The 2025 GenEd Teacher Fellowship Program’s intensive training week in Armenia took place from July 11 to 19. Now in its fourth year, the program has 60 GenEd Teacher Fellows covering 34 U.S. states. The 2025 cohort is now back in the classroom and planning to lead their own teacher-training workshops this year on teaching the Armenian Genocide.

2025 GenEd Teacher Fellow, Genée Ciurus Major, reads a heartfelt poem she began to write shortly after one of the program’s field trips.

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Check out these short videos: Edita Gzoyan, director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, on the expanding GenEd-AGMI cooperation in Armenia; Christina Chiranian, History Teacher and GenEd Education Programming Assistant; and Dikran Kaligian, GenEd Teacher Fellowship Program instructor.

 

New GenEd educator resources available: Armenian Genocide Teaching Trunks

GenEd’s Armenian Genocide Teaching Trunks enable teachers to enhance their studies and English Literature classes with materials about Armenian history and culture, including lesson plans aligned with the California History-Social Science Framework and Standards, age-appropriate literature and cultural artifacts.

Made possible through a grant from the California Teachers Collaborative for Holocaust and Genocide Education, GenEd’s Armenian Genocide Teaching Trunks are available to borrow free of charge for California teachers and for the cost of shipping for teachers outside California.

New lesson plans

“Doll’s Dress” and “Digniks: Discovering History through Dolls”

Through these lessons, students learn about the Armenian Genocide by examining a surviving artifact — a doll’s dress — and by learning about traditional Armenian “digniks,” dolls carrying historical and cultural significance. Survivors of the Armenian Genocide, dispersed throughout the world, placed great emphasis on preserving their culture as a means of national survival. Using objects to humanize history is an effective teaching strategy.  

 “Goodbye, Antoura: Using Memoir to teach the Armenian Genocide”

Reading memoirs supports learning about historical events while exploring different eras and geographic locations. “Goodbye Antoura” is a first-person account of a young boy’s experience during the Armenian Genocide and his bold escape. GenEd provides a framework of lessons to prepare and support student learning as they read the memoir.  

“Under the Cover of War”

A brief introduction to the Armenian Genocide, this short lesson is intended as an introduction to a broader study of the Armenian Genocide, World War I and literature.

“One Family’s Key to Survival”

Explore how an everyday object saved a family during the Armenian Genocide. This lesson and video offer an engaging perspective for students—learning about genocide through the window of survival.

Upcoming webinars, workshops and conferences

• October 16, 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. PT — Using Primary Sources to Teach about the Armenian Genocide (Webinar). Hosted by GenEd and the Holocaust Museum of Los Angeles, educators will learn strategies for teaching about genocide using “Stages of Genocide: A Toolkit for Teachers” and historical documents and artifacts. Teachers can sign up here.

• October 31 to November 2, 2 p.m. PT — Texas Council for the Social Studies Conference – Frisco, Tex. GenEd will have a booth with a variety of teacher resources available. GenEd Education Programming staff will be on hand to provide personal consultation to the Texas educators in attendance, including information about a 2-day GenEd workshop in Dallas, Texas, scheduled for the summer of 2026.

 Recent honors for GenEd Teacher Fellows

Misty Ebinger

Misty Ebinger, GenEd Teacher Fellow and social studies teacher at New London High School in Ohio, was recently appointed by Gov. Mike DeWine to the Ohio Holocaust and Genocide Memorial and Education Commission. It follows Ebinger’s creation of a course on the Holocaust and genocide studies, and provides her region’s teachers with a full-day workshop on the Armenian Genocide. In April, the commission also named Ebinger the 2025 Genocide Educator of the Year.

Kristi Ugland

Kristi Ugland, 2023 GenEd Teacher Fellow and English teacher at Bishop England High School in South Carolina, was recently appointed to the South Carolina Council on the Holocaust by House Speaker G. Murrell Smith. Also in April, Ugland was named South Carolina Holocaust Educator of the Year.

In 2024, Ugland said, “To better understand the present and the future, students need to be aware of the past. It’s time for the history and effects of the Armenian Genocide to be widely taught and known.”  

EVN Report’s Maria Titizian interviews GenEd Executive Director, Roxanne Makasdjian, about the inception of GenEd and its GenEd Teacher Fellowship Program in Armenia. Listen on the EVN podcast.

Guest contributions to the Armenian Weekly are informative articles or press releases written and submitted by members of the community.

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