Four ninth grade Humanities students from Greenwich High School’s Innovation Lab program have won top prizes in the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center’s national Genocide Awareness Contest.
Students were invited to create and submit an original project in visual arts, poetry, music, or other media of artistic expression that commemorates some aspect of a genocide which has occurred in the 20th or 21st centuries.
According to the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center, April was Genocide Awareness Month because “many genocides that took place in the 20th and 21st Centuries either began in April or include significant events which occurred in April.”
Through the student contest, the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center encouraged students to raise awareness about these genocides and ongoing “crimes against humanity,” and most importantly, remember those who have been lost as a result of “man’s inhumanity to man.”
First Place: Maya Antipov; Original Art, “Left Behind” commemorating the victims of the war in Syria
Second Place: Benjamin Adovasio; Original Art Display, “The Ukrainian Conflict Memorial” 3D model
commemorating the current atrocities taking place in Ukraine
Third Place: Sasha Peterson; Original Art, “The Hidden Genocide” depicting the Rohingya minority targeted by the government of Myanmar
Honorable Mention: Lorenzo Pugliese; The Uyghurs – Video depicting genocidal actions currently being taken by the Chinese government against this ethnic and religious minority The Human Rights Education Center Human Rights Education Center will make a donation on the winners’ behalf to the Afya Foundation, a Westchester-based organization.
Afya provides an environmentally-sensitive, community-oriented solution to help address the critical shortage of medical supplies in underserved communities around the world.
Currently, they are working in partnership with US-Ukraine-Foundation and others to support the Ukrainian medical community and refugees seeking aid. Afya’s Disaster Response Hub has been preparing wound care, surgical equipment, and biomedical equipment to medical providers to ensure they have the supplies they need to care for wounded soldiers and civilians.
About the Greenwich High School Innovation Lab
Innovation Lab is a rigorous, interdisciplinary, school-within-a-school model at Greenwich High School. This progressive and personalized model is designed and implemented by a dedicated team of GHS educators who are leveraging innovative teaching methods, project-based and blended learning strategies, and leading-edge technology applications, all within the larger infrastructure of GHS.
Innovation Lab is devoted to fostering creativity, curiosity, and purpose within an interdisciplinary and academically rigorous, college preparatory curriculum. Teachers blend core disciplines to create STEM and Humanities in a project-based approach. Students develop the skills and content knowledge they require by connecting to questions and topics of interest. With guidance, they discover their passions and impact the community at large. Students in ninth, 10th and 11th grades are eligible to join the program. Research and development of GHS Innovation Lab is supported by a generous grant from the Greenwich Alliance for Education.