Robert Ackles has slogged up the 405 from San Diego to Los Angeles once a month, every month, for almost two years. He’s sat through the heat and the desperate freeway traffic for one reason, and one reason alone: to visit USC Shoah Foundation’s home at USC’s Leavey Library as a Junior Intern.

Part of a small group of young students, Ackles meets periodically to discuss and analyze such topics as hatred, prejudice, intolerance and how to stop both using positive moral guidance and active participation in society.

“Coming from Carlsbad, the reason I’m willing to spend twice as much time on the freeway as in our meetings is that I’ve really found myself through this program,” Ackles said. “It all stems from the messages and lessons that our instructor Lesly Culp and USC Shoah Foundation instill into us interns during each and every meeting.”

And during those meetings, Junior Interns study the different types of memory – personal, collective and cultural – that lend themselves to remembering genocide events, and cultivate digital and media literacy skills that they can then apply to IWitness activities as they watch and learn from USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive testimonies.

Initially interested in the program because he hoped to expand the impact he could make on his community before college, Ackles quickly learned of the kind of impact he could make:

“After learning about the values of USC Shoah Foundation through the opportunities provided by this internship, I realized I could carry messages of tolerance, understanding and positivity into my daily life, and help others to broaden their social horizons as well,” Ackles said.

The program has placed Ackles into a group of similarly-minded individuals from diverse backgrounds – some are native Angelenos, while other participants come from South Korea, from London – all civic-minded and asking the same questions: what connects people as human beings, and what causes the disconnect that leads to violence and genocide?

“One of the most impactful lessons was learning about how to effectively combat hatred and intolerance with peace and understanding in my own community,” Ackles said. “I have used the messages of past genocide survivors to stand up for others in various situations.”

For Ackles, the messages pulled from testimony in the Visual History Archive are compelling and extremely powerful.

“Over the two years that I’ve been a junior intern, I’ve watched many inspirational pieces of testimony from those who have been involved in some of the most tumultuous periods in history, and have learned about the survivors’ ways of finding strength,” Ackles said. “Testimony is really special because it allows people who may never have been involved with the Holocaust or another genocide in history to truly connect with survivors.”

And although Ackles has no familial linkage to the Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, the testimony he’s seen as part of the program has allowed him to gain an understanding of their stories and a new perspective of the history.

This year, in addition to working with testimony, interns have had the chance to visit, either physically or virtually, museums and authentic sites, and to contribute to the work of USC Shoah Foundation through their own research. Through June, they will craft and deliver presentations on what they’ve learned, continue to interact with Institute staff 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 the program.

Ackles, currently a junior in high school, hopes to take these new skills with him into the business and public policy realms.

“The lessons I can take from this program are directly applicable to how I treat and communicate with others,” Ackles said. “I know how to be an advocate for equality, and I feel comfortable and prepared to be a messenger for genocide survivors for generations to come.”

To keep up with Ackles and other Junior Interns, check out the hashtag #IWitnessJrIntern.