‘I think this is going to change her life’

Newfoundland students accepted for the Human Rights and Holocaust program in Washington.

Kicker
Brittany Critch 

In February 2018, different schools around Newfoundland and Labrador will be attending the Human Rights and Holocaust Studies program in Washington.

Destiny Murphy is one of the many students who have been chosen for the Human Rights and Holocaust program in Washington, DC. Her goal is to gain a new perspective on the past. Brittany Critch/ Kicker

The program hopes to show students how dangerous the consequences of racism can really be.

After some volunteer work and writing a submitted paragraph on why she wanted to be able to attend, Grade 9 student Destiny Murphy was one of several students chosen.

“I feel like it’s important for me to go so that I can understand the rights that we as humans have,” said Murphy. “To know what it was like to be in the Holocaust, to learn how it felt to be in there.”

Her main goal, she says, with the program is to gain a better understanding of what the world was like during this period and gain a firm grasp on how an event like the Holocaust could have happened.

“I think this is going to change her life.”

The Diary of Anne Frank initially sparked her interest in learning about the Holocaust, she says. She worked hard by reading other books and watching films about those events as well as the struggles certain families faced.

Her mother Laura Murphy says the experience will be good for her.

“She’ll get to see all kinds of people,” said her mom.

Murphy will be taking classes such as the Human Rights in Canada course, as well learning about the operation and development of the Holocaust. She will also be completing a minimum of 16 hours of volunteer work in the province before she leaves in the upcoming year.

While Murphy prepares, her mother is trying to raise funds to help pay for the costs involved.

She will also be visiting the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial.

“I think this is going to change her life,” said her mom.

 

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