 Rokeby is a national historic landmark. It is one of the best documented underground railroad sites in the country. It is on 90 acres. It has a number of historic outbuildings, a historic house. It can really help to tell the agricultural history of Vermont. And we have an incredible modern education center that has an exhibit that talks about the freedom seekers that came here to Rokeby on the Underground Railroad and the work of the abolitionists here in Vermont. This really, I think, solidifies a lot of what Vermont was about. You have the Robinson family here at Rokeby that was four generations. How often do you find one institution that has that? But also they were part of the Underground Railroad. So we like coming here because it's a condensed piece of history, but that's broad, of course, very important to our nation. But you get a nice chunk of it right here between the Underground Railroad history and also the legacy of this family, which spans all the way from the 1800s into 1960. Where do you find that under one roof and one family in the U.S.? So one reason is that they were able to preserve it here. So I love this museum for that reason. A big part of Rokeby education is putting black voices at the center of Vermont history, which you don't often see. And I think that's one of the really unique things that we have at Rokeby is these really complex stories of black folks that were new to Vermont, as well as free black Vermonters that were living the 19th century in Ferrisburg, in this area around us, and coming to Rokeby to work. And so that's what's really unique about Rokeby's story is that we can tell all these different aspects of black history in Vermont and the aspects of freedom and folks finding freedom for the first time, and also the aspect of folks that are black Vermonters living in Vermont through the 19th century and the challenges and successes that they were finding. George Williams Jr. was actually the first black graduate of the UVM Medical School in 1909. And so this is his graduation photo. So what I'm saying here is the grandson of a likely freedom seeker. All records are pointing to that. That had lived up in Lincoln Hill, became the first black graduate of the UVM Medical School. It means a lot when we're learning about the past to go to the places where some of these events happened. So I love Rokeby for that because it's the land where people were seeking freedom, where the students can feel how we in Vermont are on a corridor that was part of the path to freedom. And they can feel it when they're in the bedrooms where people slept as they were on this long journey and they can look at the beds and they can think about that and it just makes it so much more real to them when they're in this place. So I love Rokeby for the beautiful place that it is, the grounds and the house and how that helps the children really imagine and live into this history. It's one thing to just see pictures, to just hear people talk about it and then going in and thinking oh somebody slept in that bed, somebody walked on this floor, somebody ate with the spoon. It's interesting and it helps you kind of understand it a little deeper and focus a little more when the teacher's talking about it. Rokeby is a pretty unique and special place for education in Vermont. I think it's mainly untapped. There's a lot of educators that are just kind of learning about Rokeby and finding us which is exciting. Historians know that people of all ages connect to history in this really deeply personal way and so one way to get people to learn about history is through having conversations about their own lives. So we use facilitated dialogue in all of our school programs from K through adult groups, college groups that come through. It was amazing for them to not just hear these stories but then also to have someone, you know an expert guide who could talk to them about how it related to their own life to get them to think about things like rules and laws and fairness and justice and bring that right down to their level. So this isn't just something out there or in the past but something that really lives inside of them and that's exactly what I hope for for my students. I love reading about history but it's not really the same. I can imagine it but I never actually get to see it and so it's so fun actually seeing. You can come to Rokeby in person. You can also come on one of our virtual tours. We just launched a 3D virtual tour program that brings you through all the same spaces and so when you come up to a tour in person or virtually you'll explore the exhibits upstairs free and safe. The exhibit about the Underground Railroad history here as well as the farm buildings outside the historic house as well as going into the historic house itself and being in that historic space is quite something for most students whether they've been in historic houses before or not being able to connect directly with the Robinson's and the Freedom Seekers and the other staff that worked at Rokeby. See the spaces where they slept. Learn about when Freedom Seekers came here they weren't hiding but they were working and what were their lives like when they came to Vermont and what's the nuance that that the Underground Railroad has that you don't really learn about at other sites. I would definitely recommend to go to Rokeby. It also has really beautiful like fields and it's really nice to see where Freedom Seekers were and just it has a lot of history. Lots of history has happened there and personally I love history so if you love history I would definitely go there. You can learn about history from all these different aspects. You can learn about the history of the specific people that came here the Robinson's themselves and the power dynamic that was going on between the Freedom Seekers and the Robinson's as well as the Robinson's and their staff and look at it all with a critical lens. There's history, there's agriculture, there's exercise and it's beautiful and you can picnic. To other teachers I would say we have this incredible little hidden gem in Ferrisburg. It's so close. It's really worth the bus or car trip to get the students there and out into the open air, into the museum, into the house and really help them feel how history is not done but it's still living and Rokeby really helps the children experience that.