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Introduction

Home Forums 2023 Summer Seminar Introduction

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      Kelly Berry
      Participant

      Hey there everyone! My name is Kelly Berry, and I reside in St. Louis, Missouri. I appreciate living near the muddy Mississippi and the magnificent St. Louis Arch, but I am a sand and sea girl at heart. I am honored to teach English at the Academy, a private, Catholic high school for young women. In my 8th year, I currently teach 11th grade American Literature, 12th grade Holocaust Literature, 12th grade Film Appreciation, and moderate the Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Club.

      After participating in the Bearing Witness Summer Institute in 2017, I was inspired to move beyond teaching a unit of the Holocaust and created an entire course focusing on its literature, media, and individual human stories. Fortunately, our administrators recognized and supported the value of Holocaust education and accepted my proposal for the course. The student response and interest has been beyond anything I could have imagined. I am humbled and in awe of their engagement, curiosity, and willingness to grapple with the tough topics, individual stories, and readings/media we tackle in the course. Additionally, we are blessed to have a local Holocaust survivor who shares her history with the girls and encourages them to pursue justice in our ever-changing world.

      My passion for Holocaust education and the desire to keep growing my knowledge of it has led me to professional opportunities from amazing experts and fellow educators in the field. I was blessed to travel to Poland with Yad Vashem’s “Journey to Poland” in 2019. I completed my MA in Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Gratz College in January. For my MA project, I worked with two New York Times best selling authors (Martha Hall Kelly and Elizabeth Wein) to write guides for their novels about Ravensbruck. I created a website for all things Ravensbruck to aid educators in the study of the Holocaust and the women’s camp. It will be made public in January 2024.

      On a personal note, I have been married for 27 years to Craig, my software engineer husband. We love cooking together and trying out new recipes. We have two amazing daughters. Quinn is a rising senior at St. Louis University and is prepping for the LSAT she will take in June. Reese is a rising junior at Loyola University-New Orleans where she is a collegiate swimmer and a criminology major. I enjoy hanging out with all 3 of my peeps, traveling to sunny locations, going to SEC college football games, cheering at collegiate swim meets, walking with our rescue pup, and reading. I also volunteer as a docent at the St. Louis Kaplan-Feldman Holocaust Museum.

      I look forward to working with and learning from all of you!

      -Kelly

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