8.1MB - College of Education - Auburn University

Two elementary education majors earn
fellowships at Holocaust Museum
S t u d e n t S u c c e s s
First they took the children.
Then they rounded up sisters and brothers, mothers and fathers,
aunts and uncles.
“We were taken to a railroad station, and
they put us in cattle cars,” Naomi Warren
recalled in an interview with the Holocaust
Museum Houston.
Warren, then a 22-year-old living in Eastern
Poland, didn’t know where those cattle cars
would take her family and other Jews after the
Nazis rounded them up. Those railroad tracks
eventually led to Auschwitz, where a sign above
the gates read, “Work makes you free.”
Warren managed to survive the brutality of
Auschwitz and two other concentration camps
before being liberated in 1945.
Six million Jews didn’t make it.
They and many others were the victims of systematic murder.
Warren wanted to ensure future generations would pay heed
to the dangers of hatred, prejudice and apathy. She and her family
created the Warren Fellowship for Future Teachers, which brings 25
preservice teachers to the Holocaust Museum Houston for a week
of educational training and outreach opportunities.
Two Auburn College of Education students,
senior elementary education majors Emily
Duke (top photo) and Lee-Cassie Robinson
(bottom photo), were selected for fellowships in
the six-day, all-expenses-paid institute held in
May 2010.
Both students learned how to effectively teach
about the Holocaust, genocide and other
sensitive topics. As Warren Fellows, Duke and
Robinson were immersed in pedagogical and
historical issues relating to the Holocaust and
met and worked with Holocaust survivors and
eminent scholars.
“Tolerance and diversity — kids don’t know that stuff,’’ said Robinson,
a Huntsville, Ala., native and former College of Education
Student Council president. “We’ve seen in previous generations that
it’s skipped in school.”
Robinson said the Warren Fellowship helped her learn how to
“teach from the lens” of elementary students in dealing with sensitive
topics. Duke, a Madison, Ala., native, said she appreciated the
opportunity to interact with and learn from Holocaust survivors.
“I feel blessed that Naomi Warren set up this opportunity,” said
Duke, a College of Education Student Ambassador and president
of the Student Alabama Education Association. “It’s more than just
seminars. It’s more than just having speakers come to town.
“This is a professional development opportunity. The more tools
we can put in our toolboxes, the more prepared we will be as firstyear
teachers.”
The Holocaust Museum Houston, which opened in 1996,
contains a number of graphic reminders of where hatred can lead.
It contains a 1942 World War II railcar similar to the one that transported
Warren to Auschwitz.
“It just goes to show you the power of speech,” Duke said. “The
Holocaust didn’t start with mass murdering. It started with hate and
prejudice. The point of this program is to teach from a very young
age to be accepting of others and to respect differences. We’re going
to get a lot of tools to be able to teach that.”
A K e y s t o n e i n B u i l d i n g a B e t t e r F u t u r e f o r A l l 21