Chambers Receives Award for Thesis

Helen Chambers, degree program specialist for the College of Education, received the Award for Excellence in Documenting Georgia’s History for her master’s thesis “From Community Center to Memory: The Oak Mountain One-Room School and Norman Rockwell.” 

Dr. Thomas Hynes, vice president for Academic Affairs, Dr. Ann McCleary, director of the Center for Public History, Helen Chambers, COE degree program specialist, State rep. Tim Beardon and President Beheruz N. Sethna celebrate Chamber’s proclamation.

Chambers worked with colleagues in the COE to develop the much-celebrated exhibit of the Oak Mountain School after she discovered Rockwell’s painting and two photographs of the schoolroom in storage as a graduate student. She wrote her thesis on the painting because she considered it “the window into American Culture.”

Director of University Libraries Lorene Flanders sent the nomination to the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Board and described the exhibit and her research as “a tangible link with the university’s role in training teachers, part of its heritage for more than 75 years.”

Rockwell chose to paint the Georgia school because it was one of the last remaining one-room schoolhouses in the country.

In addition to providing materials for the exhibit, Chambers’ research culminated into a reunion last April of the Oak Mountain students painted in the Rockwell work.

Chambers received another recognition for her work when State rep. Tim Beardon (R-District 68) came to campus to present a state resolution passed by the House of Representatives to her as an exemplary Georgian.

"I am very grateful to the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Board for giving me the Award for Excellence in Recording Georgia’s History," said Chambers. "I am honored that Representative Bearden recognized me with a resolution from the Georgia House of Representatives."