This article was a winner of Lookout’s 2026 Journalism Scholarship Challenge, which invited high school students to highlight an unsung hero in their lives. Learn more and find all of the winners here.
To quote Soquel High School’s assiduous Mrs. Ferejohn, “We are as strong as our knowledge of each other is.” This knowledge can be found in a new course already facing bans in some U.S. states, AP African American Studies, or APAAS. A class valuable to the Santa Cruz County community, and beyond, its curriculum is crucial to understanding ideas about race and American history. Currently in its first year at Soquel High School, with only one class period, APAAS is taught by Marissa Ferejohn Swett. Having taught AP U.S. History, AP Government and ethnic studies, Mrs. Ferejohn is no stranger to teaching both AP courses and truths regarding race and identity. However, APAAS’ hundreds of documents requiring attention year-round separate it from other courses. Keeping youth engaged source after source requires a great level of instructional skill. Mrs. Ferejohn does an excellent job of keeping her students engaged and responsive to the rigorous course material of both an AP course, and a marginalized subject, by varying the way she presents information.
When asked how she balances the timeline and required framework while keeping instruction engaging, Marissa Ferejohn explains that by allowing her students to unpack documents individually, and then in groups, they learn more effectively than through lecture-based teaching, making primary sources approachable. Part of Ferejohn’s intention with her teaching is to appeal to all types of learners, such as auditory, visual and reading-oriented ones. Throughout all her classes, she makes sure students are always reading, writing, speaking and listening, whether alone, with a partner or the entire class, to keep students engaged. In a class with varied grades comes varied historical knowledge; to this, Mrs. Ferejohn says, “The trick is to meet kids where they are, that’s where the best learning happens.” Giving historical context as needed, Ferejohn does not ignore her students’ findings or questions, making them feel appreciated and valued. Further, she believes teaching history by presenting facts allows room for student thought, rather than one set narrative being pushed. Ferejohn aims to center her students’ voices, which can be difficult in a fast-moving AP course. Yet she says the class should be a space for the individual expression many students desired when they signed up for it.
Constantly giving this course her all, Ferejohn is still developing the best way to teach it to Soquel High students. She takes the quizzes she is to assign, and does the same readings she later has her students complete … learning alongside them, to ensure that what she expects of her class aligns with what they have learned. According to a longtime friend and colleague of Mrs. Ferejohn, Soquel’s honors world history and AP Government teacher, Matt Bruner, “Mrs. Ferejohn won’t hand you an assessment without giving you time to learn, and work hard to help you learn.” By being such a dedicated teacher, she ensures the long class periods at Soquel do not feel boring or rigid. “I have planned thousands of hours of more instruction than I taught, I always overplan!” admits Ferejohn.
Serving the educational community for over 20 years, Mrs. Ferejohn says her effort is always worth it, because it is important for students to trust their teachers, and that trust comes from a deep foundation of care. If that means she has to overdo it outside of class, then she does. She knows lecturing a class for a long period of time would exhaust her, and kids wouldn’t be learning well. On this topic, Bruner says students remember the teachers who work hard for them, the ones who hold them accountable while giving them opportunities to learn.
One thing Bruner says he has learned over the years from Ferejohn is not to waste students’ time. In rigorous courses, everything counts. This way, rather than busywork, actual learning takes place. Further, Bruner believes the most important trait of an APAAS teacher is “a genuine desire to teach the course authentically, in a way that doesn’t shy away from the truths of marginalization,” crediting Ferejohn as the perfect fit.
Bruner believes many lose their desire to learn as an adult, asserting that Ferejohn refuses to stop learning. She reads often, and does her own personal learning to teach the APAAS course in an authentic way. Ferejohn says “teachers should always be learning and use the students’ reactions and behavior as a guide.”
Mrs. Ferejohn recognizes that representation matters, and that there is a huge racial disparity in teaching. Advocating for the course’s implementation at Soquel High, Ferejohn says she did not want to wait for a Black teacher’s arrival for the class to exist. She wanted Soquel’s classes to allow Black youth to feel represented and want to become educators, too. Bruner also believes that offering programs such as APAAS and a Black student union diversifies Soquel High’s campus and offers necessary representation. It is also important that white and non-Black youth take the course. Ferejohn says, “There is nothing we’re doing in this class that is not part of the nation’s story…we all are intertwined, and should all learn about our fellow humans.”
In all, Marissa Ferejohn Swett’s behind-the-scenes dedication to both APAAS and her students is extremely valued. In being a teacher of a rarely taught subject in the Santa Cruz County community, she is making a positive impact on her students’ lives by teaching them the truth of African American history and its relevance in the present, in a way that encourages student voices and a desire to learn.
Isabelle Guilford is a student at Soquel High School