Peacebuilding Workshop for Community College Initiative Students, 11/15/19

Again this year, I was honored to spend a morning with students participating in the Community College Initiative program at Northern Virginia Community College. I’ve participated in 2018, 2017, 2017 (post two) and 2016, This year’s students came from Indonesia, Kenya, Turkey, South Africa, Cote D’Ivoire, Colombia, Egypt, the Dominican Republic, Ghana, Brazil, and Bangladesh.

This year I was joined by three young peacebuilding professionals: Vahe Mirikian from Peace Direct, Desmond Jordan from the U.S. Institute of Peace, and (again!) Mena Ayazi from the Alliance for Peacebuilding. They each talked about their experiences working in the field and provided advice to students on how to integrate peacebuilding into their communities.

We engaged in career bingo which allows students to connect with each other in considering peacebuilding activities.

The highlight was peace entrepreneur. Here, I had students come up with a project or activity they could run to promote community peace.

I’ve included photos from the day below.

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Published by David J. Smith

I am a career coach, consultant, and head of a not for profit - the Forage Center - that offers humanitarian education training. I also teach at George Mason University and Drexel University. A one time lawyer, I spent many years teaching in a community college where I was a Fulbright U.S. Scholar teaching in Estonia. I'm the author of Peace Jobs: A Student's Guide to Starting a Career Working for Peace (IAP 2016). I've been married to my best friend for over 31 years and we have two well adjusted adult children who teach me something new everyday. I live in Rockville, Maryland.

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