PRESS RELEASE
The Genocide Education Project
Contact: Raffi Momjian ([email protected])
(415) 264-4203
[email protected]
www.GenocideEd ucation.org
Link to PR: .htm
The Genocide Education Project Wraps up the 2008-2009 School Year
The 2008-2009 school year concludes complete with workshops and sessions
led by The Genocide Education Project. The Genocide Education Project
led a two-day workshop for Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD)
educators – sponsored by the school district. The workshop fell on two
Saturdays and provided LAUSD teachers an opportunity to learn about the
Armenian Genocide and develop a lesson plan to use with their students
in the upcoming school year.
The workshop included a session on the history of the Armenian Genocide
by Dr. Levon Marashlian, a professor at Glendale Community College who
also serves on The Genocide Education Project’s advisory board. His
lecture included a detailed analysis of the factors leading to the
genocide and a discussion regarding the response of the United States.
Suzanne Berberian spoke at the workshop on Armenian American identity in
public schools. She is a volunteer for The Genocide Education Project
and holds a leadership position in the Pasadena School District.
Teachers also participated in a session on identity and genocide
sponsored by Facing History and Ourselves.
Other sessions were led by Sara Cohan, Education Director of The
Genocide Education Project, and included such topics as the history of
the Armenians before 1915 in the Ottoman Empire, geopolitical
ramifications of genocide denial and strategies for effectively teaching
about the Armenian Genocide.
The Genocide Education Project also ran two sessions at the Day of
Learning in San Francisco, California. The Day of Learning is an annual
program sponsored by the Holocaust Center of Northern California. It is
an all day event that provides an opportunity for students, parents and
teachers to learn about the history of genocide. Each year the program
is designed around a particular theme. This year’s theme was `Taking a
Stand.’ The Genocide Education Project focused on the role of media
during genocide and specifically `The New York Times’ during the
Armenian Genocide. One session was designed for educators and the other
for high school students. The Genocide Education Project has
participated in this event for several years and is proud to support the
work of the Holocaust Center of Northern California and their commitment
to teaching about the Armenian Genocide.
For more information about the work of The Genocide Education Project
please visit
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SIDEBAR:
Meet Sara Cohan, Education Director, The Genocide Education Project
Spring, 2009 – Sara Cohan has been named The Genocide Education
Project’s full-time Education Director. Cohan’s comprehensive experience
in the field of education, including research, curriculum development
and teaching, make her particularly well-suited for the position.
Having earned her Master of Science degree in Social Science Education
from Florida State University and her Bachelor of Arts degree in
Anthropology/Sociology from Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, Cohan
has taught secondary education in Florida, including Florida’s
International Baccalaureate (IB) program, which offers advanced academic
courses with an international perspective. As a teacher, Cohan received
the George Washington Medal of Honor from the Freedoms Foundation at
Valley Forge, for the service-learning projects she implemented,
including her work with Nobel Peace Laureate, Betty Williams, teaching
students about human rights issues.
Cohan is very familiar with genocide education, both from her
professional experience and her family history, being a descendant of
Armenian Genocide and having lost family in the Holocaust. She is very
gratified to have taken this position. `The mission of the organization
is also my own: to ensure that the history of genocide is remembered,
analyzed, and discussed, and to use that history to find ways to thwart
future genocides. Through education, I am contributing to the fight
against genocide, and paying homage to my family’s history at the same
time.’
She also worked as a research fellow for the Southern Poverty Law
Center’s Teaching Tolerance project, which combats prejudice in
multicultural schools, providing free educational materials to teachers.
She was a Fulbright-Hays scholar in Mexico, under the sponsorship of the
United States Department of Education. There, she studied education and
culture with a focus on Mexican Art as a vehicle to better understanding
the diversity of Mexico.
Selected as a Justice Teaching Fellow by the Supreme Court of Florida,
Cohan went on to develop and implement a district-wide workshop on
law-related education to educators in Pensacola.
Cohan has written articles for scholarly journals and magazines, and has
written educational materials for a variety of organizations, including
The Genocide Education Project, and has recently authored an essay
entitled `My Grandfather’s Testimony’ which will be included in the new
book `Evoking Genocide: Scholars and Activists Describe the Works that
Shaped their Lives.’ The collection of essays will be available in
September.
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The Genocide Education Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization
that assists educators in teaching about human rights and genocide,
particularly the Armenian Genocide, by developing and distributing
instructional materials, providing access to teaching resources and
organizing educational workshops.
PICTURE CAPTIONS:
(1) Sara Cohan, Education Director with The Genocide Education Project,
working with teachers at "Day of Learning" in San Francisco, CA
(2) Herman Clay, Director, History and Social Science Branch, Secondary
Instructional Support Services, LAUSD, addressing teachers at The
Genocide Education Project’s LAUSD workshop
(3) Sara Cohan
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
