This semester, Whitman College student Allison Collier of Redmond spent time teaching civil rights in Walla Walla elementary schools through the Whitman Teaches the Movement initiative.

Collier attended training sessions and then, along with a classmate, led a 45-minute lesson on civil rights history. The lesson was age-appropriate and based on curricula developed by the Teaching Tolerance project, history teachers and organizations that specialize in teaching history. The program includes lessons on immigration, the Greensboro sit-ins, Jackie Robinson, feminism in the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King Jr.

The program is also being used as a model for schools across the country. The University of Washington, Seattle University and Whitworth University have all implemented similar programs modeled after Whitman’s own.