The Exploration of Human Rights and Genocide course is an honors-level semester class offered exclusively to seniors. Seniors must write an essay in order to be accepted into the class.

The course was led by four instructors: Mrs. Louise Géczy, Mr. Darrion Siler, Mr. Gary Scholl, and Mrs. Meghan Doyle.

According to the course website, the class aims to “provide students with the ability to explore human rights violations, the evolution of and resistance to injustice, and consequences of genocide.”

Mrs. Géczy said that one of the focuses is also “being able to look at things from all different perspectives.”

At the beginning of the year, students were assigned a final project to present at the end of the second quarter. The project encompassed each student’s biggest takeaways from the course. Students turned in the project on January 2 and presented the project in the following weeks before the second semester began.

Although the project had specific guidelines, members of the class could choose how they presented their information.

Mrs. Géczy said, “We gave [the students] the freedom to create a final project using a medium that they are comfortable with or that they had never tried and wanted to explore.”

Mandy Schall chose to conduct an interview for her final project. She said, “I was lucky enough to interview Mrs. Marsha Tishler, a survivor from the Holocaust. I then took her interview and put it into a video to share with my class and to highlight specific parts of her story.”

“The project gave me a connection to Mrs. Tishler’s story. Hearing Mrs. Tishler’s story firsthand was incredible and will have an effect on me forever,” added Mandy.

Chloe Davies displayed her performing arts talents in her project.

She said, “Through choreographing a dance for my final project, I learned how to use dance to promote social change, something I had not done up until that point. I also learned how to tell a message through movement.”
Chloe’s project required a generous amount of time and effort. “I prepared for my project first by creating an audio by editing news reports about various genocides and propaganda from genocides on top of the song ‘Breathe’ by Mother Mother. Then, I choreographed, practiced, and taught my dance partner, Izzy Cole, the dance. Finally, I created my PowerPoint and practiced it over and over again so that I would give the best presentation possible,” said Chloe.

Other students like Caden Daubach chose a more technical approach. He said, “My project was a research-based paper and presentation. I researched the environmental factors and group mentality which are able to influence an ordinary person to become a perpetrator.”

“The project allowed me to grow in my understanding of different roles in a genocide. It’s given me a greater appreciation for the bravery of the victims,” Caden added.

Mrs. Gézcy said, “We have had all different kinds of projects, but everyone has been able to accomplish what they meant to accomplish.”