Pottstown High School Teacher has the Right Constitution for James Madison Award

Pottstown High School students Samiya Lowe, and Allison Ludwig in Maureen Rieger's classroom.

Maureen S. Rieger, a history teacher at Pottstown High School, has been awarded a James Madison Memorial Fellowship  by an Alexandria, Va.-based foundation of the same name.

This is the foundation's 25th annual fellowship competition and a total of 53 fellowships were awarded this year.

The fellowships support further study of American history by college graduates who aspire to become teachers of American history, American government, and social studies in the nation's secondary schools, as well as by experienced secondary school teachers of the same subjects.

Named in honor of the fourth president of the United States and frequently called the "Father of the Constitution," the fellowship will fund up to $24,000 of Rieger's course of study toward a master's degree. The program must include a concentration of courses on the history and principles of the United States Constitution.

Rieger was selected in competition with applicants from Pennsylvania.

Additional fellowships, funded by income from a U.S. Treasury trust fund and private, foundation and corporate contributions, were awarded in each of the states.

The award is intended to recognize promising and distinguished teachers, to strengthen their knowledge of the origins and development of American constitutional government, and thus to expose the nation's secondary school students to accurate knowledge of the nation's constitutional heritage, according to a release from the foundation.

Founded by an act of Congress in 1986, the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Fou8ndation is an independent agency of the executive branch of the federal government.

For more information, go to www.JamesMadison.gov