Westlake represented at annual Facing History conference

Shannon Kruger, Maggie Katonka, Hanna Tegel and Abby Salem

Four Westlake High School juniors – Shannon Kruger, Maggie Katonka, Hanna Tegel and Abby Salem – were selected as Student Senators by the Cleveland chapter of Facing History and Ourselves for this year’s conference at John Carroll University.

The students were nominated by Social Studies teacher Elizabeth Noren last spring and will serve as conference facilitators and leaders. Student Senators also will hail this year from MLK, Beachwood, Laurel, Twinsburg, Cleveland Heights, East Cleveland, Lakewood and St. Joseph’s Academy high schools.

This year’s conference theme is “Finding Your Voice.” Mahatma Gandhi suggested that “We must be the change we wish to see in the world.” At the conference, students will examine how to use their voices to effect change right now or how to find their voices to make change in their schools and communities.

Student Senators will meet three times over the course of the year on Saturdays at JCU. The goal of the program is to engage students in the group’s themes and approach to history and literature, while promoting civic agency and leadership skills.

Student leadership group goals include:

• Build on conversations that originate in Facing History and Humanities classrooms in the city and suburbs
• Create bridges between a diverse group of students
• Introduce leadership skills
• Engage committed students in activities within the Facing History scope and sequence
• Create a network of Facing History students
• Reach out to a wider group of students within the schools, especially younger students
• Have fun and make students excited about the history that they learn within the Facing History lessons

Noren, who has been affiliated with the organization since 2007, uses many of the group’s modules within her classroom. Facing History and Ourselves is a Boston-based international organization that promotes tolerance and acceptance by using aspects of history, including the Holocaust, Little Rock Nine, the Armenian Genocide, the American Eugenics Movement and Islamophobia.

Students study history and examine the effects these events had on people. Students then are asked to come up with ways to address similar issues within their schools pertaining to prejudice, stereotyping and bullying.