Writer and Cypress Springs high school science teacher Dr. Alain Harvey was recently selected to participate in the highly competitive National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) cultural teacher workshop: Voices of the Ancients: Archaeology and Oral Tradition in the American West. Over the summer, Harvey will travel to Utah and Colorado to explore the rich history and ancient tradition and archaeological legacy of the Fremont people.
“I’ll walk in the footsteps of forgotten people, listen to stories older than ink, and return with something I can pass on,” Harvey said. “It’s not just about learning facts, it’s about learning how to listen. It’s about honoring the narratives buried beneath our feet and lifting them into light.”
Through Voices of the Ancients, Harvey and several others will explore Fremont rock art sites, participate in oral history workshops, meet archaeologists and tribal elders, and visit museums and sacred landscapes.
“The Fremont people left behind mysterious petroglyphs and painted hands on canyon walls,” Harvey said. “Their story is one of resilience and creativity, told not through written words but carved stone and oral memory.”
With the NEH covering the costs for the trip’s basic necessities, Harvey praises the NEH for allowing teachers from every corner of the country to be able to participate regardless of their financial background.
“It’s a rare thing: a national institution investing in the minds and hearts of public school educators, not for profit, but for preservation and possibility,” Harvey said.
With millions of applicants from educators nationwide, Voices of the Ancients has a highly competitive selection process. Applicants were asked to write a detailed essay explaining their teaching philosophy, their interest in the program, and how they plan to bring the experience back to their students.
“It’s not an audition, it’s more like sharing your story and hoping it resonates,” Harvey said. “I’ll return with something I can pass on – not just to students, but to anyone curious about where we come from and where we’re headed.”
As a teacher who has been in the classroom for 24 years, Harvey shared that his teaching philosophy lies in awakening students by igniting transformation. Harvey said that he teaches with the conviction that learning is how we keep the future from forgetting us.
“My classroom is a blend of rigor and grace where science becomes a doorway to awe and every mistake is an invitation to grow,” Harvey said. ““I hold space for students to question, stumble, wonder, and discover not just formulas and dates, but themselves.”
Despite being a teacher himself, Harvey acknowledges the endless bounds of his own curiosity, claiming that education is a priceless freedom in a world of fast answers. That’s why instead of continuing to pursue law, Harvey chose education.
“I missed the wonder of questions, the spark of discovery, the raw, human messiness of learning,” he said. “The best teachers are always students at heart.”
Never been the one to suppress his wonders, Harvey has participated in several other national seminars including physics institutes and other cultural heritage programs. However, Harvey believes Voices of the Ancients will prove to be unique because the program is more immersive and intimate.
“This isn’t just an academic workshop –it’s a cultural reckoning, a journey of ethical storytelling,” Harvey said. “Unlike past programs that focused on content or pedagogy alone, this one honors the ancestral pulse beneath the curriculum. We’ll be asked to confront the silences in our textbooks and our teaching.”
Always been the one to encourage others and explore the limits of potential, Harvey is a person who dares to feel awe and dares to create a space where students can learn to dance with their mistakes. If he were to leave his mark on the world, Harvey wishes it wouldn’t be for power or perfection, but for presence and for helping his students.
“I’d want to be remembered as someone who used words to heal and science to illuminate,” he said. “I’d like to be known not for towering achievements, but for the quiet legacy of helping others discover their own voice. If a student years from now stands up and says, ‘I mattered in that classroom,’ then I’ve done something worth remembering.”
Remembrance is humanity’s strongest form of unity. Traditions and our roots are buried beneath stories untold and Harvey strives to uncover them with a golden heart of curiosity whether it be through the Fremont people or us.
“What if there was a story that could save civilization? That’s the power of memory. That’s the magic of what we do,” Harvey said. “I believe everyone has a story worth telling, including me and definitely including you.”
