Office of Public Relations

Pomona, NJ 08240

 

Stockton College Awards Berkman-Chipkin Scholarships to Four Graduate Students

Recipients Include Two New Jersey and Two Out-of-State Students

 

For Immediate Release

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Contact: Tim Kelly

Stockton Public Relations

(609) 652-4950

 

GALLOWAY TWP., NJ The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey has named the awardees of four Berkman-Chipkin Scholarships, established to honor the memory of Sarah and Michael Chipkin and Joseph Berkman, victims of the Nazis during World War II and the Holocaust.

 

Stockton is home of the nations first Masters program in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, a program that is attracting students from throughout the country. The students who were selected for these scholarships are all enrolled in this program.

Stockton integrates Holocaust and Genocide Studies into its undergraduate curriculum, and provides teacher training in Holocaust and Genocide Education each year through its Holocaust Resource Center.

 

The scholarships honor Joseph Berkman who was murdered by the Nazis in 1942 in the Killing Fields of Ponary, in Lithuania. The late Sarah and Michael Chipkin were Holocaust Survivors who immigrated to the United States following the war.

 

The Berkman-Chipkin Scholarships for 2006-2007 were awarded to outstanding graduate students who plan to or are currently pursuing teaching careers.

 

The recipients include Jodi Kelman of Algoma, WI; Thomas E. Kennedy of Bradley Beach, NJ; Andrea Szkil of Ellicott City, MD; and Danielle Trucano of Vineland, NJ.

 

Before enrolling at Stockton, Ms. Kelman was Interim Director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Education at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota. She is currently in her third semester in the Master of Arts in Holocaust and Genocide Studies program.

 

Kennedy, a sixth-through-eighth-grade social studies teacher at Bay Head School, will apply his degree toward meeting the challenges of teaching younger children about the Holocaust and genocide.

 

Ms. Szkil and Ms. Trucano are new students in the program. A recent graduate of St. Marys College of Maryland, Ms. Szkil has served as an intern at several historic sites and galleries in the Washington, D.C. area.

 

Ms. Trucano works for the Vineland Board of Education as a resource contact to assist teachers in meeting the districts needs to present the Holocausts significance to its school children.

 

Since the programs founding just eight years ago, the MA program in Holocaust and Genocide Studies now has more than 70 graduates. For further information, contact the Office of Graduate Studies at The Richard Stockton College of NJ, PO Box 195, Pomona, NJ 08240-0195 or call 609-652-4298.

 

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