Holocaust education: an award for Lauren
Lauren Hovelroud (on the right) with a colleague and a Holocaust survivor during the 2020 Gandel Holocaust Program at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem
Lauren Hovelroud is a teacher at Kelvin Grove State College in Brisbane.
Lauren is not only involved with her own school and immediate community in Queensland but also across Australia.
The award, established at the 2019 Gandel Holocaust Education Conference held in Melbourne, is announced annually and it aims to highlight the work of high school teachers who excel in their efforts to impart Holocaust education and who go well beyond the call of duty in keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive. To be eligible for the award, a teacher must have completed the Gandel Holocaust Studies Program in the past.
The citation for Lauren’s award notes that she was selected “in recognition of her numerous efforts towards strengthening Holocaust education and remembrance in Australia, including in relation to the Holocaust Memorial Week”. The award also includes a cash donation to be used by the teacher to further advance Holocaust education within their school or local community.
Lauren is an active member of the History Teachers Association of QLD. She was also the Gandel alum teacher representative on the Advisory Group that worked closely with Gandel Foundation and Deakin University on the development and publication of the Gandel Holocaust Knowledge and Awareness in Australia Survey, which was launched on 27 January 2022.
Lauren was hand-picked by the Australian delegates of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) to support the development of key educational resources for the 2022 Australian Holocaust Memorial Week.
On announcing the winner for 2022, Gandel Foundation CEO Vedran Drakulic said, “Gandel Foundation and Gandel family have a proud and distinguished history in fostering, promoting and advancing Holocaust education and remembrance in Australia. The Gandel Award for teachers is yet another way in which they hope to further strengthen Holocaust education across Australia – at a time when it is arguably more important than ever before to do that.
Lauren said: “It is such an honour, and it means so much to me to be recognised this way, as I feel it is only my duty to give back to the amazing opportunity that I had Yad Vashem. I feel I am bound to take up this mantle and feel it is my mission to do my utmost in continuing the work of Holocaust education, awareness and remembrance.”
Since its inception, the Gandel Holocaust Studies Program for Australian Educators has trained over 350 teachers from across Australia, coming from a range of disciplines, including History, English, Humanities, Religion and so on, who learned how to teach about the Holocaust in a professional, age-appropriate and comprehensive way. These teachers have reached tens of thousands of students with proper Holocaust knowledge in every corner of the country.
