Haleigh Van Allen

Each year as our Teacher Fellowship Program comes to a close, we award an outstanding Teacher Fellow with the Katie Fields Bell Teacher Fellow Award. Mrs. Katie Fields Bell, the late wife of General B.B. Bell, was passionately dedicated to children’s education and specifically children’s reading programs. The Fields and Bell families have generously supported our Teacher Fellowship Program since its inception two years ago, and our gratitude knows no bounds.

This year’s awardee is Haleigh Van Allen, 5th grade teacher at Normal Park Museum Magnet within Hamilton County Schools, Tennessee. Along with this recognition, Haleigh was gifted $1,000 to be utilized in her classroom or for further professional development and a bell. Among the many symbols for a “Call to Action” is a bell. Our railroad bell also symbolizes the very first Medal of Honor recipient mission—The Great Locomotive Chase along the Western & Atlantic Railway between Marietta, GA, and Chattanooga, TN.

The Haleigh’ lesson is entitled “I AM AN AMERICAN: Immigration and the Impact of the Bombing of Pearl Harbor on Japanese-Americans.” In this lesson, students will compare early 20th century immigration, looking at entry from Ellis Island vs entry from Angel Island to gather background context as to why Japanese-Americans were discriminated against before WWII and treated poorly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Students will then identify the impact of the bombing of Pearl Harbor through the eyes of Japanese-Americans and will examine three different accounts of second-generation Japanese-Americans who facing discrimination before and after the bombing of Pearl Harbor during WWII. They will end the lesson by identifying important characteristics these individuals had that later led to them being awarded the Medal of Honor despite the racism faced at home.

This award is meant to serve as a reminder to live a life relentlessly pursuing ways to better the lives of the students who pass through the awardee’s classroom each year by teaching them what it means to be committed to a goal, that sometimes sacrifices must be made, the importance of integrity, that they play a significant role as a citizen, what it means to love their country by working to make it better, and how to be courageous in trying moments that come throughout life.