Brandeis alumna Maetal Kogan (class of 2011) recently spent half of her winter break away from Harvard University interning at the USC Shoah Foundation in Los Angeles. Kogan, a freshman majoring in history of science, was inspired to work at the USC Shoah Foundation by her family’s own history: her great-grandfather and grandfather were Holocaust survivors. “Hearing their stories really influenced my values and everything I believed and how I saw the world and approached different problems,” says Kogan.

 

When asked how her time Brandeis has shaped the work she is doing in college and with her internship, Kogan said,

 

Brandeis shaped my core values of kindness, community, and compassion. As I reflect on my time at Brandeis, I am struck by the effort and thought that was put behind each and every decision and lesson plan to foster its mission statement and core values. A large part of this shaping of my core values came from the deliberate and sensitive teaching about the Holocaust over my nine years at Brandeis. Learning about the Holocaust through in-class activities, field trips, and a culminating trip to Israel in eighth grade founded and grounded my dedication to remembering and helping others remember the atrocities of the Holocaust and other genocides–how my grandparents' families suffered, and what so many other peoples endure to this day in genocides around the world. This passion was a main reason I wanted to intern at the USC Shoah Foundation.

 

At school [at Harvard], I teach middle school students dance, an activity I became involved with in large part after the creative and lively dance units during PE at Brandeis. I was also part of the Women's Initiative in Leadership through the Institute of Politics at my school this past semester, a board that spoke to my belief in the importance of female leadership and gender equality, fostered by the incredible female role models I had at Brandeis.

 

Kogan is not yet sure what she’d like to do when she graduates from college (and she has plenty of time to decide). For now, she’s grateful for her experiences and education:

 

The incredible and inspirational people I have met have been the highlight of my time at Harvard so far. After just one semester, I can honestly say I have met some of the warmest, smartest, most generous, and most passionate people, and I know this will continue throughout my time at Harvard. The education is also amazing–not only within classroom lectures and discussions, but also among my peers. I have learned so much from the people at Harvard about politics, jazz drumming, and everything in between. One of my favorite classes this semester was a seminar on "The Problem of Evil and the Nature of Human Freedom," a class which hearkens back to many discussions I had at Brandeis, as well as connecting to my work at the USC Shoah Foundation.