Twenty teachers participated in the inaugural Civic Literacy Institute July 14-17 on the University of Wyoming campus. From left are Aubreigh Doran, from Rossman Elementary School in Cheyenne; Mia Sutphin, from Cheyenne’s Coyote Ridge Elementary School; and Terrene Vigil, from Freedom Elementary in Cheyenne. (UW Foundation Photo)
Wyoming’s We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution, a civic education program at the University of Wyoming, will receive $90,000 per year for five years for a total of $450,000 from the W.R. Coe Endowment.
We the People is a nationally acclaimed, comprehensive curriculum for elementary, middle and high school students that covers the history and principles of constitutional democracy in the United States. It is a flagship program of the Center for Civic Education, a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization.
Through We the People, students learn about America’s founding principles and documents, the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, and governmental systems and structure. The program culminates with simulated congressional hearings, where students testify before a panel of judges.
“We the People promotes an inquiry-based, experiential approach to learning about the Constitution,” says Andy Pannell, civic education program manager at the UW College of Education, where the program is housed. “When you teach students about the Constitution and public policy, a lot of times they gain a renewed sense of patriotism and an understanding of why the American experiment is an interesting and wonderful phenomenon and why they might want to get involved and get engaged.”
Allocated funds from the Coe Endowment will allow the Wyoming We the People program to provide professional development opportunities to Wyoming teachers, including the Civic Literacy Institute. The program hosted the inaugural institute July 14-17 on the UW campus. Twenty teachers received training in both disciplinary literacy and how to implement the We the People curriculum.
“We think all kids should have access to great civic education, and teacher professional development is how that happens,” Pannell says. “We aim to provide teachers with the time, tools and training they need to implement We the People in their classrooms.”
At the high school level, student teams can participate in the state competition, which takes place at the Wyoming State Capitol in December. The winning team advances to the We the People National Finals in Washington, D.C. In 2025, Sheridan High School was the top-scoring Unit One team in the national competition.
“We the People has been well received in Wyoming,” Pannell says. “For example, at Cody High School, every senior takes part in the program. We would love to have the Cody model in more schools in Wyoming.”
Since the program’s inception in 1987, approximately 36,000 Wyoming students have been part of the program at the elementary, middle and high school levels. Roughly 6,500 high school students have participated in competitive hearings. More than 350 Wyoming teachers have received training.
“The allocation from the Coe Endowment represents a meaningful investment in both strengthening K-12 civics education across Wyoming and further advancing the university’s land-grant mission to serve the state,” says Anne Alexander, UW’s interim provost.
The Coe Endowment was created through a bequest from William Robertson Coe, a philanthropist and an insurance, railroad and business executive, who split his time between Cody and New York. He believed in free enterprise and the importance of teaching American values in schools.
In addition to the Coe Endowment, the Wyoming We the People program is funded by a mix of state and private support, most notably by an endowed fund established by the John P. Ellbogen Foundation.
For more information about the Wyoming We the People program and other civic education programs, go to www.uwyo.edu/education/civiced.
The University of Wyoming has earned its Research Level 1 (R1) status from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, placing Wyoming's only four-year university with the top research universities in the United States.