2008 Woodie Awards
Peace Jam Generates Students' Ideas for Ending Violence
Rollins hosts annual event designed to inspire local middle and high school students.
Brittany Lee
Issue date: 12/3/04 Section: News
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The founding of PeaceJam has an interesting story; the idea arose from co-founder Ivan Suvanjieff's encounter with a group of gun-toting gang members. He found that these troubled youth knew not only of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his efforts towards nonviolent social change, but supported and admire him.
From there, the concept of having Nobel Prize winners address and inspire the youth was born. With the help of the Dalai Lama, who was approached with the idea, the program grew to include eleven Nobel Prize Laureates. These Laureates include: the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Dr. Oscar Arias, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Betty Williams, Jose Ramos-Horta, Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, Aung San Suu Kyi, and Jody Williams.
The program, since its launch in 1996, has had 30,092 participants worldwide. Working with a Nobel Prize Laureate, of which the program has 11, high school students across the country and the world are provided with a weekend of inspiration, service, and community building. PeaceJam's Goal is" to inspire a new generation of peacemakers who will transform their local communities, themselves, and the world." Judging from the reactions of the participants and the college students here, the program is a tremendous success.
PeaceJam brought high school and middle school students to Rollins for the weekend; college students volunteered as mentors. This year's visiting Laureate was Betty Williams, co-recipient of the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize for her work to end the conflict in Northern Ireland. The theme of the conference this year was "Community Based Solutions to the Problem of Violence."
Youth participating studied the life of Betty Williams before the conference, and worked with her over the course of the weekend to improve their peacemaking and conflict resolution skills. Students were instructed to assess dire regional and global situations, using the conflict in Ireland as an example, and create solutions to these problems through discussions, community service, and workshops.
During the intense weekend, students created project proposals to deal with issues such as violence and discrimination that they then presented to Betty Williams herself. Williams says, "You'll find that the most peaceful neighborhoods are neighbors that get together, neighbors that share street parties, people that go out and care, people that get into their own area and take control of it--economically, socially, and culturally...Fear is contagious, but so is courage." The PeaceJam conference this year taught students to positively influence their communities, and each left with a plan of action for creating change.