Category Archives: Presentations

Friendship Academy students working on their peace mural

Today I spent the day at the Friendship Academy Charter School in Baltimore, MD, where the faculty and staff had organized a series of workshops in recognition of the International Day of Peace.

My colleague, Jake Fitzpatrick, and I facilitated a series of workshops for about 150 high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors (3 sessions of 40-50 students each).  Our workshop had students first think about some of their own experiences where they felt they contributed to creating a more peaceful environment – whether it be cooking dinner for a loved one, breaking up a fight in school, lobbying for a social justice cause, or stepping away from a potentially combative situation and taking a deep breath to prevent one’s anger from lashing out.  We then talked a bit about the history and mission of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict and how its an organization that actually educates and teaches people how to fight in order to stand up for one’s rights, resist oppression, and bring forth a more just and free society.

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From June 28 – 29, I have had the distinct pleasure of facilitating a series of workshops at a conference for professional educators.  The conference, Nonviolent Civic Action around the World, was organized and hosted by the Global Studies Center at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.  I was invited to present by the United States Institute of Peace, an organization with whom I have worked in collaboration with my colleagues at the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict.  I also had the pleasure of designing and co-facilitating some of these workshops with another teacher trainer from George Washington University.

As the center’s website states, the conference is “a two-day development workshop for professional educators interested in understanding and teaching about international peace-building movements… The theme — Nonviolent Civic Action around the World — will appeal to educators broadly defined to include K-12 teachers, university educators, professional communicators, and college and university students training in these fields.

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