Jack Miller Center Receives $1.7 Million Grant from the John Templeton Foundation to Expand the Civics Foundations Graduate Consortium
This transformative three-year investment will enable the Consortium to expand its offerings.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PHILADELPHIA, PA — The Jack Miller Center (JMC) is proud to announce a $1.7 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation in support of the Civics Foundations Graduate Consortium, a groundbreaking partnership designed to advance rigorous, content-rich graduate education for civics and U.S. history teachers.
This transformative three-year investment will enable the Consortium to scale up graduate course offerings taught by JMC network professors, add dozens of new institutional partners, and expand Utah Valley University’s innovative Master of Arts in Constitutional Government, Civics & Law.
“We are deeply grateful to the John Templeton Foundation for their visionary and transformative support,” said Hans Zeiger, President of the Jack Miller Center.
“This grant will help us change the model for teacher education and professional development in this country by expanding access nationwide to scholar-led, content-focused graduate coursework in the American political tradition,” said Thomas Kelly, Senior Vice President and Chief Program Officer at the Jack Miller Center and the project lead for the grant.
The Civics Foundations Graduate Consortium is the nation’s first university collaborative dedicated to advancing graduate education for civics and history teachers. Led by the Jack Miller Center, the Consortium offers high-impact, content-rich coursework in American civics and history at reduced cost to teachers, providing a meaningful alternative to more traditional pedagogy- and administration-focused education coursework and degrees. Courses offered through Consortium partners are regularly pre-approved for transfer credit toward participating graduate degree programs and JMC cross-markets all courses and degrees to a national teacher audience.
“We developed the Master of Arts in Constitutional Government, Civics, and Law to furnish civic educators with a deeper understanding of American Founding principles, the development of our constitutional system, and the civic virtues required to sustain it,” said Matthew Brogdon, Senior Director and Larry H. and Gail Miller Family Foundation Chair in the Center for Constitutional Studies at UVU. “This investment by the Templeton Foundation and JMC will put a rigorous graduate education in American civics within reach of teachers from all over the country.”
As national surveys continue to reveal widespread gaps in understanding of American government and democratic principles, the program seeks to address the urgent need for improved civic literacy among students through high-quality graduate-level instruction designed specifically to support civics and U.S. history teachers.
For media inquiries or further information, please contact:
Marlee Promisel
Director of External Relations, Jack Miller Center
media@gojmc.org
More about the Jack Miller Center and the John Templeton Foundation
Learn more about the Jack Miller Center and the John Templeton Foundation.
About the Jack Miller Center
The Jack Miller Center is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization advancing the work of scholars who teach and study the ideas, documents, and history we hold in common as Americans. We seek to grow the talent pipeline of university educators who teach the American political tradition, to forge new models for university-based training of K-12 civics and history teachers, and to build a diverse coalition of Americans to ignite a civic education renaissance.
About the John Templeton Foundation
Founded in 1987, the John Templeton Foundation supports interdisciplinary research and catalyzes conversations that inspire awe and wonder. We are working to create a world where people are curious about the wonders of the universe, free to pursue lives of meaning and purpose, and motivated by great and selfless love.
With an endowment of $3.4 billion and annual giving of approximately $140 million, the Foundation ranks among the 25 largest grantmaking foundations in the United States. Headquartered outside Philadelphia, our philanthropic activities have engaged all major faith traditions and extended to more than 58 countries around the world.
