Keeping the Founding Alive: Janine Turner and Cathy Gillespie on Going Big

As America celebrates its 250th birthday, Janine Turner and Cathy Gillespie are working to ensure that the next generation understands the ideas that made the country possible.

Through Constituting America, the two have spent more than 15 years bringing the Constitution and America’s founding principles to young people in a way that connects with modern culture. Their approach combines civics education with music, film, essays, contests, classroom presentations, and other forms of media.

From One Teacher to a National Mission

For Janine, the mission began long before Constituting America.

A fifth-grade teacher introduced her to the Declaration of Independence through both academics and the arts, casting his students in the musical 1776. That experience showed her how education could spark a lifelong connection to America’s founding.

Years later, while homeschooling her daughter, Janine rediscovered the Constitution and realized how much she wanted young people to understand it. In 2010, she founded Constituting America, with Cathy bringing her extensive experience in government, politics, and fundraising to help turn the vision into reality.

Let Young People Lead

One of the organization’s most distinctive ideas is putting young people at the center of the work. Through its contests and programs, students create songs, short films, public service announcements, essays, and other projects focused on the Constitution.

The goal is bigger than teaching students facts. It is giving them an opportunity to become creators and influencers themselves. As Cathy explains, students can inspire their peers simply by seeing another young person take an interest in the Constitution.

Looking Ahead to the Next 250 Years

Both Janine and Cathy remain optimistic about America’s future. Their work in classrooms has shown them that young people are hungry to learn when they are invited into the conversation and given a chance to participate.

Their message is especially relevant during America’s 250th anniversary: understanding where the country came from can help inform where it goes next. Keeping that interest alive, they believe, will require people willing to step forward and take responsibility for passing these ideas to the next generation.

Going Big, in their case, started with a teacher, a conversation, and a conviction that young people could be inspired. Fifteen years later, that conviction has become a national effort to keep America’s founding principles alive.