Northwest Vista College in San Antonio, TX hosted its first annual peace and conflict summer workshop June 10-14, 2013. The workshop was cosponsored by St. Mary’s University. Funding to support the workshop was provided through the Public Education for Peacebuilding Support program sponsored by the U.S. Institute of Peace.
Over the course of 4 days, workshops and collaborative learning activities for students and faculty were held. Nearly 200 students and faculty participated. Highlights of the workshop included presentations from The Corrymeela Community, which is working for peace and social justice in Northern Ireland, by an official from the DEA office in San Diego, discussing drug cartels and violence along the U.S./Mexico border, from Por Vida Academy Charter high School, and by Joven Noble, which works with at-risk youth.
Northwest Vista College’s Peace and Conflict Studies Program was established in 2009. The program’s mission is:
to examine, understand and address through critical thinking the root causes of violence and conflict as a result of social, political and economic inequalities in an effort to promote peaceful and non-violent methods of conflict resolution geared towards achieving social justice, raising awareness of the human condition through social responsibility and human rights, and creating the necessary “space” for individuals, groups and communities, locally and globally, for coming together and building bridges across cultures.
Contact program coordinator Carlos Lopez at clopez19@alamo.edu if you have questions about the program or the workshop.
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