This week, Brooke Canale and Brandi Kinney of Salamanca were honored by the New York State Board of Regents for their outstanding work in educating students and communities about the Holocaust and human rights.

Canale, a social studies teacher, and Kinney, an English arts teacher, have worked together for more than a decade on interdisciplinary classes and creative projects to raise awareness of human rights education.

State School Commissioner Betty Rosa praised the pair for their work on the “Atrocities Museum” project. Students researched human rights issues and collaborated with the school’s technology department to create 3D printed artifacts..

“Using real-life descriptions and artifacts, these women open a window into the past to support students in their learning and civic preparation,” said Rosa. They are leaders and mentors, developing lessons that stay with students across grade levels, helping them become adults who engage with the world around them.”

Kinney has spearheaded several enrichment programs that support student learning and civic development. She has taught literary studies on the history of anti-Semitism and a special class on human rights violations. For six years, she has been a co-advisor to the student council and has helped create a mentor teacher program for the school district.

Canale served as an advisor to the International Travel Club and the Student Government Club. In 2019, she collaborated with a Human Rights Abuses elective class that had students explore human rights issues in the modern world, including genocide in Sudan, Rwanda, and Cambodia.

Kinney and Canale, members of the Salamanca Teachers Association, said they also have local connections. “There is a lot of history of human rights violations in our community and the Native American community at large.”

There is also a civic element where students learn about tolerance and being activists, Kinney said. “And we’re always incorporating writing and reading skills, whether it’s historical fiction or vlogging,” he said. “We disguise all our surveys and requirements as fun.”

Chairman Lester Young said human rights education has become increasingly timely. “Recent incidents of anti-Semitism and racism demonstrate the continuing and critical need for the work to which these educators have devoted themselves,” Young said in presenting the award. “They show young people the importance of understanding the power history has over our future and standing up and speaking out against hatred and injustice.”

of Yavner Award Founded by the Board of Directors and funded by the late Honorary Director Louis Yavner of New York City, who served on the Board from 1975 to 1981.

The Yavner Citizen Award went to educator and curator Julie Goulding. Holocaust Museum & Tolerance and Education Center in Suffern.

Golding planned a public burial of the ashes of Holocaust victims killed in Chelmno death camp in Poland, as donated to the museum by local Holocaust survivors.

In response to the 2019 brutal attack on Hanukkah’s local Monsey synagogue, the museum is introducing a new program designed to combat anti-Semitism through education. Goulding produced classroom lessons and accompanying videos for the program for middle and high school students.