Teaching for Change Receives 2024 Community Human Rights Award
On Wednesday, December 11, 2024, Teaching for Change executive director, Deborah Menkart, and deputy director, Keesha Ceran, accepted the United Nations Association of the National Capital Area’s (UNA-NCA) Community Human Rights Award on behalf of Teaching for Change.
The award was presented by educator Jill Christianson, who had nominated Teaching for Change to receive this honor. Christianson first learned of Teaching for Change’s work decades ago when she worked for the State of Maryland on race equity and multicultural education. She continued her collaboration with TfC when she became a senior professional associate in the National Education Association Office of International Relations. She noted:
I have followed developments of this organization that has grown, built, expanded partnerships, expanded their might, so that they are a reliable resource for education materials for kids, resources for educators, and updates on critical matters about human rights. For me when I began education it was truly that education was all about change, it was a revolutionary act bringing in social justice. Specifically for me, it had to do with gender justice and racial justice. This little organization has been doing just that for three decades now.
In accepting the award, Menkart and Ceran spoke about the organization’s 35-year history and accomplishments to build social justice starting in the classroom.
Ceran described what our work looks like in practice through the story of Bruce Monroe at Park View, a bilingual elementary school in D.C. The school dedicates six weeks each year to a deep study of Central America. Each grade explores Central American history and culture through environmental activism, music and dance, art, weaving, family interviews, and more. Posters, artwork, digital storytelling, and music are displayed throughout school hallways documenting what students have learned over their multi-week study. As a result, they put into practice our tagline of “Social justice, starting in the classroom.”
This is the kind of knowledge that has always been under threat and will be even more so in the years ahead.
Teaching for Change guests included board chair Nzinga Tull, former board chairs Kate Tindle and Lynda Tredway, donors Robert Babiak and Amy Peck Abraham, and intern Addison Rosenberg.
Teaching for Change joined these other 2024 UNA-NCA Human Rights Award recipients: Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; Megan Corrado, senior director of policy and advocacy, Alliance for Peacebuilding; Daniel Kronfeld, director, Office of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, Bureau of International Organizations at the U.S. Department of State; Alexandria J. Maloney, president of Black Professionals in International Affairs.
Paula Boland, president of the United Nations Association of the National Capital Area, shared, “We appreciate all that you do to advance human rights through education.”
To receive this recognition in our 35th anniversary year acknowledges and supports the critical work of educators and families who are dedicated to “teaching FOR change.”
Teaching for Change Receives 2024 Community Human Rights Award
On Wednesday, December 11, 2024, Teaching for Change executive director, Deborah Menkart, and deputy director, Keesha Ceran, accepted the United Nations Association of the National Capital Area’s (UNA-NCA) Community Human Rights Award on behalf of Teaching for Change.
The award was presented by educator Jill Christianson, who had nominated Teaching for Change to receive this honor. Christianson first learned of Teaching for Change’s work decades ago when she worked for the State of Maryland on race equity and multicultural education. She continued her collaboration with TfC when she became a senior professional associate in the National Education Association Office of International Relations. She noted:
I have followed developments of this organization that has grown, built, expanded partnerships, expanded their might, so that they are a reliable resource for education materials for kids, resources for educators, and updates on critical matters about human rights. For me when I began education it was truly that education was all about change, it was a revolutionary act bringing in social justice. Specifically for me, it had to do with gender justice and racial justice. This little organization has been doing just that for three decades now.
In accepting the award, Menkart and Ceran spoke about the organization’s 35-year history and accomplishments to build social justice starting in the classroom.
Ceran described what our work looks like in practice through the story of Bruce Monroe at Park View, a bilingual elementary school in D.C. The school dedicates six weeks each year to a deep study of Central America. Each grade explores Central American history and culture through environmental activism, music and dance, art, weaving, family interviews, and more. Posters, artwork, digital storytelling, and music are displayed throughout school hallways documenting what students have learned over their multi-week study. As a result, they put into practice our tagline of “Social justice, starting in the classroom.”
This is the kind of knowledge that has always been under threat and will be even more so in the years ahead.
Teaching for Change guests included board chair Nzinga Tull, former board chairs Kate Tindle and Lynda Tredway, donors Robert Babiak and Amy Peck Abraham, and intern Addison Rosenberg.
Teaching for Change joined these other 2024 UNA-NCA Human Rights Award recipients: Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; Megan Corrado, senior director of policy and advocacy, Alliance for Peacebuilding; Daniel Kronfeld, director, Office of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, Bureau of International Organizations at the U.S. Department of State; Alexandria J. Maloney, president of Black Professionals in International Affairs.
Paula Boland, president of the United Nations Association of the National Capital Area, shared, “We appreciate all that you do to advance human rights through education.”
To receive this recognition in our 35th anniversary year acknowledges and supports the critical work of educators and families who are dedicated to “teaching FOR change.”
See UNA-NCA Conversation with Deborah Menkart and the recording of the award ceremony, starting with the presentation by Jill Christianson (1:30).
Posted: December 19, 2024