The March: Bearing Witness to Hope
An invitation:
We want to personally invite you to consider participating in The March: Bearing Witness to Hope trip, a student leadership program and mission to Germany and Poland that is scheduled for May 16-25, 2016. A team of Hobart and William Smith students will join a team from Nazareth College in Rochester, and a group of local community members to form the 2016 March… community. We have participated in this program seven times since 2002. It was an extraordinary experience for the HWS students who were privileged to go. This year we hope to accept sixteen students. My wife Karen and I will serve as your HWS faculty mentors.
The program will include visits to Germany and Poland and is led by Holocaust scholars together with Holocaust survivors. Holocaust survivors are an integral part of the program traveling with us and interacting with students. You will visit museums, monuments and memorials that commemorate the once thriving Jewish cultural centers in Berlin, Warsaw, Krakow and Lublin that were destroyed during WW II. You will walk through the death camps of Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz—Birkenau where life ended for millions. You will visit historic locations commemorating acts of resistance and rescue. You will be helped to process what you see and learn by survivors, scholars and mentors.
On returning home, you will be encouraged to become involved in campus initiatives that share the goals of The March—a commitment to identify, confront and transform situations of prejudice, bigotry, and intolerance, institutionally as well as interpersonally and work for the eradication of genocidal forces in the world today.
Student participants will be asked to pay $1400. The actual cost of the trip is approximately $3800 per student. Active fundraising for The March is taking place to make up the difference.
If you are considering applying for this trip, please check out the website below where you will find more information and the application forms.
Information sessions will be held at the following times:
Wednesday, October 21st at 5:00pm in Demarest 117B
Monday, November 2nd at 7:00pm in Demarest 117B
Tuesday, November 10th at 5:00pm in Demarest 117B
Application Deadline:
The deadline for applications is December 18, 2015, and should be sent to the Department of Religious Studies attn: Michael Dobkowski. The application requires two letters of recommendation as well as a medical clearance form so you will want to begin that process soon. Also, if you do not already have a passport and are seriously considering applying for The March, you should apply for your passport now.