From Gothic Novels to Folk Tunes: Award-Winning Teens Revel in History

Earlier this year, Elijah Cockey, 18, and his sister, Isabel, 16, made history by becoming the first students on Maryland’s Eastern Shore to earn Congressional Gold Medals since 2019.

The honor was especially apropos given that much of their work earning the medals involved volunteering as practitioners of living history. The homeschooled siblings enjoy bringing the past to life—partly as a way to prepare for their own futures.

Qualifying for the awards entailed not simply spending hundreds of hours performing community service, physical fitness, and personal development projects, but also carefully documenting these efforts.

Elijah and his sister undertook the challenge in order to demonstrate what they were capable of achieving. The Congressional Award program fit the bill because it allowed the teens to capitalize on activities they were already doing.

By earning gold, said Elijah, he and his sister have illustrated that they are “ambitious young people who are looking to make a change in the world.”

Big on History

This desire to alter things for the better is rooted in a passion to first understand the past. Elijah and Isabel don’t just study history; they immerse themselves in it.

Homeschooled for their entire educational careers, the students’ connection to history began with their immediate environment. “We live in a log cabin two hundred feet from the edge of the water in the middle of nowhere,” Isabel explained.

This rustic ambience is something they’ve embraced. For example, said Isabel, she’s looking forward to learning more about how ties to a certain region can affect individual attitudes.

“I love Southern Gothic literature,” Isabel said. “It’s where we live.” So this fall, her mom, Amber Cockey, will be leading Isabel through a course she designed to explore books like To Kill a Mockingbird.

That doesn’t mean the siblings’ interests are limited to a single era. Elijah and Isabel have donned costumes and performed historical interpretation at several sites in the region. They’ve dressed in colonial garb for activities at the 18th-century Historic London Town and Gardens in Edgewater, Maryland.

Elijah has also done reenactments at places associated with watershed 19th-century events: Baltimore’s Fort McHenry, where Francis Scott Key penned the lyrics to The Star-Spangled Banner, and Manassas, Virginia, where Union and Confederate forces fought the first major battle of the Civil War.

Living history accounts for only some of the combined 800 hours of volunteer work the siblings compiled for their awards. The teens assisted with conservation with the Nanticoke Watershed Alliance, promoted local creativity at the Salisbury Art Space (where Isabel also worked toward her personal goal of improving as a photographer), and participated in a local 4-H club.

Fitness and Adventure

In addition to serving others, the teens also labored to meet the Congressional Award program requirements for personal development. To meet the required 200 hours of physical fitness, Isabel tracked her time horseback riding and dancing. Elijah engaged in fencing and powerlifting. (This was in addition to workouts they did to meet Maryland law’s physical education homeschool requirements.)

The final component of the award program called for a 10-day expedition. The teens turned to an activity their family has enjoyed for some time—camping. The siblings planned the itinerary, journaled their experiences, hiked a specified number of miles, and prepared their own food.

“It was a lot of fun,” noted Isabel. “We took turns being in charge.” Their expedition took place in upper New York—one of 38 states the Cockey family has visited. As for the remaining 12 states, “we’re hoping to close that gap,” insisted Elijah.

Along the way, they plan to add to their current tally of 200 national park sites. That’s a lot, admitted Isabel, but she added: “Homeschooling really allows for taking trips together like that.”

Band of Brother and Sisters

In addition to homeschooling, traveling, and volunteering, Isabel and Elijah have devoted a lot of time to an undertaking that has brought delight to their community and shaped their own futures as well. Along with their younger sister, Guinevere, the teens play in a band that has become a fixture in the local bluegrass circuit.

In its own way, this musical pursuit honors a piece of family history. The siblings’ father, Robin Cockey, trained as a classical violinist, but in the 1990s joined a group known as The Folk Heroes. “He’s been playing bluegrass, Celtic, and Appalachian music ever since,” Elijah recounted.

In elementary school, the siblings also learned to play the violin. “Before we hit our teen years, we weren’t that interested in bluegrass,” said Elijah. “Part of the reason is because it was our dad’s thing.”

As they matured, the siblings agreed to sample folk musical stylings. Isabel learned to make her violin sing like a fiddle, Guinevere took up the mandolin, and Elijah began plucking a banjo.

“It really spoke to me,” Elijah said.

Their initial forays into the genre were as accoutrements to their dad’s group. But then the siblings decided to forge their own personas as bluegrass performers, forming a separate band they called The Folk Villains.

The Cockey siblings performing bluegrass

In the past several years, the young Cockeys have become a fixture in their community. They’ve performed on local television, at festivals, and in fairs. In one of their more high-profile appearances, The Folk Villains recently played at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. During the past 12 months they’ve performed, on average, every two weeks.

In fact, Isabel and Elijah missed the Congressional Awards ceremony over the summer due to a previous concert engagement. “Everything is pre-empted by bluegrass,” they both acknowledged with a laugh.

New Directions, Old Traditions

This fall, however, Elijah will be forced to reduce his participation in the siblings’ group to undertake yet another commitment. He’ll be in his first semester at Denison University, where he intends to study music and participate in the school’s bluegrass ensemble.

“I auditioned for 12 music schools,” said Elijah. But he chose Denison because, of course, it also offered a robust program in early American history. “It’s sort of the best of both worlds,” he noted. “It seemed like the best for me.”