Teachers Receive Meryl Streep Educator Award for Campaign to Establish AP U.S. Women's History Course

Sacred Heart Preparatory teachers—Kristen Kelly and Serene Williams—secure nationwide academic backing to create course

ATHERTON, Calif., Oct. 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Sacred Heart Preparatory (SHP) social studies teachers Kristen Kelly and Serene Williams will receive the inaugural Meryl Streep Educator's Award on Nov. 6 for their "WAPUSH" campaign, which recently reached a major milestone by securing endorsement letters from 100 universities nationwide to establish the first-ever Advanced Placement (AP) U.S. Women's History course.

The endorsements mark a critical step toward College Board adoption and official college credit recognition. Addressing a gap in AP offerings by centering women's historical and political contributions, the campaign is seeking 250 high school commitments to offer WAPUSH. 

"Women's contributions to society are overlooked in current AP courses," said Williams. "Young people deserve to understand the importance of women's impact on history and politics."

Launched four years ago through a Harvard teaching grant and research at the Schlesinger Library, the campaign is propelled by student-led work. SHP students have presented at national conferences, conducted 28 scholar interviews, documented the California suffrage movement, and authored 16 Wikipedia pages for historically significant women through the "Women in Red" project.

"I've had the privilege of not only taking the WAPUSH pilot class here at SHP but helping lead the WAPUSH campaign in hopes girls will have access to the full history of women's contributions," said SHP senior Alondra Flores (SHP '27), who has conducted original historical research and presented at major conferences internationally.

Kelly and Williams have also co-authored an International Baccalaureate textbook on feminism and revolution; a collection on teaching U.S. suffrage rights is scheduled for publication this spring. A documentary about WAPUSH filmed at Harvard was just released. Sacred Heart has also published its own WAPUSH mini-documentary.

"To me, it's not just about learning a more complete version of history, but also about helping students, especially young girls, see themselves reflected in the people who shaped our world," said SHP junior Tina Zhang (SHP '28). 

ABOUT SACRED HEART SCHOOLS, ATHERTON
Sacred Heart Schools, Atherton (www.shschools.org) was founded in 1898 and is located on a 63-acre campus in Atherton, California. The Catholic, independent school is an accredited preschool through twelfth grade school, with a total enrollment of 1,185 students, and is a member of the International Network of Schools of the Sacred Heart.

SOURCE Sacred Heart Schools, Atherton