The Tianaderrah Foundation
2012 Outstanding Educator Award

Dr. Steven Howell teaches at James A. Garfield High, Garrettsville, Ohio, and has worked tirelessly for many years to confront discrimination and to bring the importance of the history of the Holocaust and other genocides into his teaching curriculum. He has held fellowships from the National Writing Project at Kent State University and the United States Holocaust Museum.

In 2000, the Board of Education accepted his proposal to add a new class to the curriculum called CrossRoads, teaching students about diversity and challenging them to break down barriers between them and people frequently viewed as ‘other’. Today CrossRoads is an important part of the curriculum. Dr. Howell is especially proud that CrossRoads has taught students to improve their world by raising money for Darfur, becoming involved in the Invisible Children organization and, this year, hosting a former child soldier from Uganda. By choosing early in his career to create programs serving victims of discrimination and teens with little experience understanding diversity, he has improved the lives of his students and their community.

The Tianaderrah Foundation seeks to remember and honor Johannes Wilhelmus van de Pol. In August 1942 he began to warn the Jews of Amersfoort to resist wearing yellow stars and urged them to go into hiding. His wife, Annie, and he successfully hid over 40 Jews and ensured their survival. He was betrayed and was forced into hiding as well. Mr. van de Pol was distributing food stamps to those in hiding when he was killed near the end of World War II. However, his actions started a resistance movement which, due to its early start, led to saving over 750 Jews of Amersfoort.