For the past semester and a half, Nic Chavez has spent one day out of every month at USC Shoah Foundation’s home at USC’s Leavey Library, discussing with his fellow Junior Interns at the Institute what attitudes breed hatred and intolerance, and how derivatives can be quelled.

A senior at Westchester Enriched Sciences Magnet in Los Angeles., Chavez makes the monthly drive north to USC out of respect for the stories he’s heard through the Visual History Archive, and out of a desire to discuss what he’s been learning. One of several Junior Interns, he’s spent the past few months scrutinizing hatred and discrimination, and how to combat those attitudes with positive moral authority, with active participation in civil society.

This falls in line with Chavez’s plans for university, where he hopes to study political science.

“I’ve learned that, even though I am only one person, I have a lot of power to make changes in the world,” Chavez said. “I’ve always wanted to help others, and if I can make mass change through politics, I will be all over it.”

A new kind of understanding is what Chavez hopes to gain from his internship, where he and other interns study the different types of memory – personal, collective and cultural – that lend themselves to remembering genocide, and develop digital and media literacy skills in completing IWitness activities and watching testimonies from the Institute’s Visual History Archive.

During their meetings, designed by the education department of USC Shoah Foundation, the interns are asked to consider what connects people as human beings, and what causes the disconnect that leads to violence and genocide.

“At the meetings, we have been discussing issues like hate and discrimination,” Chavez said. “We get into good discussions about it, and the exercises we’ve done have made me more analytical about the world in a general sense. When we learn about hate and its origins, we not only learn how irrational it is, but also how it comes to fruition and how a human can hate another human.”

Chavez likens the program to an introductory psychology class that deals with real-life, historical issues rather than broad topics, and the humanity of the issues comes from watching survivor testimony from the Visual History Archive.

“Testimony has really affected me,” Chavez said. “It’s one thing to learn history through text, but completely another to learn it through the real life experiences of victims and survivors. I had made me change my point of view on certain subjects and has reminded me that, no matter the situation, there are always humans being affected.”

Throughout the program, interns have had the opportunity to visit, either physically or virtually, museums and authentic sites, and to contribute to the work of the Institute through their research. In the coming months, they will craft and deliver presentations on what they will have learned, continue to interact with Institute staff monthly and have ample opportunity to make social impact and work with people of diverse backgrounds and cultures with the interpersonal communication skills they’ve been taught throughout their internship.

“I hope to gain a lot out of the program, but mostly to learn to understand different points of views,” Chavez said. “At the end of the program, I want to be a human capable of complete understanding, with the tools to take action against wrong when necessary.”

Upon completion of the internship in June, Chavez and the other Junior Interns will receive certificates and community service hours, as well as the option to continue engaging with the Institute as program assistants or Student Ambassadors.