Where do you teach and what subject do you teach?
I teach 7th grade Civics and 8th grade Pre-AP World History and Geography at Clearwater Fundamental Middle School.

How did you get involved with the JFR?
After participating in numerous trainings at the Florida Holocaust Museum, I was offered the opportunity to attend a terrific summer program with the JFR.

What drew you to the organization and its programming?
I love that the JFR is focused on education, and more importantly on honoring those who risked their lives to help others. I also really appreciate the level and quality of scholarship provided by the JFR. All of the participants that I have had the pleasure of learning with are also very dedicated.

What was the most compelling thing you learned as an Alfred Lerner Fellow?
The most compelling thing that I have learned is that the history is complex, diverse, and continuously unfolding.

What is your favorite memory from your participation in JFR programming?
I have so many wonderful memories in New York, New Jersey, and Europe. My favorite memory is getting to meet and converse with so many of the rescuers while in Europe; they were truly inspirational.

How do you feel the Lerner fellowship has impacted your life, both personally and professionally?
Personally, the Lerner fellowship has allowed me to meet amazing educators and scholars who have enriched my life and deepened my appreciation for the important work that we do in our classrooms. Professionally, it provided me with the ability to extend my knowledge and to share that knowledge with other educators.

Where are you from?
I am from Richmond, Vermont.

Where do you teach and what subject do you teach?
I teach at Champlain Valley Union High School in Hinesburg, VT. I have been teaching a variety of courses in the Social Studies Department since 1997

How did you get involved with the JFR?
I am on the Advisory Board for the University of Vermont’s Miller Center for Holocaust Studies where I represent Vermont high school teachers of Holocaust Studies.  The UVM faculty members on the Advisory Board nominated me to the JFR’s Summer Institute in 2018.

What drew you to the organization and its programming?
I wasn’t familiar with the JFR until I was nominated for the Summer Institute but since then I have really come to appreciate the array of resources that the JFR has collected and can provide Holocaust educators.  The mission of the JFR, to support, preserve and promote the legacy of the Righteous Gentiles is in line with my own personal teaching philosophy.  I believe as a social studies educator that my most important job is to teach the skills and mindsets that help our students be “contributing members of a healthy democratic society.”  It is vital that we develop respect, empathy and the bonds of community with our neighbors.  Using the Righteous Gentiles as role models for my students can be a powerful way to inspire them.

What was the most compelling thing you learned as an Alfred Lerner Fellow?
One lecture that has stuck with me and that has been particularly useful to me was Dr. Steven Field’s talk on Medicine in the Third Reich.  I teach in a community near The University of Vermont Medical Center- and we have a lot of children of medical professionals so this is ALWAYS a topic of interest and source of many questions from my students. Dr. Field’s talk provided me with so many answers to questions I was often asked.

What is your favorite memory from your participation in JFR programming?
I LOVED the opportunity to get to know teachers from all over the country (and the world). It’s always rewarding for me to learn about how education works in other states, to share lessons and pedagogy with others and to commiserate!  I am still friends on Facebook with so many of them.  It’s been fascinating to follow my Polish colleagues in particular as world events unfold around us. I also really enjoyed the Columbia campus facilities and the opportunity to visit New York City!

How do you feel the Lerner fellowship has impacted your life, both personally and professionally?
I feel that the Lerner Fellowship deepened my professional knowledge and gave me the pedagogical tools, resources and a bank of questions I can use with students to develop not only their content knowledge but also their ethical thinking.  The experience helped to learn about new areas of Holocaust history and to really consider how to present information in a respectful and impactful way.

Anything else you’d like to share with the JFR’s followers and supporters?
I truly appreciate the financial supporters whose contributions make the Lerner Fellowship study week possible. This is not something I would have been able to access without their generosity

Where are you from?
Atlanta, GA

Where do you teach and what subject do you teach?
I teach History and the Holocaust (a seminar I created in 1997) at the Marist School

How did you get involved with the JFR?
When I created a seminar on the Holocaust in 1997 I knew I needed the best pedagogical training possible to help me develop the curriculum. I sought assistance from the Breman Museum here in Atlanta, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous. 

What drew you to the organization and its programming?
Initially I was drawn to the JFR by the partnerships they developed with many leading Holocaust scholars, historians, and experts such as Debórah Dwork, Robert Jan van Pelt, and Christopher Browning.  No other organization offered educators like me the unique opportunity to learn from such distinguished academics. With its expertly curated selection of readings Voices and Views is an example of the scholarship they offer their educators. Additionally, I wanted to include in my seminar curriculum a better understanding of the actions, motivations and lessons of the Righteous Gentiles. 

What was the most compelling thing you learned as an Alfred Lerner Fellow?
Central to what I learned about the Holocaust was the history of Auschwitz. After teaching my Holocaust seminar for several years I wanted to expand our learning beyond the limits of our classroom walls by taking my students to Europe to study the Holocaust more intensively at the many places where it occurred. What I learned about Auschwitz from Professors Dwork and Jan van Pelt at JFR seminars and institutes as well as through their book Auschwitz was a catalyst and gave me the self-assurance to lead my students on annual trips to Auschwitz, a program that has developed into one of the cornerstones of the educational programming at my school. 

What is your favorite memory from your participation in JFR programming?
Meeting Roman Kent was a rare opportunity of awakening. Roman helped me comprehend how the effort we make as educators to apply all our learning, insight, and innate sympathy to the project of promoting understanding among different peoples, religions, and cultures is a lifelong undertaking and that we must never give up hope. 

How do you feel the Lerner fellowship has impacted your life, both personally and professionally?
My students are at a very special time in their lives. At their age they are desperate to leave childhood behind and enter adulthood. They stand at the threshold of living their lives more intentionally, deliberately, and with greater purpose where the only person they are destined to become is the person they choose to be, to paraphrase Emerson. However, before they look forward to this new stage in life, they must first look inward to better understand what they believe in, but they love, what they dream of, and what they value – because what they value, they become. Through its unique programming the Lerner fellowship provides a curriculum designed to help students across this threshold and inspires educators with the confidence to guide them.