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Wilson Scholar Jabari Moore, right, in foreground, helps a participant in a steep climb as part of The City to Mountains Student Exchange in September 2018. Overcoming challenges in the outdoors can empower youth and serve as a metaphor for surmounting the obstacles they might encounter on the path to academic success, project organizers say. Photo submitted
Students initiate peace and justice through Global Peacebuilding Project
“Often, we tend to think of peace building as something very big that can only be initiated and accomplished by large organizations. … The students’ projects provide another perspective of how we can all be peace builders at a micro level.”
Dr. Jesse Lutabingwa, associate vice chancellor for international education and development
By Linda Coutant
Posted Jan. 11, 2019 at 2:58 p.m.
BOONE, N.C. — Interpersonal communication, access to education, and understanding of homophobia and transphobia.
Appalachian State University students are working to improve these global issues through three community-level initiatives they designed and are leading this academic year as part of Appalachian’s Global Peacebuilding Project (GPP).
“Often, we tend to think of peace building as something very big that can only be initiated and accomplished by large organizations. … The students’ projects provide another perspective of how we can all be peace builders at a micro level.”
Dr. Jesse Lutabingwa, associate vice chancellor for international education and development
About Appalachian’s GPP:
Modeled after the 2015–16 U.N. Diversity Contest, in which college students from around the world implemented creative proposals to address sexism, racism and other biases in their home communities.
Awarded three faculty-mentored student groups up to $2,000 through last spring’s campuswide Global Peacebuilding Competition to implement ideas designed to create more peace and justice in the world.
Organized by Appalachian’s Office of International Education and Development, faculty member and former U.N. globalization specialist Dr. Marty Schoenhals, and a campuswide GPP Committee comprising faculty, staff and students.
The student groups began work on their projects last fall, with two projects continuing this spring.
“I am very impressed with our students’ ideas and projects of how peace building looks from their perspectives,” said Dr. Jesse Lutabingwa, associate vice chancellor for international education and development.
“Often, we tend to think of peace building as something very big that can only be initiated and accomplished by large organizations such as United Nations,” he said. “Little effort is devoted to thinking about peace building at a micro level on our campus or in our communities at home. The students’ projects provide another perspective of how we can all be peace builders at a micro level. I am very proud of our students for the work that they are doing or have done.”
The students’ initiatives
Students pursuing the Open Ears, Open Minds project are, from left, Jackson Bartholomew-Schoch, MaKenna Pearn and Hayley Canal. Photo by Marie Freeman
Open Ears, Open Minds
The goal of this interpersonal communication project is to show how to have an open discussion in an uplifting environment. “We will not be able to bring peace to today’s issues if we are always working against each other,” the students wrote in their grant proposal.
This idea stemmed from one student’s own personal conflicts, in which she said she didn’t feel heard by family members.
“I then noticed this problem on a larger scale, from watching the news to talking with friends. People don’t know how to talk anymore,” said sophomore MaKenna Pearn, of Davidson. “If we can’t talk to each other, we can’t solve anything.”
She and Jackson Bartholomew-Schoch, sophomore chemistry major from Cornelius, and junior Hayley Canal, a sustainable development major from Longwood, Florida, have been bringing people together to discuss a topic, videotaping each side independently and then having each side watch the other’s recording. This process is designed to encourage participants on each side to listen fully.
The students plan to hold mediated discussions and guide participants in how to have a constructive discussion over a disagreement. They will also interview them about how well the open discussion worked.
From these interviews, they plan to create a short film and a presentation on communication models.
Wilson Scholar Jabari Moore, right, in foreground, helps a participant in a steep climb as part of The City to Mountains Student Exchange in September 2018. Overcoming challenges in the outdoors can empower youth and serve as a metaphor for surmounting the obstacles they might encounter on the path to academic success, project organizers say. Photo submitted
The City to Mountains Student Exchange
With the GPP funding, this initiative — originally developed in 2015 by Wilson Scholars Sarah Aldridge ’18 and Juliet Irving — brought low-income, inner-city middle schoolers from Charlotte to the mountains for a no-cost weekend in September 2108 that included outdoor education, college access programming, leadership development and mentoring.
“Experiencing the outdoors can be truly and deeply challenging, which offers a metaphor for overcoming other obstacles,” said senior Gracie Bowling of Boone, who led the project with fellow Wilson Scholars Jama Brookes of Connelly Springs and Jabari Moore of Mint Hill.
Through the weekend’s activities, “we want to help participants understand they can go to college; there are resources available once they apply and that college can open doors,” Brookes said.
According to Aldridge, “Peace building in local communities requires a focus on equity of opportunity and poverty reduction.” Cycles of poverty and inequality can perpetuate discrimination and conflict, while equitable access to high-quality education and social support can level the playing field and create greater opportunities for socioeconomic mobility, she said.
The idea for The City to Mountains Student Exchange grew from Aldridge’s summer work in a Charlotte literacy program for low-income students. She and Irving launched the project during their sophomore year, with two middle schoolers participating. They held the event again in 2017 with eight participants.
In 2018, the students worked to include more youth in the weekend’s activities, strengthen the mentoring and conduct follow-up research on the program’s impact.
Appalachian student Logan Digiacomo, far left, a junior from Raleigh, is interviewed by juniors Kylie Holloway, of Winston-Salem, center, and Devyn Barron, of Raleigh, for their Freedom to Love Project designed to increase understanding of the LGBTQ+ community. Photo by Marie Freeman
Freedom to Love Project
In this storytelling endeavor, juniors Kylie Holloway and Devyn Barron are addressing homophobia and transphobia by gathering interviews from college-age members of the LGBTQ+ community so they can be better understood by others.
The pair have been posting the stories to Instagram and plan to create a website.
“To have a peaceful society, you have to have space where people are understood,” said Holloway, a sustainable development major from Winston-Salem. “A project like this could open people’s eyes about what LGBTQ+ people go through but also see they are normal people and not separate from others.”
She and Barron compare their idea to the Humans of New York photography and interview project that gained a worldwide audience in web and book format for its glimpses into the lives of strangers on the streets of New York City.
“Storytelling allows for so many different perspectives, I think it will be super powerful,” said Barron, a sustainable development major from Raleigh.
They plan for the project to culminate in an on-campus event and possibly a published book.
Each said they have observed or personally experienced discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community — in conversations, through social media and in public.
“We want to create a community (and a world) that is truly accepting of ALL people, regardless of their sexual or gender identity, and eliminate hatred and discrimination,” the students wrote in their project proposal.
‘Student change-makers’
Schoenhals, who joined Appalachian after working for the U.N. and has been mentoring two of the projects, called the Global Peacebuilding Project “a truly special experience” for Appalachian students.
“It provides competition-winning students the funds and faculty mentoring so they can implement their own imaginative proposals to challenge inequality and toxic conflict. Through their experiences, students learn how to solve problems and make change happen,” he said.
“What this first generation of GPP students learn can be passed on to future student change-makers, giving them guidance for carrying out their own projects, and the inspiration of seeing positive change efforts succeed.”
Talking about sexism is fine, but it also should bring about some change for the better, according to Chloe Fishman. The sophomore at Appalachian State University wants frank conversations to spur people to acknowledge and address discrimination, which is why she and a classmate are helming a project to collect first-person stories from students on the Boone, N.C., campus who have encountered sexism.
About the Office of International Education and Development
The OIED is responsible for spearheading the internationalization efforts at Appalachian. The internationalization mission of Appalachian is to develop awareness, knowledge, appreciation and respect of cultural differences in both domestic and international contexts in its students, faculty, staff and the surrounding communities. The university is also dedicated to creating a campus environment that builds the theoretical and practical skills needed to interact effectively in a global society. Learn more at https://international.appstate.edu.
About Appalachian State University
As the premier public undergraduate institution in the state of North Carolina, Appalachian State University prepares students to lead purposeful lives as global citizens who understand and engage their responsibilities in creating a sustainable future for all. The Appalachian Experience promotes a spirit of inclusion that brings people together in inspiring ways to acquire and create knowledge, to grow holistically, to act with passion and determination, and to embrace diversity and difference. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Appalachian is one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina System. Appalachian enrolls more than 20,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and graduate majors.
Appalachian Today is an online publication of Appalachian State University. This website consolidates university news, feature stories, events, photo galleries, videos and podcasts.
The migration of materials from other sites is still incomplete, so if you cannot find what you're looking for here, please refer to the following sources:
Appalachian Today is an online publication of Appalachian State University. This website consolidates university news, feature stories, events, photo galleries, videos and podcasts.
The migration of materials from other sites is still incomplete, so if you cannot find what you're looking for here, please refer to the following sources:
