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PORT CHESTER, N.Y. Port Chester High School history teachers Edward Waite and Marc Latasa have been selected for prestigious and exclusive professional studies programs this summer.
Waite, who has worked in the district for 24 years, currently teaches AP World History, Honors Global History 2 and Economics. He has been accepted into two summer enrichment programs.
The first program, "The Environment and the Economy," is offered by the Foundation for Teaching Economics and the Vermont Economic and Environment Institute. The second, a Holocaust study tour program in Germany and Poland, is offered by the Westchester-Lower Hudson Valley Social Studies Conference.
Waite said a 1992 trip to the Netherlands, where he visited the Anne Frank Museum, ignited his interest in the Holocaust.
"This started my interest in the Holocaust and human rights issues." Waite said. "Since then I have brought my students to Holocaust and human rights programs here in Westchester as part of our course work."
Latasa, who has been with the district for 15 years, will attend the Gilder Lehrmen Institute of American History at Columbia University for a seminar titled "Empire City!" Latasa was one of 80 selected out of 400 applicants and will study New York's transformation from tiny settlement to the epicenter of metropolitan life.
Latasa teaches Global History and the History of NYC as a senior elective.
It is surprising the number of students who do not know how to use the subway or get around New York City, Latasa said. Many of them will be going to school or work there, and the History of NYC course prepares them for that. A key component is a series of field trips where students have to figure out how to get around Manhattan. It prepares them for life after graduation.
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