MAY 6, 2015
Cactus Shadows High School alumna chosen for unique international ethics program
Lindsey Anderson joins groundbreaking program for journalists
NEW YORK— Lindsey Anderson, a graduate of Cactus Shadow High School in Scottsdale and currently a reporter with the El Paso Times in El Paso, Texas, is one of 12 journalism students and young journalists chosen by FASPE (Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics) to participate in a two-week program that will take place this summer in Germany and Poland.
Now in its sixth year of operation, FASPE is a unique international program that explores the history of the Holocaust as a way to engage graduate students across five different fields (business, journalism, law, medicine, and religion) in an intensive study of contemporary ethics in their discipline. FASPE is predicated upon the power of place, and in particular, the first-hand experience of visiting Auschwitz and traveling in Germany and Poland, where Fellows study the past and consider how to apply the lessons of history to the current ethical challenges they will confront in their own professions.
Professionals in the pre-War World II era in Germany were known and respected internationally. Yet, leaders (and practitioners) in each of the professions, and often the institutions they represented, played a fundamental role in designing, enabling and/or executing the crimes of Nazi Germany.
Run under the auspices of the Museum of Jewish Heritage—A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York, FASPE examines what role professionals in business, journalism, law, medicine, and the clergy played in Nazi Germany and underscores that the moral codes governing these essential professions can break down or be distorted with devastating consequences. “By educating students about the causes of the Holocaust and the power of their chosen professions, FASPE seeks to instill a sense of professional responsibility for the ethical and moral choices that the Fellows will make in their careers and in their professional relationships,” said C. David Goldman, founder of FASPE.
Over the course of 12 days, Fellows will participate in seminars run by leading scholars who serve as FASPE faculty, and attend lectures with a range of guest speakers. The program integrates historical, cultural, philosophical and literary sources; survivor testimony; and workshops in Berlin, Auschwitz and Krakow.
FASPE Journalism Fellows, along with the Business and Law Fellows, will begin their trip in Europe this year on May 24. The first leg is in Berlin, where Fellows have the opportunity to study the city’s historical and cultural sites and work with FASPE staff and guest scholars. Educational workshops will take place at the House of the Wannsee Conference, the site where representatives of German State and Nazi Party agencies convened in 1942 to draw up plans for the Nazis’ “Final Solution.”
The Fellows then travel to OÊwi´cim, Poland, the town the Germans called Auschwitz, where they will work with the distinguished educational staff at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. Sessions devoted to contemporary ethics take place in seminar rooms at Auschwitz and at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, one of Europe’s oldest and most prestigious universities. The final leg of the trip will be held in Krakow, Poland, where Fellows will explore the city’s rich Jewish, Catholic, and Polish history.
Upon return, each Fellow will submit a final essay focused on a contemporary ethical issue chosen by the Fellow. Select essays will be published in the annual FASPE Journal, which includes essays from Fellows across all disciplines.
