STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 For traditional-age college students, the events of Sept. 11, 2001, are part of history \u2013 not a memory. That\u2019s why several organizations on Staten Island are teaming up to create a new college-level curriculum about 9\/11, 25 years after the attacks.<\/p>\n
Students learn about 9\/11 the same way earlier generations may have learned about events like the Cold War or the moon landing. In 2022, non-profit Tunnel to Towers provided educators with extensive resources about 9\/11 for students in grades K-12. <\/p>\n
But a college-level curriculum hasn\u2019t been developed \u2014 until now.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve heard about 9\/11, they don\u2019t really know what it means if they weren\u2019t born before it, unless you\u2019ve had a family member that was affected \u2014 on Staten Island, that\u2019s almost everybody,\u201d said Salvatore Cassano, former FDNY commissioner and executive board member with Tunnel to Towers. \u201cIt\u2019s so important for them to learn what happened that day, the history of it, how resilient we were as a city, as a [fire] department, and maybe it\u2019ll give them an idea of going into public service, as well. Here\u2019s so many stories that we\u2019re going to tell them, and how we\u2019re going to explain pre-Sept. 11, Sept. 11, and then post-Sept. 11.\u201d<\/p>\n
Through a partnership with the Staten Island Advance\/SILive.com editorial team, the College of Staten Island, Tunnel to Towers, and the Carl V. Bini Memorial Fund, a new video-based curriculum is being developed to give historical context of the events of Sept. 11, 2001, to the current generation and those that come after. <\/p>\n
The first video has already been released.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the 25th year approaches of Sept. 11, we see time has passed and like we\u2019ve seen with other tragedies and other things that have happened in our country\u2019s history, people started to forget. The one thing that\u2019s different on Sept. 11, in my opinion and in most people\u2019s reality is the fact there is no real curriculum and there is no real story,\u201d said Massimo DiDonna, founder and president of the Carl V. Bini Memorial Fund.<\/p>\n
The initial plan is to offer a non-credit course at the College of Staten Island through adult education, with a goal of eventually creating a credit-bearing program, according to Robert Wallace, executive legal counsel and chief administrator in charge of community partnerships and government relationships at CSI.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important for any institution to be part of the community,\u201d said Wallace. \u201c\u2026 If we establish a sustainable program that reflects Staten Island\u2019s unique connection to the events, we will have met our goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joseph \u201cJoJo\u201d Esposito, an FDNY firefighter with Rescue 5, explained that many people don\u2019t truly understand what first responders experienced on Sept. 11, 2001, in the days after, and even years later. He recalled how New Yorkers came together, were kind to each other, clapped for first responders \u2014 until people moved on with their life again. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople forget about all that stuff, and those are the people who need to remember,\u201d said Esposito. \u201cIf you weren\u2019t personally attached to it, I understand. These people are like, \u2018Another funeral?\u2019 Because we have a funeral twice a week with people dying from 9\/11 diseases. So it\u2019s never-ending for us. But those are the people who need to remember.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s why firsthand accounts, like those of Esposito and Cassano, will be documented on video. The organizations will collect these stories from firefighters and other first responders who witnessed the attacks on 9\/11 and their impact on the United States and New York. <\/p>\n
The curriculum will cover various aspects of the events of 9\/11, including leadership recovery, mental health and operational reforms. It\u2019s driven by the community\u2019s deep connection and the ongoing impact the events of 9\/11 had on Staten Island.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talked about having people come in and talk about their experiences, talk about how we rebuilt the city, how we rebuilt the FDNY, how it brought back patriotism to the country. These are some of the talking points that we\u2019re going to hopefully get into the curriculum,\u201d said Cassano.<\/p>\n
The goal, according to Wallace, is for the curriculum to be completed by the 25th anniversary this year. <\/p>\n
Cassano said he hopes that, once rolled out at the College of Staten Island, it will expand to other college campuses. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 For traditional-age college students, the events of Sept. 11, 2001, are part of history…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-124964","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}