Newmarket, Ontario
Professor Rose Caruso is an educator who has shown her dedication to Canadian Veterans and the concept of remembrance through three main ideas: organizing classroom visits for Veterans; creating instructional materials and lesson plans for teachers; and building a Cenotaph at Seneca College. Beginning in 1999, Professor Caruso partnered with the Dominion Institute Memory Project to bring Canada’s military history alive for new Canadian students attending Kenton Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada School. In addition to having Veterans come to the school as guest speakers, students were assigned research projects; prepared displays and decorated wall space; interviewed Veterans in advance of their visit to the school; and escorted visiting Veterans. The visiting Veterans were also given hand-made gifts and invited for a pot-luck lunch provided by staff members. Thanks to her enthusiasm and creativity, untold numbers of new Canadian youth and their families have been exposed to Canada’s military history and the importance of remembrance. Professor Caruso also worked as part of the Memory Project steering committee with teachers across the province of Ontario to create lesson plans and instructional materials for schools. The booklets created by this committee have been the cornerstone of many Memory Project remembrance programs. In 2002, Professor Caruso joined the staff of Seneca College. Upon learning that Seneca did not have a cenotaph in honour of the college’s Veterans, she went to work with the goal of having a cenotaph erected. On Remembrance Day 2014, after incredible amounts of work spanning over ten years, the Cenotaph was officially unveiled on the college’s property.