had come to know and later joined him on the football field when the school honored his service. Even when the assignment ended, the relationship continued.

Through the GHS Veterans Project, which she founded and directs, Rachel gives students responsibility for preserving local veterans’ stories and organizing public recognition. Students interview veterans, record their military histories, visit memorials together, and write biographies that are read aloud at home football games. Their writing has a public audience and a person at its center, with relationships that can continue long after the assignment ends.

That gives the work a particular weight. When someone trusts you with a story, accuracy becomes an obligation to that person. Choosing what to include requires judgment. Listening means leaving room for an answer that changes your next question.

The project is continuing to build those connections. Its website invites veterans and community partners to participate in the 2026–27 school year.

Meet the educator

Rachel teaches U.S. history (standard, honors, AP, and dual enrollment) at Goochland High School. In October 2026, the Bill of Rights Institute named her its National Civics Teacher of the Year for 2026–27, recognizing her approach to helping students connect historical understanding with civic participation.

Her classroom includes historical simulations, role-playing, and civil dialogue. Students consider competing perspectives and difficult parts of the nation’s past while exploring their own responsibilities as community members. Inspired by her mom, Becky Morrison, a 31-year U.S. history teaching veteran who founded the Poquoson Veterans Project, Rachel created the GHS Veterans Project, building on her mother’s work while developing new opportunities for students to connect with veterans, preserve their stories, and serve their community.

What went into it

Rachel also makes space for students to help sustain the project. Senior interns organize events, address community groups, and interview applicants for the following year’s internships. Some return even though history is not their preferred subject. Their commitment is to the people and the work.

That responsibility sits alongside her classroom expectations: students examine primary sources, support arguments with evidence, and practice respectful disagreement.

There is a useful design choice here for other educators. Students can contribute at different points: through research and writing, through public speaking, or through the organizational work that helps an event happen. The next group of students also matters. Inviting current interns to help select their successors gives continuity a place in the learning.

Veterans are essential partners in that process. They contribute their time and experiences, while students contribute attention, historical work, and public recognition. Rachel has created a structure in which those contributions can meet.

Why it matters

Veterans Day offers a reason to pause and recognize service. Rachel’s project raises a further question: what happens after the recognition ends?

The returning students offer one answer. A school project can create a reason for people to meet and keep knowing one another. For educators, that invites a broader view of a finished assignment. Alongside the biography or presentation, we can consider the care students take with another person’s account and the responsibilities they are willing to carry forward.

A University of Florence research team’s systematic review, published online in September 2025 and in the March 2026 issue of International Psychogeriatrics, found that intergenerational programs frequently reported benefits for social connection and reduced ageism, reinforcing the value of making relationships an intentional part of learning.

Bring the idea to your classroom

An adaptation inspired by Rachel’s work could begin with one willing community partner and a carefully bounded task. Rachel also suggests this work for leadership, journalism and ROTC classes. On the project’s website, Rachel has a free Veterans Project Teacher Toolkit available with templates to help get other schools started. She also encourages anyone thinking about getting started to email her at: RMorrison@glnd.k12.va.us. The GHS Veterans Project model has already been replicated at Chatham High School in Pittsylvania County, VA, while other schools all over the country have adopted individual elements of the project to fit their communities, including honoring veterans at football home games and hosting student-veteran interview days. These adaptations demonstrate that schools do not have to recreate the entire program to make a meaningful connection between students and local veterans.

Invite students to research the relevant historical context, develop respectful questions, and create a short account for the participant to review. Agree beforehand on what may be recorded or shared and make it easy to decline a question. Rachel advises teachers to provide students with guides and sample questions while also allowing them to deviate from the script and enjoy a natural conversation.

Give the writing a genuine destination: a school display, a community event or historical group, or a small collection shared with participants.

Then plan the return. Students might deliver the finished piece, explain what they learned, or invite the participant to respond. Ask them what they would change about their questions and what deserves further investigation.

Start small enough to follow through. Give the relationship somewhere to go.

Help Me Try This

Download the two-page classroom guide (PDF)

Follow the GHS Veterans Project on Instagram (@GHSVetProject) and X (@GHSVetProject) for more about its work.

Sources

Bill of Rights Institute educator profile: https://billofrightsinstitute.org/people/rachel-morrison/

Undated award-provider account supporting student activities, internships, and the returning-student example.

Bill of Rights Institute award announcement: https://www.einpresswire.com/article/951040786/virginia-teacher-rachel-morrison-named-national-civics-teacher-of-the-year

October 20, 2026. Organization-issued announcement, not an independent evaluation.

GHS Veterans Project: https://sites.google.com/glnd.k12.va.us/ghsveteransproject/home

Official, undated project site with a 2026–27 participation invitation.

Intergenerational interventions and their impact on active aging: A systematic review: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.inpsyc.2025.100142

University of Florence researchers; online September 6, 2025, March 2026 journal issue. The review concerns young adults and older adults, not this high-school project. Study differences limit comparisons; veterans should not be assumed to belong to one age group.