Papua New Guinea Bruce Smith has been named New Mexico's 2005 James Madison Fellow
Rio Rancho Teacher Wins Masters Fellowship
By Elaine D. Briseno
Albuquerque Journal
Albuquerque, N.M.
June 7, 2005
Rio Rancho High School humanities teacher Bruce Smith has been named New Mexico's 2005 James Madison Fellow.
The designation, which is awarded annually, is only given to one person from each state.
The fellowship was named in honor of the nation's fourth president, dubbed the "Father of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights." The fellowship comes with a $24,000 award recipients can use to pursue a master's degree. They must pursue a degree in American history, government or in political science-related fields.
Smith taught 10th-grade humanities at Rio Rancho High School during the past school year, his first with Rio Rancho Public Schools. Humanities courses are a combination of English and history.
This was the Michigan native's third attempt at winning the fellowship. The application process included the writing of an essay describing how the Constitution should be taught to students.
"As a teacher, you should continuously refer back to the Constitution," he said. "Everything in U.S. history revolves around that document."
This coming school year, Smith will continue teaching at RRHS but will instead teach 11th-grade humanities.
Smith made his way to New Mexico 12 years ago after returning from a 27-month Peace Corps mission in New Papua, New Guinea, and an 18-month teaching stint in South Korea.
He already had a bachelor's and the Peace Corps was offering a program for returning volunteers. The volunteers could have 70 percent of their tuition paid if they agreed to teach on a Navajo reservation. Smith attended the University of New Mexico and began working at Crownpoint, near Gallup. He did that for five years before becoming a teacher at Jemez, where he was for six years. Smith laughed about the reason he chose to leave the Gallup area.
"I met my wife in 1995," he said. "She said 'If you want this relationship to extend, you better move closer to Albuquerque.' Jemez was advertising for an English teacher and I applied."
The couple made their union official by marrying in 2001 and now live in Paradise Hills. Smith said he wanted to be closer to home and also was looking for a change, so he decided to apply for a job with Rio Rancho Public Schools.
As part of the fellowship, Smith will pursue a master's degree in history at St. John's College in Santa Fe over the next five summers. During that time, he also will attend a four-week summer course on the Constitution at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
