Student Video

In her journey from childhood in a camp war-torn Congo to enrollment at Brandeis University, Geraldine struggled to find her way.  Encouraged by her Facing History and Ourselves teacher at Brookline (MA) High School, Geraldine wrote an essay comparing and contrasting her experiences in The Congo with the Holocaust experiences Elie Wiesel recounts in Night; the essay was one of 50 winners in Oprah Winfrey’s national essay contest. Facing History inspired her to share her story, and set her on a path to improve the lives of young people in the country of her birth.

The students of Newcomers High School in Long Island City, New York, which specializes in teaching recent immigrants, and those of St. Luke's, a private middle school in Manhattan, come together to dialogue about difference and combat bias. The Building Bridges project was created through a collaboration between Newcomers teacher Julie Mann and St. Luke's teacher Kim Allen, who met, in 1999 through a Facing History and Ourselves workshop. Ms. Mann's class of English-learners exchanged letters with their St.Luke's "buddies," and in the first of several meet-ups, St.

For Baylee C., an 8th grader at John J. Pershing West Middle School in Chicago, a Facing History and Ourselves class awakened the realization of how important it is not to be silent. One of her  great-grandfathers was an African American soldier in World War II who came home to the segregated South, but no one discussed how much it hurt to live under Jim Crow laws.

Alex C., a student at TechBoston Academy, participated in a U.S. Department of State-funded exchange with students in Rwanda through Facing History and Ourselves. He describes his experience visiting a memorial to the Rwandan genocide with Rwandan students, and says, "I have learned about history, but I have also learned about life." Alex speaks at Facing History's 2010 New England benefit dinner.