PBS Series Shows UMW Alum Taking High School Team to National Civics Competition

Before Sam Ulmschneider ’06 attended the University of Mary Washington, he put his political prowess to the test in the nation’s premier civics competition for high school students.

In We the People, “we were asked to consider complex questions of public policy and political theory,” said Sam, who participated with his classmates in simulated congressional hearings before a panel of judges during the competition. “That experience is the reason I was motivated to study history and philosophy at Mary Washington.”

Today, Sam teaches those subjects and more at his alma mater, Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School in Richmond, where he has coached the school’s team to state championships and led it to three of its five national wins. While preparing for last year’s event, his class was spotlighted in Citizen Nation, a four-part PBS documentary series that followed teens and their teachers as they vied to secure a spot among the top 10 schools in the country – and win it all.

“I took We the People when it was a fairly young course,” Sam said. His teacher, Phil Sorrentino, “challenged us to think critically and argue our own views with a great deal of passion and engagement.”

The class primed him for the challenging coursework he found at UMW, where he read Plato’s Republic in a first-year seminar with Professor Emeritus of Philosophy David Ambuel, who he said had a “powerful impact” on his decision to major in the subject.

Sam said that Professor of History Susan Fernsebner inspired him to consider pursuing a Ph.D. “In her classes, we were reading popular novels and cultural and anthropological theory, which demonstrated how you could integrate other fields of study into history. That seemed new and enthralling to me as an undergraduate.”

After graduation, Sam planned to go into academia, earning a master’s degree in history from Virginia Commonwealth University. Yet, in 2011, he returned to Maggie L. Walker, which serves academically gifted students with an emphasis on government and international studies. He earned the James Madison Fellowship in 2020, a $24,000 award that helped him obtain a second master’s degree in American government and history from Ohio’s Ashland University.

Sam currently teaches Advanced Placement courses, American popular culture, and political philosophy, as well as his favorite, We the People, which is part of a comprehensive curriculum developed by the Center for Civic Education in 1987. Under his guidance, students hone skills in oral argument and rhetorical writing and engage in legal, political, and philosophical research to prepare for state and national competitions.

“Of all the classes I teach, it’s the one that alumni have told me is the most valuable, even years and decades later,” said Sam, whose students have gone to prestigious law schools such as Harvard and Columbia and embarked on careers in public policy and serving political campaigns.

Sam’s students spend much of the year engaging in deep legal, political, and philosophical research as well as rhetorical writing and oral argument in preparation for the We the People state and national finals. Photo courtesy of Sam Ulmschneider.

Sam (left) and his students visited Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Photo courtesy of Sam Ulmschneider.

Sam (with microphone) and several of his students participated in a panel discussion prior to the screening of ‘Citizen Nation,’ a documentary about the We the People competition that aired on PBS last fall. Photo courtesy of Sam Ulmschneider.

And a few have ended up at Mary Washington, including junior Ben Dickinson, who is grateful for Sam’s mentorship. “We the People prepared me academically to major in political science and bolstered my love for constitutional studies,” said Ben, who is taking U.S. Constitutional Reform this semester, a course taught by UMW Professor of Political Science Steve Farnsworth.

Sam said that the PBS series captured the energy and spirit that makes the class and competition such a meaningful experience for high school students. He recently joined a screening and panel discussion with the director, his students, and State Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg, a fellow teacher and the father of one of his students, whose Richmond-area team also competed in the finals.

“It paints a strikingly patriotic portrait of America, watching the genuine level of civic engagement and mutual sympathy these students have for each other while working through these challenging questions we’re all struggling with as a society,” Sam said. “If you find yourself becoming cynical about young people, this series will remind you that the kids are alright.”

– Article written by Assistant Director of Advancement Communications Jill Graziano Laiacona ’04