In August of 2024, Mary McCormick and Kendall Peruzzini were getting ready to enter their 8th grade year and were just getting started on a Service Learning research project that, by spring, would receive national news recognition. Now, their research will again reach a national audience, but this time in a McGraw Hill digital literacy program curriculum, used to teach lessons on primary sourcing.
With guidance from their Service Learning Advisor Tim Archer, students had set out to identify a Civil War soldier's unmarked grave at the Orleans County Alms House Cemetery. In order to be granted approval for a headstone, they had to submit an application with documented proof. The process included extensive primary source research, sorting through census and pension records, Alms House ledgers, Town of Albion death records, early photographs, Civil War enlistment records and more. This included close collaboration with multiple community organizations including Orleans County, Town of Barre, Daughters of the American Revolution, Veterans Administration in DC and Civil War research specialists. Through their exemplary use of primary sourcing, they were granted approval for the headstone, which was installed at a student-led ceremony in the spring of 2025.
McGraw Hill is a major learning science company based in Columbus, Ohio that provides educational content, digital software, and services for students and teachers across the country. More specifically, McCormick and Peruzzini's research will be used as a reference in McGraw Hill's Achieve3000 Literacy program, slated to be available on Nov. 9, which is designed to accelerate reading growth and increase Lexile scores. The program includes students across grades 3–12 from public schools in all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., and five U.S. territories.
Read more about the 2024 Service Learning research project in the below news articles:
Civil War soldier gets headstone more than a century after death at ‘Poor House’ - Albion students researched Daniel Walterhouse and secured headstone. Click here to read full story.
2 Albion eighth-graders research, submit headstone application for soldier's unmarked grave. - Click here to read full story.
AMS students approved to submit headstone application for soldier’s unmarked grave - Click here to read full story
2 AMS students receive VA approval for headstone honoring Civil War soldier’s unmarked grave. - Click here to read full story.