Programs

Carlynton Women’s Empowerment Summit
‍In partnership with Carlynton High School’s “Girls Supporting Girls Club,” the Women’s Empowerment Summit brings together students from Carnegie and Crafton to hear the stories of female leaders in the Pittsburgh area that inspire them to become active members in their own communities. This year’s summit at the Andrew Carnegie Free Library and Music Hall featured County Executive Sara Innamorato and Duquesne Scholar Athlete Kiandra Browne.

Woodland Hills Student Summit
‍Welcoming students from 30 different school districts, the Woodland Hills Student Summit facilitates student-led discussions on critical topics, aiming to foster individual and community development. LIGHT was grateful to connect students and educators from our network to the Summit, as well as offer direct support to the “Human Rights” and “Voting Democracy” student groups.

Hampton Middle School Literature Summit 
‍The Literature Summit was developed by Hampton Middle School to create a multi-school shared experience through the love of reading. Students from Jeannette, Mt. Lebanon, and Shaler Area joined  Hampton in reading The Librarian of Auschwitz (Antonio Iturbe), Courage to Dream: Tales of Hope in the Holocaust (Neal Shusterman & Andres Vera Martinez), and Irena's Children (Tilar J. Mazzeo & Mary Cronk Farrell). These students united in-person at Chatham University to participate in book discussions and breakout activities led by teachers and Hampton High School student mentors. They also engaged in activities from the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh, including meeting Generations Speaker, Lee Goldman Kikel.

LIGHT Middle School Student Summit at Rivers of Steel
This unique experience at Rivers of Steel’s historic Carrie Blast Furnaces provided middle schoolers from Baldwin-Whitehall, Carlynton, Northgate, Riverside Beaver, and Seneca Valley the opportunity to learn, create, and connect with students and teachers from school districts across the region. The day included tours of the Carrie Blast Furnaces, as well as workshops and demos with the Rivers of Steel Metal, Graffiti, and Heritage Arts teams.

In the fall of 2023, LIGHT was awarded a Moonshot Grant from Remake Learning to support our project "Remake Civics: A New Paradigm for Civics Education." Moonshot Grants provide resources to help educators approach the future of learning with boldness, intentionality, and integrity. Since 2021, Remake Learning has awarded Moonshot Grants to more than 20 projects, totaling more than $1.5 million in support. Our Remake Civics project sought to expand and nurture relationships between schools and communities in order to create joyful, safe, supportive, and culturally-sustaining learning environments in which students can practice citizenship.

LIGHT's Moonshot Grant allowed us to better support educators in Carlynton School District, showcasing Carlynton as a model for civic engagement and humanitarian education. With its close proximity to the city of Pittsburgh, mix of urban and suburban communities, active business districts, rich history, and growing population of recently resettled families, Carlynton was the ideal school district to “remake” civics education.

It is our hope that this model will open doors among the various places in which people learn, work, and live: in first places (homes), in second places (school and workplaces), and in third places (libraries, parks, community spaces, etc), expanding the geography of learning by supporting community relationships that students can grow within.

Remake Civics also created new opportunities for teachers to build relationships with educators across southwestern PA, and new pathways to grow meaningful support systems between students, families, teachers, and community members within Carlynton SD. Our team of educators was/is uniquely positioned to develop programs, relationships, and educational tools and models that uplift and expand on the work Carlynton SD is already doing to inspire, prepare, and empower the next generation of humanitarians.

In the 2024-2025 school year, we continued to think deeply with our network of school districts and regional programming partners about how to connect their offerings and audiences across grade levels and social contexts to students and educators through the lens of civic engagement.

After the move of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh and the Tree of Life offices to the Chatham University campus, LIGHT entered into a mutually beneficial relationship with the Chatham Admissions Department.

As with any university, Chatham has a need to promote their school as an attractive offering for prospective students. Due to the beautiful facilities and rich history dating back to 1869, including famous humanitarian alumni like Rachel Carson, it’s not difficult to convince students why Chatham should be considered as a serious choice, but its uniquely isolated, picturesque campus within an urban environment means that few individuals accidentally stumble upon it. For a student to truly understand the incredible opportunities offered through Chatham University, they need to be taken there, akin to a secret garden.

As an educational program, LIGHT also needs to promote itself as a value-add to school districts, offering unique opportunities for participating students — ones that are profound and transformative, and help students to see themselves as humanitarians, with role models like Rachel Carson. With the addition of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh’s office and museum exhibit on campus, and close proximity to the site of the 10.27 Pittsburgh synagogue attack at the Tree of Life, Chatham is both a destination and an experience.

Additionally, school districts have a mandate to introduce students to post-secondary opportunities, including visits to local university and college campuses, which can help students meet their requirements for graduation.

For these reasons, and many more (including the ability of a university to feed students a healthy lunch in a short amount of time while on a field trip!), LIGHT and Chatham University work together to offer students a rich and memorable educational experience, while allowing them to imagine themselves pursuing a post-secondary degree in Pittsburgh.

To date, LIGHT and Chatham have co-facilitated dozens of field trips, student summits, and professional development teacher trainings on campus for over a thousand students and teachers from most schools in the LIGHT Network, many visiting the campus for the very first time.

Our CoDesigned educational experiences also brought the below list of organizations to campus, providing opportunities for visiting students and teachers, along with current Chatham students (who formed their own Chatham LIGHT club):

As a direct result of the student demand for anti-hate learning opportunities following the Eradicate Hate Student Summit, LIGHT began working with the 10.27 Healing Partnership in 2023 to help survivors and victims’ family members more easily participate in speaking engagements in local schools and communities. The result of that partnership became R.E.A.C.H. (Remember, Educate, and Combat Hate) - a Speakers’ Bureau of survivors and family members who lost loved ones in the 10.27 synagogue shooting.

LIGHT helps to facilitate REACH speaker trainings and onboardings, school day and evening programs, speaker bios, and the speaker request form, making it quick and easy for individuals to request a 10.27 guest speaker, and easy for REACH speakers to understand and accept the invitations. This year, LIGHT helped the 10.27 Healing Partnership onboard and/or train several new speakers. The group represents all three congregations that were impacted by the 2018 synagogue shooting.

“REACH engagements enhance antisemitism curricula and help to translate modern-day hate from an abstract concept to a real event. By sharing their stories with students and school communities, R.E.A.C.H. speakers provide educational experiences highlighting the impact of modern-day antisemitism and creating powerful connections that result in deepened learning and healing. Students can hear powerful firsthand accounts of hate-based violence, ask questions, and connect with speakers in a personal way.” For more information, visit 1027healingpartnership.org/reach

The 2024-2025 school year was the second year of a joint project between LIGHT, the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh and Mt. Lebanon High School entitled “Righteous Among the Neighbors” to honor non-Jewish Pittsburghers who supported the Jewish community and stood up against antisemitism, particularly in response to the October 27th, 2018 attack on three Pittsburgh area Jewish congregations.

Inspired by Yad Vashem’s “Righteous Among the Nations,” we felt it was important to honor local individuals who gave their precious time and energy to protect and advocate for the Pittsburgh Jewish community before, during, and after the events of 10.27, hopefully to inspire others to stand up against antisemitism and all forms of hate, continuing the legacy of Pittsburgh’s Stronger Than Hate movement.

Twenty-four Pittsburghers were part of the inaugural class of Righteous Among the Neighbors in 2023, and eleven Pittsburghers represented the class of 2024. Students from Mt Lebanon High School interviewed the honorees and wrote newspaper articles on each individual, all of which were published in the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle.

Visit hcofpgh.org/righteous-among-the-neighbors to learn more about the program and to read the student articles.

While the Tree of Life nonprofit organization continues the Remember.Rebuild.Renew. campaign to create a national institution on the site of the deadliest act of antisemitism in American history in April of 2024, four local high schools traveled to the University of Pittsburgh to preview Tree of Life’s new traveling museum exhibit as a LIGHT field trip offering. After Pittsburgh, the exhibit left for Ohio, Florida, and New York. Students on each trip were joined by representatives from REACH - the 10.27.2018 speakers bureau - to meet individuals with lived experience of the synagogue shooting, to better connect the exhibit to their own experiences with hate speech, healing, and resilience in their school communities.

“Lessons from The Tree of Life: Lighting the Path Forward”  explores American antisemitism, remembers the events of October 27, 2018, and highlights the Pittsburgh community’s collective response to the attack as they rallied to vocally oppose antisemitism and hate.  Featuring curated artifacts, personal testimonies, and historical context, the exhibition challenges visitors to reflect on the impact of antisemitism in America and seeks to inspire action to build a future rooted in resilience and understanding.” - TOL

Collected feedback and testimonies from participating students and teachers are helping to influence the design of the permanent exhibition at the new Tree of Life building, and the future student field trip experiences in the permanent and traveling exhibitions.

LIGHT is constantly reimagining existing systems to work more efficiently and effectively for educators, thus providing students greater access to, and time for, civic engagement and anti-hate education during the school day - both of which are curricular anchors for all Pennsylvania schools.LIGHT team members remain active participants in several working groups across and beyond Southwestern PA. This year’s topics included:

Allegheny Intermediate Unit
‍In the 2024-2025 school year, Nick Haberman continued his role as the Coordinator of Civic Engagement and Anti-Hate Education for the Allegheny Intermediate Unit. Supported financially by The Tree of Life through a formal MOU agreement, this partnership with the AIU means that LIGHT’s potential programmatic audience exceeds 120,000 students and teachers. Adding LIGHT’s relationship with the Pittsburgh Public School District and schools in surrounding counties, in the next few years the LIGHT Network could potentially include all school districts within a 50-mile radius of the new Tree of Life building in Squirrel Hill - the regional (and national) hub working toward a world without antisemitism and hate.

Eradicate Hate Global Summit
‍Nick also continues to serve as the Co-Chair of the K-12 Education Working Group and lead organizer of the Student Summit for the Eradicate Hate Global Summit nonprofit organization. LIGHT’s ongoing relationships and partnerships with the AIU and Eradicate Hate ensure that we remain at the forefront of the global movement to improve and enhance anti-hate education and civic engagement. 

LIGHT Coordinators to LIGHT Fellows
LIGHT Coordinators across the network continue to see additional opportunities for school-based leadership positions through their continued involvement with LIGHT. Furthermore, ten of our Coordinators will become “LIGHT Fellows” in the fall of 2025 - regional LIGHT leaders, with opportunities for financial compensation thanks to a grant from the Pittsburgh Foundation, and increased opportunities for training in the fields of peacebuilding education, civic engagement, and community organizing. Each of them will also serve as ambassadors for our regional nonprofit partners.

LIGHT team members remain active participants in several working groups across and beyond Southwestern PA. Topics include:

Imagining the future of LIGHT Centers with Perkins Eastman.
‍In June of 2024, Perkins Eastman hosted a “visioning workshop” to imagine a prototype design for future LIGHT Centers. The workshop hosted individuals representing the LIGHT Education Initiative team, current LIGHT Coordinators, alumni students, administrators, and community partners. A series of interactive and engaging exercises explored key themes of the LIGHT Education Initiative, programming elements of the LIGHT Centers, and how the built environment can support these goals.  The key deliverable of this working group was finalized in June of 2025 — a LIGHT Center Playbook that will be shared throughout our Network in preparation for the 2025-2026 school year, with recommendations and opportunities to reimagine civics education hubs.

SXSW EDU
‍With support from Remake Learning, LIGHT attended the 2025 SXSW EDU conference as part of the Southwest PA Cohort. Founded in 2011, SXSW EDU (pronounced South by Southwest E-D-U) is a vibrant and dynamic event that brings together the brightest minds in education to tackle complex issues and drive impact to create a new tomorrow for learners everywhere. 

“Violins of Hope 2.0”
‍LIGHT and the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh partnered this school year to create a new program in Southwestern PA inspired by the Violins of Hope traveling exhibit in the 2023-2024 school year. From their website, Violins of Hope “showcases violins played by Jewish musicians during the Holocaust. Each instrument has a unique emotional history that tells a story of perseverance and hope. This unique project will, through lessons of the Holocaust, demonstrate humanity’s amazing ability to rebound from even the darkest depravity.”Thanks to a donation of a pre-war, Jewish-owned (and loved) violin to the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh by a local family, and a financial contribution by the Violins of Hope Greater Pittsburgh organization, we are able to continue offering an educational program in the style of Violins of Hope in perpetuity. While learning about the history of the instrument and the Jewish “klezmer” music traditions, students can play the historic instrument for their peers. We hope to see this program expand to regional school orchestra concerts next school year, allowing students an opportunity to play the instrument for their families and community, celebrating music through remembrance of the Holocaust.

International Cities of Refugee Network (ICORN)
‍Julianne Slogick, Don Alexander, Doug, and Roman joined writer-in-residence Rania Mamoun and City of Asylum Residency Manager Catherine Skolnicki on a panel at the first-ever Bridges – City of Asylum Pittsburgh Creative Summit. The panel focused on how LIGHT and CoA work with schools to help young people understand the importance of freedom of expression and the role exile plays in the lives of writers and artists who bravely speak truth to power. The global summit invited writers, artists, and thinkers from the International Cities of Refugee Network (ICORN) to engage Pittsburghers in four days of critical discussions about the literary arts, the power of music, exile, translation, community building, and the future of philanthropy.

Stand For All Pittsburgh
‍Previously known as the Hate and Bias Action Team (HBAT), LIGHT attends all monthly meetings, offering expertise, feedback, and input within a collaboration of community members, local and regional government agencies, faith-based organizations, and business and nonprofit organizations. Stand For All Pittsburgh (SFAP) supports community members who are targets of hate and bias and helps inform the community at large, building trust to improve relationships across diverse groups, and between the community and law enforcement.