EAST BRUNSWICK–For more than a decade, East Brunswick High School Social Studies teacher Robert Gangi has been educating his students about topics such as world history and genocide in modern times.
He has been selected as a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Scholar and will participate in the Teaching the Holocaust through Visual Culture seminar from July 8-19 at Bowdoin College in Maine.
Gangi has been a teacher at the high school for 14 years and has taught world history, the Vietnam War and genocide in the modern World. Next year, he will launch a new course titled Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.
“I was aware of [the agency’s] excellent programs so I applied to be selected as a participant in their summer seminar,” Gangi said. “The application required an updated resume and some essay writing.”
The approximately 462 National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Scholars who participate in these programs of study will teach almost 68,000 American students during the 2019-20 school year, according to a statement provided by the school district.
Gangi said he thinks he was chosen for the seminar among an array of applicants from across the nation because he has a wealth of experience and a great passion for Holocaust education.
He said he has participated in other programs such as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Teacher Fellowship, an Alfred Lerner Fellowship with the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, Holocaust and Jewish Resistance Program in Poland and Israel.
“[I] have been teaching this specialized material for over a decade. I think they wanted participants from various backgrounds and levels of experience, and I represent a more veteran/experienced teacher,” Gangi said. “Thus, I hope I can learn a great deal more at the seminar, and contribute positively to the program.”
Gangi will attend one of 32 summer seminars and institutes supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, according to the statement.
“I am very excited. I am a lifelong learner and I jump at most opportunities to enrich my own knowledge and to learn about new ways to enhance my teaching,” Gangi said. “Every seminar, workshop, scholarship, fellowship or study abroad program I have ever participated in has always greatly enriched me as a scholar and an educator. I have no doubt that the [agency’s] Teaching the Holocaust Through Visual Culture [seminar] will be any different.”
Gangi continued to say, “I look forward to the opportunity to learn and to contribute and to bring new ideas, materials and methodologies back to my classroom.”
For more information about the National Endowment for the Humanities, visit www.neh.gov/about.
Contact Vashti Harris at [email protected].