The Gettysburg College Gilder-Lehrman Institute (GLI) M.A. program advances content knowledge in American history for K-12 educators like Justin Lessel ’21, M’25, who pass it on to the next generation in their classrooms.
On a Monday afternoon, Justin Lessel ’21, M’25 can be found teaching a lesson on the U.S. Constitution to seniors at Parkland High School in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Now completing his fourth year as a social studies and AP government teacher, he describes his job as “worthwhile and never boring.” Equally celebratory, Lessel recently earned his master’s in American history from the Gettysburg College Gilder Lehrman Institute (GLI) M.A. program.
“I’ve always been a huge history nerd with a great appreciation for Gettysburg’s past,” said Lessel, whose abiding love for history was passed down by his dad, who took part in Civil War reenactments on Gettysburg battlefields. “What better place to study U.S. history as an undergraduate, and then fortunately for me, as a graduate student, than Gettysburg College?”
Launched in April 2022, the fully online and accredited master’s program arrived at an ideal time for Lessel. He had a full teaching year under his belt and felt ready to expand his content knowledge with an asynchronous program that would allow him to continue teaching while earning his graduate degree. Upon a recommendation by his mentor and former first-year advisor, English Prof. Jack Ryan, Lessel decided pursuing his master’s was a natural next step after majoring in history and earning an education certification at Gettysburg.
“Prof. Ryan’s impact on me has been far-reaching,” said Lessel, who was also an all-conference football player, Academic All-American, member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, and Chief Justice of Interfraternity Council. “I’ll never forget taking his First-Year Seminar on literature and sports. I was so impressed by him and was eager to follow him to Bath, England, for a five-week summer study abroad course on the slave trade in the Atlantic. When he recommended the Gilder program to me, I was all ears. It ended up being the perfect opportunity.”
The GLI program comprises 30 credits and is open to K-12 educators like Lessel, as well as community college instructors, district supervisors, librarians, museum professionals, and National Park Service employees who are affiliated with the Gilder Lehrman Institute. Graduate students can complete the program online within five years while learning from world-class faculty from institutions like Columbia, Harvard, and Yale.
While Lessel describes the program as rigorous, he also found work-life equilibrium. In fact, he quickly realized that his graduate coursework dovetailed nicely with his teaching—enhancing, enriching, and deepening his classroom instruction.
In Lessel’s first graduate course on the Declaration of Independence, the level of granularity he was exposed to allowed him to add exciting new information to his high school government classes. That course followed with another on voting rights and elections in America, which helped inform his teaching of a civil rights unit at Parkland High.
“The content aligned so well, helped me build new curriculum, and improved my lessons for my juniors and seniors,” he noted. “It was special to enrich my learning while also becoming a better teacher.”
Completing the 10-course M.A. program in two years, Lessel found the program rewarding, especially his capstone project, which allows students to apply the knowledge they’ve acquired by conducting original research. What made it even more gratifying was that he focused his capstone on a topic related to his family background: the impacts and reactions of German Americans living in Pennsylvania during World War I.
“My great grandfather came to the U.S. from Germany at the start of World War I,” Lessel explained. “I was curious about what that experience might have been like for German Americans during that conflict. The capstone project allowed me to dig into my own ancestry and spend quality time with primary sources like old local newspapers.”
With his master’s in hand, Lessel has furthered his passion for and knowledge of history, while imparting that love and newfound expertise with the next generation.
“The M.A. program has made me an even deeper thinker and that has translated into richer interactions with my students,” Lessel said. When asked what he loves most about teaching, he commented, “[One day, one of my students] made a joke, and I started to laugh. I looked down my computer, and it’s 7:30 in the morning, and all I can think is the day hasn’t even started yet and I’m already smiling. What’s better than this?”
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By Katelyn Silva
Photos courtesy of Justin Lessel ’21, M’25
Posted: 07/03/25