10 May 2026 From Sylvan Hills to history
Lillian M. Hemphill, a sixth-grade ELA teacher at Sylvan Hills Middle School in the Pulaski County Special School District (PCSSD), has been selected as a delegate to the We the Teachers: Preparing the Next Generation Through History & Civics national fellowship program at the College of William & Mary (W&M).
Hemphill is among 100 teacher delegates selected from all 50 states to attend the Congress of Educators, a four-day residential institute taking place in July across the Historic Triangle of Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown, Va.
Led by W&M’s Strategic Cultural Partnerships division and undertaken in partnership with the National Council for History Education (NCHE), the program is funded by a $2.89 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
“I am incredibly honored and excited to represent Arkansas educators in the inaugural We the Teachers Congress,” Hemphill said. “This opportunity is more than a personal achievement — it’s a chance to amplify the voices, passion and dedication of teachers across our state. I look forward to learning, growing and bringing back meaningful experiences that will inspire my students, strengthen my classroom, my school and my state.”
Hemphill earned a Bachelor of Arts from Jackson State University and a Master of Arts in teaching from the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff. She is a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.
“Welcoming 100 teachers from across the nation to the Historic Triangle is a remarkable opportunity,” said Mark Hofer, executive director of Strategic Cultural Partnerships and professor in the W&M School of Education. “These teacher-leaders will explore America’s founding where it happened — walking the same ground as the founders, grappling with the same questions — and prepare them to lead this work back in their home states.”
Timed to the nation’s 250th anniversary, We the Teachers reinforces the university’s national reputation for developing civic leadership and will equip teachers with evidence-based pedagogy to create stronger learning outcomes for students across the country.
“This intensive professional development experience will change teachers, and through them, how their students understand who we are as a nation — and who we will become,” Hofer said. Hosted at W&M and partner cultural institutions, the congress will immerse delegates in primary source analysis, historical inquiry, civil dialogue and evidence-based argumentation — connecting America’s founding principles to classroom-ready practice.
