MISSOULA –

Kayla Blackman, a recent graduate of The University of Montana, has been named one of 15 winners of the 2012 Gilder Lehrman History Scholar Award.

The award recognizes outstanding graduating college seniors who have demonstrated academic and extracurricular excellence in American history or American studies.

Blackman, who is from Billings, received a bachelor’s degree in history at UM this year. She will enroll in the UM Department of History master’s program this fall.

Blackman will join award winners from universities such as Yale, Purdue and Stanford June 8-11 in New York City for a series of special presentations in their honor. They will meet with eminent scholars and participate in exclusive behind-the-scenes tours of historic archives. Museum and archive visits will include stops at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New-York Historical Society and Museum of the City of New York.

Since 1994 the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History has promoted history education through an array of national programs. More information about the institute is online at http://www.gilderlehrman.org/historyscholaraward.

For more information about UM’s history department, visit http://www.cas.umt.edu/history.

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Missoulian, Billings Gazette

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