COLLEGE PARK, MD – June 13, 2024 – National History Day® (NHD) is proud to announce the two teachers selected as the 2024 Patricia Behring Teacher of the Year winners. Matthew Elms, an eighth grade social studies teacher at the Singapore American School in Singapore is the 2024 Behring Teacher of the Year in the Junior (middle school) Division. Aditi Doshi, a history and African American Studies teacher at Van Nuys High School in Van Nuys, California, is the 2024 Behring Teacher of the Year in the Senior (high school) Division.
Each year, NHD affiliate programs may nominate one middle school teacher and one high school teacher for this prestigious award. Each nominee is a teacher who demonstrates a commitment to engaging students in historical study through the innovative use of primary sources, implementation of active learning strategies to foster historical thinking skills, and participation in the National History Day Contest. All nominees receive $500, and the national award comes with a $10,000 cash prize.
“The 2024 Patricia Behring Teacher of the Year Award winners are outstanding history educators,” said National History Day Executive Director Dr. Cathy Gorn. “As NHD celebrates our 50th anniversary year, I couldn’t be more proud of Matthew Elms and Aditi Doshi. These two teachers are committed to exciting students about the study of history and consistently implement engaging lessons with primary sources as the focus. National History Day is a better program because of Matt and Aditi’s commitment to excellence in history education.”
Matthew Elms, the 2024 Behring Teacher of the Year winner in the Junior Division, teaches middle school at the Singapore American School. “In 1995, I attended my first NHD regional competition in Bellingham, Washington with six students,” Elms shared. “Now, nearly 30 years later, I see winning the Behring Teacher of the Year Award as a capstone, as I have devoted much of my life to improving the quality of history teaching across the world. Receiving this award is an acknowledgment of my impact on thousands of students, parents, teachers, and judges.”
Aditi Doshi, the 2024 Patricia Behring Teacher of the Year winner in the Senior Division, said, “The Behring award recognizes National History Day’s enormous impact on my professional growth. As a high school history teacher, I am grateful to NHD for embedding original student research and authentic project-based learning into my practice. As a public school teacher, I know how vitally all of our students deserve to learn and stretch their skills as historians. As a student of history, NHD inspired me to go back to graduate school.” Doshi began teaching in 2000 and has been involved with National History Day for over a decade.
National History Day affiliate coordinators nominated 102 teachers for the 2024 Patricia Behring Teacher of the Year Award. The national winners were selected by a committee of experienced teachers and historians and announced on Thursday, June 13, 2024, at the National History Day National Contest Awards Ceremony in College Park, Maryland. This program is generously sponsored by the late Patricia Behring, a philanthropist and champion for education.
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About National History Day (NHD)
NHD is a non-profit organization based in College Park, Maryland, that seeks to improve the teaching and learning of history. The National History Day Contest was established in 1974 and currently engages more than half a million students every year in conducting original research on historical topics of interest. Students present their research as a documentary, exhibit, paper, performance, or website. Projects compete first at the local and affiliate levels, where the top entries are invited to the National Contest at the University of Maryland at College Park. NHD is sponsored in part by the 400 Years of African American History Commission, The Better Angels Society, the Bezos Family Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Behring Global Educational Foundation, and the National Park Service. For more information, visit nhd.org.
