Dual credit British literature students were selected as a winner after competing against 115 submissions from 16 countries in the “Who’s your hero?” contest held by Yad Vashem, the Word Holocaust Remembrance Center in Israel. 

Students researched Holocaust survivor Rena Quint and read her memoir, A Daughter of Many Mothers. They created a coat with numerous patches that encapsulated Quint’s life and paid tribute to her and to the many victims of the Holocaust.

“The whole project itself was focused on her mothers that helped her through the holocaust,” senior Lillian Searsy said. “We picked parts of the book to factor in all the positive things her mothers gave her. Like when she was living with a teacher that represented her mother, we used the coat that she was given, or the soup that she was given by a mother.”

While some students created patches for the coat, some delegated the plan, and others wrote an essay explaining the project.

“We wrote an introduction and body paragraphs about the different patches and what they represent about the mothers,” senior Jonah Felger said. “This project made me very thankful for what I have and how privileged I am to live in the United States in the time that I do.”

Dual credit English teacher Elizabeth SoRelle visited the International Holocaust Center in Jerusalem last summer after being selected for an all-expense paid trip for educators. 

“While I was there, they introduced me to all of their contests they have,” SoRelle said. “Also, I got to meet Rena Quint, and I got autographed copies of the book for my literature class. I brought it back, we read it, and I told them about the contest. Then they decided they could do something with the book.”

After finding out they placed, SoRelle planned a top-secret party to surprise her students with the news of their selection and congratulate them.

“It was really exciting,” Searsy said. “We felt super overwhelmed that we were able to partake in such an incredible event. Especially with everything going on with Israel, I am very honored that we were able to achieve that and be recognized.”

The students participated in a closing ceremony over Zoom with the heads of the education department at Yad Vashem, other foreign schools, family members, and Quint herself.

“I got to have a speaking part during the Zoom call,” senior Tristan Jones said. “We got to explain our project to people all over the world, which was a little nerve racking. We got to explain what it was, how we made it, and why we made it. It was inspiring for me to get to talk about our project and to talk about Rena – her trials, her story – and to be able to bring it to life.” 

SoRelle recently received the first-ever grant from the Wall Education Foundation, and to follow up with their placement, students will be receiving a certificate and a poster from Yad Vashem. Their coat will also be on exhibit. 

  “We will display the coat that they made,” principal Ryan Snowden said. “We will put it in this year’s trophy cabinet and then move it down where people can see it. We’ll have the sign or a plaque so people will know, and we can leave it out for display.”

The students’ hard work to bring this story to life, their personalized tribute to a tragedy, and SoRelle’s constant guidance was recognized all around the world. 

“We were the only ones, not only in Texas, but also in the United States to be recognized on that international stage,”  Snowden said. “It’s not very often that anything we do is represented outside of even Texas, but when it’s represented outside of the country, that is pretty neat for Wall, Texas.”