Conference Draws 200 International Community Leaders Together

Faith-based terrorism is an organized international movement that requires an organized international response, experts from several countries told participants at a two-day conference at Stockton University Atlantic City on June 11-12.

The summit, titled “Building Resilience in the New Threat Paradigm: Targeted Violence Against People of Faith” was co-sponsored by the Miller Center for Community Protection and Resilience at Rutgers University, the Center for Critical Intelligence Studies at Rutgers, and Stockton University, in partnership with the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness.

Almost 200 representatives from law enforcement and faith-based groups from Europe and across the United States came together to discuss the impact of faith-based terrorism and how to prepare and respond to it. The conference included keynote speakers, international panel discussions, workshops and an on-site tabletop exercise at St. Augustine Church.

Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs Michelle McDonald welcomed the attendees and spoke of the importance of the topic to everyone in every nation.

"There has been a sharp increase in sectarian violence," she said. "It affects how we live, how we travel, what schools we attend and how we worship.  I look forward to seeing what we can build together."

 

Rabbi Francine Green Roston's family was among several Jewish residents targeted by a white supremacist in Whitefish, Montana. She told her story and emphasized the importance of community support and action.

She also shared the lessons she has learned that others can use, and stressed that if it happened in her small town in Montana, it can happen anywhere.

“The best cure for hate is a united community,” she said.  “We need to build bridges, not walls. We must reach out to each other.”

Representatives from the University's Holocaust Studies program and Sara and Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center discussed the work of the program that reaches into local high schools and across the globe with a certificate training program during a panel discussion.

“Survivors from the community wanted to take an action of resilience to respond to that horrific time. Our response is the action of education,” said Judith Vogel, coordinator of Stockton’s minor in Holocaust and Genocide Studies program.

The conference was livestreamed and can be viewed online. View more photos in our Flickr gallery.

 

Stockton Donates Railroad Tracks to Philadelphia Holocaust Memorial

In October 2008, Stockton obtained railroad tracks from Bialystok, Poland, a central point in the network of rail lines that moved Holocaust victims to the Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Theresienstadt and Majdanek concentration camps.

The tracks were used in the powerful design of the entrance to the Sara and Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center at Stockton.

On Sept. 7, 2018, almost a decade later, three additional segments of track that were not used were donated to the Philadelphia Holocaust Remembrance Foundation for use in the city’s new Holocaust Memorial Plaza.

Gail Rosenthal, executive director of the Holocaust Center, said the tracks remind today’s generation of the horrors of the Holocaust.

 

Stockton Hosts Guests from Taiwan University during International Symposium

The 2018 International Mathematics and Education Symposium held at Stockton on Oct. 22, illustrated a common thread in issues that educators in the United States and Taiwan face.

Yueh-Chun Huang, dean of Teachers College at National Chiayi University in Taiwan, talked about gender differences among teachers and principals in primary and junior high schools in Taiwan, Japan, Korea and the U.S.A. during her keynote.

The visit by the 11 guests from Taiwan followed a trip to Taiwan in 2017 by a dozen Stockton faculty, staff and students arranged by Chia-Lin Wu, professor of Mathematics. The Stockton trip included visits to schools in Taiwan, and the Taiwanese visitors also visited several schools in Atlantic County during their week-long visit. They also took trips to the Statue of Liberty and Philadelphia.

The one-day mathematics and education symposium featured presentations by Stockton faculty and the guests from National Chiayi University. The symposium was coordinated by Wu and Stacey Culleny, instructor of education at Stockton, who received a Global Perspectives 2020 Stockton grant to support the visit

Stockton hopes to continue an exchange program with National Chiayi University.

 

Model UN Succeeds at International Conference

Twenty-one students participated in a life-changing experience when they were selected to join the Stockton Model United Nations (UN) Travel Team and participate in the National Model UN (NMUN) international conference in Xi’an, China from Nov. 18 - 24, 2018. 

The trip was organized by Tina Zappile, associate professor of Political Science and founder of Stockton’s Model UN. JY Zhou, interim director of the Office of Global Engagement and a native of China, also accompanied the group.

At the conference, the participants discussed and debated topics ranging from economic competitiveness to refugees from the perspectives of the countries to which they were assigned. 

Zappile said it was an interesting and sometimes challenging trip for the students, who got to experience firsthand a very different culture and another type of government. 

 

Children's Drawings from Darfur Preserved

Drawings made by refugee children in the Darfur region of Sudan are now part of a collection preserved by Stockton University for use by schools throughout south New Jersey.

In 2004, Cherry Hill pediatrician Jerry Ehrlich traveled to the Darfur section of Sudan to treat refugee children in the war-torn country. He brought with him 400 pieces of paper and 20 boxes of crayons and asked children to draw stories of their lives. When he left, he smuggled out 157 drawings inside a copy of the Sunday New York Times.

Twenty-one of the drawings are now owned by Stockton University, which used grant money to frame 12 of the original 8-by-11 drawings and make enlargements of the originals and nine copies for classroom use.

The preservation of the collection was made possible by generous donations from Stockton’s School of General Studies, The Sara and Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center, The Sam Azeez Museum of Woodbine Heritage, and The Harry L. Katz Memorial Trust Fund. The drawings were enlarged, mounted and laminated by the Stockton graphics department.

 

2018 International Education Week Features Exchange Program with Universidad del Rosario

Four exchange students from the Universidad del Rosario in Colombia, and Victoria Schindler, professor of Occupational Therapy, shared their experiences here and abroad with fellow students and staff on Nov. 12 during Stockton’s 2018 International Education Week.

Stockton’s collaborative exchange relationship in Colombia began four years ago with Universidad del Rosario and also the Escuela Colombiana de Rehabilitacion, a second smaller university. Since Fall 2015, Stockton has hosted a group of four exchange students annually. 

Schindler shared the many benefits Stockton students receive visiting the Universidad del Rosario in Colombia, and how these experiences help shape not only their educational perspectives, but their cultural ones as well.