NORTH SCITUATE – A longtime Ponaganset High School teacher was recognized last week for her talent and dedication in educating students about human rights and genocide.
Social studies and history teacher Lisa Tvenstrup was named 2022 Genocide Educator of the Year by the Rhode Island Branch of the Genocide Education Project.
Tvenstrup, a Johnston resident, has been a teacher at the school since 1985, and department chairperson since 2001. The 36-year teacher received a bachelor’s in secondary education from Rhode Island College in 1985 and master’s in education from Providence College in 1996.
She has also served as Rhode Island Global Education’s visiting educator in China, teaching and modeling best practices to Chinese administrators, educators, and students during the summer in 2018 and 2019. Tvenstrup was invited back for the summer of 2020, but the trip was canceled because of Covid-19.
In 2018, she received WJAR Turn to 10’s Golden Apple Award after she was nominated by two of her students.
Officials from the Genocide Education Project, a non-partisan nonprofit organization that seeks to assist educators in teaching about human rights and genocide, visited the school on Friday, April 27 to present the annual award. The honor, given annually in April in recognition of the Armenian Genocide, which began on April 24 of 1915 was presented by the organization’s co-chairwomen, Pauline Getzoyan and Esther Kalajian.
