HOUSTON, TX (Jan. 10, 2011) – Twenty undergraduate and graduate students in the School of Education from Syracuse University in New York travelled to Houston this January for the Museum’s fifth annual Spector/Warren Fellowship for Future Educators, a program designed for Syracuse University students.

The New York students arrived Jan. 8 for six days of training that included presentations from Dr. Daniel Cohen, Rice University; Brandy Hebert, an art educator with KIPP Academy Middle School; Dr. Mary Johnson, from Facing History and Ourselves; Dr. Ann Millin, of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; Nancy Patz, an artist and author of “Who Was The Woman Who Wore the Hat?”; and Dr. Karen Shawn, of Yeshiva University.

Child survivor Chaja Verveer, a member of the Texas Holocaust and Genocide Commission and HMH board member, also spoke to the students. Museum staff and volunteers presenting at the fellowship included Dr. Mary Lee Webeck, HMH director of education; Cynthia Capers, associate director of education; Natalie Herzog, assistant director of education; Kelly Webeck, a visual arts educator; and HMH docents Hazel Bensky, Bryan Howell and Jan Robertson.

The students spent time with Holocaust survivor Naomi Warren and other Houston-area survivors before touring Holocaust Museum Houston’s Permanent Exhibition, “Bearing Witness: A Community Remembers.” The students also toured two exhibits pertaining to Holocaust memory, “Displaced Persons: Photographs by Clemens Kalischer” in the Central Gallery and ““Fragile Fragments: Expressions of Memory” in the Museum’s Mincberg Gallery.

This year’s fellows included: Emily Bernard of Clay, NY; Jessica Sawchuk of Ithaca, NY; Kimberly Aspden of Liverpool, NY; Michelle Prince of Penneville, NY; and Gyasi Barber, Rachel Belinda, Tyler Bell, Robyn Carney, Kelly Fives, Allana Gauzza, Megan Giehl, Michael Gordon, Adrianna Gricius, Johna Kesten, Margaret McCabe, Lauren McClenney, Kaity Schneekloth, Rebecca Stein, Kelsey Wiemer, and Clara Yang, all of Syracuse, NY.
 
The Spector/Warren Fellowship for Future Educators, supported by The Solomon Spector Foundation, is designed to bring the lessons of the Holocaust into the classroom.

Holocaust Museum Houston is dedicated to educating people about the Holocaust, remembering the 6 million Jews and other innocent victims and honoring the survivors' legacy. Using the lessons of the Holocaust and other genocides, the Museum teaches the dangers of hatred, prejudice and apathy.

Holocaust Museum Houston’s Morgan Family Center is free and open to the public and is located in Houston’s Museum District at 5401 Caroline St., Houston, TX 77004. For more information about the Museum, call 713-942-8000 or visit www.hmh.org.