GREENFIELD — Anyone who knows Joe Skvarenina knows that he loves history, and that he’s a walking, talking encyclopedia of facts.
The Greenfield man is especially passionate about Eastern European history, given his Slavic roots, as well as history pertaining to Hancock County.
Skvarenina was recently honored for his work, receiving a $3,000 stipend from the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies at Indiana University to create a course on how Russia and Eastern Europe have impacted American history.
“I was thrilled to hear I’d won the grant,” he said.
Skvarenina must design the course by August, and will teach the course at Ivy Tech Community College between August and December this year, providing a written summary to the Hamilton Lugar school in January.
The course will be an option for other Ivy Tech instructors to use as well.
Skvarenina is excited to share his knowledge of Eastern European history with students and colleagues.
“There’s possibly more Slavonic mixed into the melting pot of America than most people realize. We are more than an Anglo-Saxon nation,” said Skvarenina, whose grandparents came to America from Eastern Europe in 1914.
“They moved to the U.S. to work and became citizens. My grandfather came over to work in the steel mills, and my grandmother followed just before the first World War,” he said.
Skvarenina’s family came from what today is Slovakia. He’s long been fascinated by how his ancestors and others from that area have impacted American history.
The stipend he won from IU will give him the opportunity to share part of that story, he said.
Skvarenina was motivated to apply for the grant to enhance the teaching of Russian and Eastern European history, which he currently finds lacking in college curriculum.
“The structuring of additional materials in the American History course of study at Ivy Tech would greatly enhance the learning by expanding international points of interest,” he said.
“What this new course will do is take the existing studies and add topics that would include Russian and Slavic informational studies,” Skvarenina said. He plans to incorporate topics like the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Russian Revolution and the Cold War.
The local historian has worked as an adjunct professor at Ivy Tech Community College since 2014, teaching world history, American history and world geography at campuses in downtown Indianapolis, Lawrence and Shelbyville.
When he was a student, Skvarenina attended Kent State University, where he studied history, geography and secondary education before earning a master’s degree in education.
He looks forward to the chance to share his knowledge of history with the students at Ivy Tech, as he has done in Hancock County for the past 20 years.
Skvarenina has been an avid researcher of Hancock County history since 1991, and now serves as the official county historian, as designated by the Indiana Historical Society.
He’s also served multiple times as president of the Hancock County Historical Society, contributes a weekly column on local history to the Daily Reporter and does a show on local history for NineStar Connect’s cable Channel 9.
He also produces the Hancock County Historical Society newsletter and has written several books on local history.
“I think history offers a bevy of answers to today’s problems,” he said, “if we just take the time to do the research and become involved in what has happened in the past.”
