| SIS grad students host workshop for teens interested in peace BY ADRIENNE FRANK 
Photo by Bill Petros
High school students got to know to each other during the Feb. 3 workshop. Although they started out the morning as strangers, by noon, the group of 40 local high school students who gathered at AU on Feb. 3 for a peacemaking workshop, were giggling and conversing like old friends. According to Rebecca Davis, one of the six SIS graduate students behind the daylong event, the students were bound by their common interest in peacemaking and conflict resolution. “One of our goals was to bring together kids who are interested in the same issues and get them talking,” she said. The workshop also gave Davis and members of Creative Peace Initiatives (CPI) the opportunity to share their passion for peace with the students, who came from 16 area high schools. Now in its third year, the group—which also includes Sarah Jakiel, Charmagne Campbell-Patton, Mi’cael Bogar, Betsie Chacko, and Emily Siegel—hosted a similar workshop last year for local teachers and was excited to expand their audience. “This provided a great opportunity to plant some important seeds in young leaders directly, as opposed to giving teachers ideas about how to plant those seeds,” said Davis, who contacted local social studies teachers and guidance counselors to get the word out about the event. Funded by a $1,000 grant from the Eagle Endowment, which supports students’ community service projects, the workshop was also sponsored by the Career Center and SIS’s International Peace and Conflict Resolution program. The event featured a panel discussion on careers in peacemaking, a film screening, and dialogue and roleplaying sessions, during which students swapped stories about their lives and current issues that concern them. Participants also enjoyed a pizza lunch with Peace Corps volunteers. During his keynote address, Ronald Moten, cofounder and chief operations officer of the Washington-based Peaceoholics, offered encouraging words to the students, many of whom are crafting peace initiatives in their schools. “Everyone has something positive in them, you just have to find it,” said Moten, whose organization focuses on HIV/AIDS prevention, family wellness, and school and gang violence. “If you have a vision, follow it, because you can do it.” Davis, herself a former high school teacher, said she was impressed with the thoughtful questions the students posed to Moten and other speakers. “I didn’t want them to give up their Saturday and feel like they were talked at all day, so I was happy to see that they were engaged, and that it was a worthwhile experience,” she said. “Hopefully the experience impacted their thinking in some way.” CPI will host another student workshop, March 24, on peace through the arts. Davis is hopeful that event, which will focus on peace building through music, theatre, and the visual arts, will be as successful as last weekend’s workshop, “especially now that we have some good word-of-mouth advertising!” |
