Chesterton High School history teacher, Robert Deruntz, was recognized as Indiana’s History Teacher of the Year by the William Henry Harrison Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) on February 2 and has received an award for his work as a history teacher at CHS. For those who don’t know, The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution is an organization that honors and preserves American history and members of the organization can trace their lineage back to an individual who helped in securing American independence from Great Britain during the Revolutionary War. The organization recognizes history teachers around the country who work to honor American history in their classrooms. The award was given to Deruntz by the DAR for his outstanding work in the classroom and for incorporating three tenets of DAR into his lessons which were: Patriotism, Historic Preservation, and Education. Deruntz was honored to receive this award as he enjoys teaching history to his students.

“I’ve had incredible history teachers my whole life, so to have that come full circle and to be recognized as the Indiana History Teacher of the Year, is an unbelievable honor,” Deruntz said.

     This award was established to honor a teacher in the state who exhibits the qualities of an outstanding history teacher. When it comes to how someone is nominated for the award, it starts out with someone submitting the name of the history teacher who they thought was worthy of the award to the DAR and they reach out to that person and ask them to apply for the award. The applicants are then reviewed by a board of reviewers that is made up of DAR members and non-DAR members and they choose the one they think is worthy to win. Deruntz’s application for the Civil War Camp held at CHS was the winner and beat out four other outstanding history teachers in the state and was honored with a certificate and a check of one hundred dollars. He will be recognized for this honor at the DAR state conference in May at Indianapolis. Not only will he receive that honors, but now Deruntz has the opportunity to compete for the national title in Washington D.C. in either late June or early July at the DAR’s 132nd Continental Congress. If Deruntz wins the national title, he will receive five thousand dollars, a special certificate, and a book. We at the Sandscript would like to congratulate Deruntz for this huge accomplishment and hope he is nominated to go to D.C.