Koven's Junior History Thesis to be Published in The Concord Review

Senior Rose Koven will have the honor of seeing her junior class independent history thesis on "The ARPANET’s Hidden Purpose: Mass Communications through Computers" published in the Spring 2010 issue of The Concord Review.  Founded in l987, this prestigious publication recognizes exemplary history essays by high school students in the English-speaking world, and is distributed to 42 states in the U.S. and in 35 countries around the world.

In examining the creation and expansion of the ARPANET, Koven, a National Merit Commended Scholar, utilized existing publications, oral histories and scientific journals as well as conducting her own interviews with some scientists from the period. Stemming from the MKA Upper School History Department’s concern that students were skimming through a modern American history syllabus with little opportunity to sufficiently reflect on or understand what they were being taught, the Junior History Research Project was introduced in 2004.  This alternative to the traditional American History AP course requires every member of the junior class to spend six months conducting independent, in-depth research, using both primary and secondary sources, into an aspect of American history, prior to writing 4300-word (minimum) thesis.