WALDORF, Md. — A Westlake High School English teacher has been selected for the Auschwitz Legacy Fellowship, a year-long program focused on Holocaust education that includes virtual sessions and a study trip to Poland.
Lisa Landrum-May, who also teaches Advanced Placement African American Studies at the school in Waldorf, will begin monthly virtual meetings with other participants in late January. The fellowship culminates in a summer visit to Warsaw, Krakow and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum.
Landrum-May plans to apply insights from the program to her curriculum, linking Holocaust history to the Civil Rights movement and racial justice issues in the United States. She cited an example from a prior trip to Detroit, where she studied redlining practices. When I teach Raisin in the Sun, for instance, I draw on what I learned about housing discrimination to give students a deeper, more authentic understanding of the world author Lorraine Hansberry was writing about, Landrum-May said.
The teacher aims to foster critical thinking among students, encouraging them to recognize and address injustice. I want my students to understand their responsibility to recognize injustice and speak out — whether they are studying Europe in the 1940s or America today, she said.
Landrum-May has a background in professional development, including selection as a Fulbright Specialist and participation in two National Endowment for the Humanities summer institutes. Im a firm believer in lifelong learning, she said. I actively seek out professional development that deepens my understanding of history and social justice.
She serves as an implicit bias facilitator for Charles County Public Schools and has pursued fellowships and humanities programs over decades. I have seen how understanding painful history empowers students to question, analyze and refuse injustice in their own lives, Landrum-May said.
The Auschwitz Legacy Fellowship, established in 2022 by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Foundation, provides U.S. high school teachers with resources to teach Auschwitz history. Seventy-seven years and three generations have now passed since Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated, and there are young people who know nothing about it, Ronald S. Lauder, foundation chairman, said in 2022. When people dont know anything about the Nazis and the gas chambers and the horror, thats when crimes like this can be repeated.
The 2022 cohort included 32 educators, with more than 149 trained over three years, according to the foundation. The program targets 500 teachers nationwide by 2030. The lessons of Auschwitz you will bring to your students can and will change your students perception of the world they live in, Piotr M.A. Cywinski, director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, said to the 2022 group.
The fellowship structure features a fully funded seven-day trip to Poland with expert-led tours and workshops on Holocaust pedagogy, plus ongoing curricular support and a professional network for participants from 20 states as of current data.
Westlake High School, part of Charles County Public Schools in Southern Maryland, serves grades 9-12 with an enrollment of 1,185 students and a student-teacher ratio of 17 to 1. The school, located at 3300 Middletown Road in Waldorf, has a 96 percent minority enrollment and 47 percent of students classified as economically disadvantaged. Its Advanced Placement participation rate stands at 18 percent, and it ranks 171st among Maryland high schools.
This fellowship aligns with broader efforts in Maryland to incorporate Holocaust education, as state mandates require instruction on the topic in high school social studies. Charles County Public Schools supports such initiatives through professional development, enabling teachers like Landrum-May to enhance lessons on justice and history.
Recent school board recognitions in Charles County have highlighted student achievements in academics and personal responsibility, reflecting the districts focus on holistic education. Westlake has also hosted events honoring custodial staff and celebrated graduates earning substantial scholarships, underscoring community investment in education.
Landrum-Mays participation marks a continued commitment to educator growth in Southern Maryland, where access to national programs like this fellowship strengthens local teaching on global historical events.
