Beacon College professors Drs. Patricia Konovalov and Nicki Nance spent part of the summer studying Greek antiquities and discovering the plight of Greek Jews during the Holocaust as educators selected for Classrooms without Borders.
According to its website, the Pittsburgh, Pa.-based organization provides “experiential professional development for teachers through study seminars that take place outside of the classroom. History, culture, politics and current events are experienced ‘live’ through learning tours abroad with a focus on Holocaust and Israel education.”
This summer, the program, founded in 2011 Dr. Zipora Gur, a Jewish studies educator, dispatched participants to either Greece or Poland.
Konovalov and Nance spent 11 days in Athens, Greece visiting synagogues and meeting with families ravaged by the atrocities of the Holocaust. Nance, an associate professor of human services and psychology, said they also visited hotspots of antiquity including the Acropolis, Oracle of Delphi and Mount Olympus.
“It was a powerful experience,” said Konovalov, an assistant professor in the humanities department who teaches classes in learning essentials and self-discovery, career exploration and prejudice and discrimination. “One of the aims of CWB is to ‘empower our educators and students to experience history deeply, personally, and intellectually’ and indeed they did.”