Kelly Voshall recently got her start with teaching, but she’s already preparing to expand her history knowledge this summer now that she’s been accepted into the White House History Teacher Institute.

Voshall is a sixth-grade history teacher at King’s Fork Middle School.

“They sent it out to us, and I just gravitated to it,” Voshall said of the opportunity. “I have models in my room of the White House and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. I’ve always wanted to see the White House, and I just think it would be so interesting to engaging to learn all this stuff about the White House and intertwine that in a lesson.”

The Institute is a five-day workshop hosted by the White House Historical Association. During Voshall’s five days there, she will stay at George Washington University and attend lectures at the David M. Rubenstein National Center for White House History.

“I’m most excited to just be able to interact with other teachers and listen to historians speak,” Voshall said.  “I’m also excited to tour the White House. I’m hoping that this being the White House Institute that we get more than the 30-minute tour and get more in depth.”

The workshop will take up most of the educator’s day, because every day will have eight hours’ worth of lectures, site visits and activities.

Voshall plans to bring this information back to the classroom to give her students just a taste of different stories of the White House.

“I really want to bring everything that I will learn. This is really centered on the history of the White House. I want to make this a connection to the kids,” Voshall said. “As I teach history, I want to insert something small that I’ve learned.”

While Voshall will have an opportunity to visit sites in the capital, she plans to take in some other sites while she’s there. Voshall wants to do research for future field trips with her students.

Voshall has only been an educator for four years, and she decided to get her degree and teaching certificate after a full 20-year career in the Navy.

“After I got out of the Navy, I went to school, and I just graduated from college at the ripe young age at 54,” Voshall said. “I taught at a private school for a few years and decided to get my teaching certificate.”

Her passion for history led her to pursue teaching, and the love for it started with her own family. Voshall’s father was also a history teacher.