MKA Senior's History Thesis to be Published in The Concord Review

MKA Senior Jeffrey Smith will have the honor of seeing his junior independent history thesis on The Eternal Federalist: How John Marshall's Steadfast Political Philosophy Shaped the Federal Judiciary published in the Spring 2013 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.

Smith, who was named a Faculty Scholar and an MKA Avery Barras Distinguished Scholar for receiving all A’s in his junior year, examined the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court under the tenure of John Marshall, as well as the lasting impact that his leadership of the Court had on the future of the federal judiciary. He conducted most of his research in examining the court cases and decisions that were handed down from the Marshall Court, as well as researching the correspondence between Marshall and the other justices on the court during that 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.