Texans Can! Student blogs about U.S. Holocaust Museum Seminar

Students from Oak Cliff, Austin, Ross Avenue, Campus Drive, River Oaks and Carrollton Farmers Branch campusus will be writing about their experiences as part of a week-long program developed by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The summer leadership seminar is called Bringing the Lessons Home: Youth Leadership Conference.

By Steven Yeager
Excitement, anticipation, nervousness. These words can’t even describe the emotions pulsating through my body as I waited for Mr. Leveridge to pick me up. As I gathered my things and said goodbye to my grandmother, he pulled up in a stretched Lincoln Towncar. My father and Kara, my girlfriend, came along for the ride. On the way to the airport I could barely believe I was actually going. It felt like a dream as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes.

Upon arrival at Love Field I bid farewell to my dad and girlfriend, checked my bags and waited for the rest of the Can! students to arrive. After a short meet and greet we headed for our gate and boarded the plane at around 10:30 and after a short while the plane took off and we were on our way.

After a three hour flight and a short stop in Oklahoma City, our plane finally touched down at the Baltimore International Airport. As we picked up our luggage from baggage claim, we got a chance to get acquainted with other conference students while we waited for the charter bus to tote us to the Catholic University of America. After a short, half-hour trip through wooded countryside we were finally there.

When we got to the University, we had dinner and got to settle in our dorms. My roommate is a Texans Can! student from the charter in Fort Worth. His name is Daniel States. He seems like a chill kid and I can already tell we are going to be good friends. After we got settled and unpacked our things we were called to the lecture hall for a youth leadership meeting.

We participated in an activity where we made a flow chart with the name of our school in the middle and wrote things that defined us as a group around the center. We were to present the chart in front of everyone, and I have to admit I was a little more than nervous. All else aside, I meant what I said to the group and I think I did well.

After we were briefed on the rules and introduced to the staff and chaperones, we got a chance to mingle and hang out on the green. I had a blast talking with the other students and met a few new friends. I got a chance to open up to a few of them and told them about my background. I mentioned I was fluent in ASL (American Sign Language) which intrigued them. They wanted to learn and I’m always willing to teach so I showed them a few signs. Basic things like colors, animals, and certain simple phrases. It started to rain so I taught them one more sign…Goodnight!

My first day here seems like it has gone by in a flash. Although most of the day was consumed by travel, it was fun nonetheless. I’m excited about tomorrow and highly anticipate our trip to the Holocaust Museum. Now it is time for me to hit the sack. I’m not sure I will be able to sleep, but I must get some rest if I’m to be prepared for the next big day of learning and growth.

Day 2
This morning as we walked to the mess hall, thoughts of previous trips to the Dallas Holocaust Museum in Dallas raced through my head. I was trying to reflect on past experiences of Holocaust education to try and set the mood for myself. While we were waiting on the buses, waiting to head to the museum, I noticed a Franciscan friar walking on campus. He stood out, dressed in his black robe, white rope belt and sandals and carrying a laptop, as a sort of shotgun marriage between modernity and antiquity.

This is a theme that I keep noticing as we travel around DC. The classical architecture combined with modern art and sculptures; new and old coming together to make something beautiful. This is directly related to what it is we are doing here. Unless we educate ourselves and others, future generations will not have the same opportunities to witness the beauty of the relationship between new and old. They will never have the chance to learn from history; if that happens it is bound to repeat itself.

When we arrived at the museum, we were quickly briefed and then split into groups for our guided tours. Walking trough the museum is a sobering and very somber experience. As I walked through the museum, I couldn’t help but notice the depressing atmosphere and melancholy tone of the place. It felt as if the victims were in the room with us as we silently marched through the exhibits. The death and desolation presented to us by the exhibits had quite an effect on me.

Just thinking about the atrocities committed during this time almost made me sick. The shocking images, the tattered artifacts, the smell of a thousand musty shoes. These things are some of the remnants of a people who were almost completely wiped out.

After our tour, we loaded back onto the bus and headed for the Smithsonian Museum of American History. Mr. Leveridge and I toured many exhibits including the star spangled banner exhibit and the musical history exhibit. It was a pleasant change of pace, as I have never been to a historical museum of that nature. After touring the museum, we watched a short presentation about the four students of the Greensboro sit-in and the civil rights movement.

After we left the Smithsonian and returned to the campus, we participated in an activity where we rated different individuals and groups level of responsibility in the holocaust on a scale of one to four. It was both interesting and enlightening to hear the different viewpoints of my peers and get a perspective of how others view the Holocaust and those involved.

The activities were very memorable, but I would have to say that the most fun I’ve had so far has been just hanging out and conversing with the other students. The diversity of the body of students attending this conference surprises me. Everyone is so friendly and compassionate. You can tell that all in attendance really do care about our cause, and they really believe that they can make a difference by not only furthering their own education, but by sharing their own experiences with the hopes that others can learn from them.

Every person I meet has their own perspective, and they have certainly made an impression on me. I am confident that when I leave here, that I will take home more than souvenirs, I’ll be “bringing the lessons home.” It is my goal to spread these beliefs and perspectives throughout the community in an infectious enlightenment. Bettering myself, and more importantly those around me.


Posted in the Dallas Morning News

Robert Cervantes, LaDonte McNeal, Avone Huynh and Ashley King, (in the photo at the very top from left to right) are four students from the Ross Avenue campus of Dallas Can Academy visiting Washington this week to see the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. They went with a group of 10 students from Dallas Can schools.

The four are writing journals about the trip and promised to keep us posted. The Holocaust museum paid for the trip for four students, while the Texans Can paid the way for six more. The students were selected after writing essays on why they wanted to make the trip, said Robin Hutchison of Texans Can, the umbrella organization for the Dallas Can charter schools, which target kids at risk of dropping out of school.

"Our students rarely get a chance to travel outside their city, so traveling out of the state to our nation's capitol is a life enhancing experience. Nine of the 10 students have never been on an airplane before," Hutchison said. "It is important for our students to know that they truly can go anywhere they desire and this trip will give them the experience necessary to have the confidence to try something new."


By Avone Huynh
Numerous people only dream of coming to this historic place. It is an absolute honor to be here and acknowledge the landmarks that symbolize and empower our Nation.
When I was six years old, I flew on an international flight to Vietnam. All I could remember was having extreme motion sickness and being very sick during the flight. What a way to remember my first flight!

I felt my anxiety rise as I sat in my seat this time. When the plane lifted off the ground, my fingers became numb. I thought I was going to be sick again. To keep my mind off of my nausea, I watched the clouds float by and saw the amazing bird''s eye view of the sky.

When I got to D.C., I tried to acknowledge everything as much as I could. Everything from the tall trees you do not usually see in Dallas, the eye-catching architecture of the University buildings, and the magnificent artwork in the hall of the conference room. ...

To conclude my first day, I came back into my disappointing dorm room and tried to sleep without a pillow, I did not bring one. Good luck sleeping!!

DAY 2
I’m not accustomed to waking up at 6:00 a.m. on a summer day, but I didn’t hesitate because a whole day of excitement awaited me. Our second day in Washington D. C. included a VIP tour of the Holocaust Memorial Museum following a tour of one of the nine Smithsonian Museums.

While on the bus ride to our destination, I took a moment to acknowledge D.C’s houses and streets. The houses were alive with vivid colors and spontaneous, and the patterns caught my eye. Constitution, Independence, and Jefferson Avenues were a few of the interesting street names I saw along the way. I saw the Capitol Building and the Pentagon in the distance and was immediately intrigued.

We spent two hours touring the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Images of dead corpses burned alive was overpowering. I held back tears throughout the tour. The cruel things one human could do to another are hard to imagine. Propaganda influenced their actions and causes everyone to become vulnerable in this horror, but there’s still no excuse for what I saw. Not to mention, the Holocaust was only in the 20th century, not so long ago from now!

Just as everyone came together to give power to the wrong hand, everyone should have remembered their morals and placed their insecurities aside to come together to override the genocide and promote world peace.

Traumatized after leaving the museum, we walked over to the National Mall. This might sound ridiculous but I was extremely disappointed to find out that the National Mall was not a shopping mall! The American History Museum was a magnificent building and I don’t think there was a single exhibit that I didn’t see.

I spent most of my time at the war exhibits. I wandered around reading about WWI, WWII, and the Vietnam War. So many wars resulted in losing so many lives. Knowing war was our past and is part of our present, I hope it does not become our future. After a day of tours, we had a group discussion and debate about the Holocaust. I loved how everyone was so open minded and sympathetic to the issue. If everyone was more open minded like this, I believe the world would be a better place.


Texans Can! Students Visit Washington, Part 1 Posted in the Oak Cliff People


Six students from the Texans Can! campus in Oak Cliff are visiting the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., this week to learn about human rights. They’re journaling as part of their coursework, and we plan to share their thoughts here each day.

The first entry is from 15-year-old Kyncole Smiley (pictured), who had never been on a plane until she took this trip:

Today was a very extraordinary day, but it didn’t start out that way. I was so nervous about leaving Texas for Washington, D.C., that I was sweating extremely hard. And on top of that, I had never been on a plane before. It was like facing my fears for the first time.

After breakfast, our adult group leaders gathered us all together for a group meeting. They told us all about airplanes and how we would be boarding. After a few encouraging words and group pictures, I gathered enough strength to board the plane.

When on the plane, I began chewing furiously at my gum, because I was told that if I didn’t, my ears would get stopped up. I had like a rush of fear and excitement as we shot straight up. I was still afraid, but when we began to fly smoothly across the sky, I loosened up.

Once in Baltimore, we deplaned quickly and went to get our baggage. We loaded on a bus and rode to D.C. When we arrived, we were warmly welcomed and well fed. We were assigned rooms, and we anxiously unpacked while waiting for an exciting icebreaking activity. After meeting everyone, we had a little more time outside to get to know each other a little better before going to sleep.

Today’s entry is from Robert Cervantes, 16:

It turned out that there were many smart people involved in the Holocaust, but they used their intelligence for the wrong things. These smart people that I learned about used their knowledge to help Adolf Hitler conquer many European countries.

All of the exhibits were very interesting, but they made me feel very sad. Time after time, I saw evidence of so many innocent Jewish lives destroyed because someone did not like them. They tortured millions, including children and infants. The various acts of torture included shooting kids in the face, experiments where doctors sewed twins together, putting live bodies in ice-cold water, and tricking the victims into shower stalls only to gas them to death. These are just a few of the many cruel examples that the racist Nazis did to the Jews.

Then we watched a skit about the Greensboro, N.C., sit-in where four black college students who wanted to be served at a Woolworth’s lunch counter. She led us in a demonstration to emphasize how the four students must have felt while being screamed at, cussed at, food dumped on, and outwardly being disrespected. This was because of the hatred of the color of their skin and because they wanted to be treated equally. The meanness of the crowd wanted the four students to know that they were not welcomed at the counter. I could only imagine their lifestyles each day. Nobody wants to be treated like that. So it is good they put an end to segregation.