This year’s winner is Nicole Beahan of Nardin Academy. Nicole received a degree in History and Government/Secondary Education at Daemen University and earned a Master of Education in Secondary Social Studies from the University at Buffalo. As a teacher at Nardin for 16 years, she is currently teaching 7th and 8th grade American History.
Nicole’s interest in the Holocaust began at Lancaster High School, when she took an elective through the distant learning lab on the Holocaust, taught by the Holocaust Resource Center at the Maryvale Central School District. Through this class she traveled to Washington D.C. where she spent a day at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. During her tenure at Nardin, Nicole has taught the Holocaust every year, organizing their own Holocaust Museum where her students research a specific topic, create a presentation as well as a display for the museum which is visited by other students, faculty, and families. This past year, Nicole took a group of 7th and 8th graders to Germany and Poland on an educational experience to bring history off the pages and out of the classroom.
Upon receiving the Toby Ticktin Back Award at this year’s HERO Award Ceremony, Nicole explained the importance of teaching the Holocaust to her students: “The traveling Auschwitz exhibit, which is currently in Boston has a saying ‘Not Long Ago, Not Far Away.’ I want my students to realize that the Holocaust wasn’t something that happened hundreds of years ago. That there are survivors still here telling their stories today. It happened once; therefore, it can happen again, and we must never let that occur. My goal when it comes to teaching the Holocaust is to have students understand that this genocide was not the work of just one man, but of many perpetrators and bystanders. I want my students to realize they should not stand by silent and indifferent and that they have power to stop hate.”
