In a “State of Education” supplement published with its October 2014 issue, Virginia Living magazine listed Eastern Mennonite University among its picks for the top colleges and high schools in the state. The magazine mentioned several graduate peacebuilding programs offered by EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding and grouped EMU with 11 other four-year universities that editors selected for excellence and innovation in the arts and humanities.
“EMU’s two-year-old Women’s Peacebuilding Leadership Program and its Summer Peacebuilding Institute connect students with internationally known figures associated with fostering world peace,” Virginia Living wrote.
The upscale magazine is distributed across the state and advertises a readership of 500,000.
Founded 20 years ago, the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding was one of the first university programs to offer a master’s degree in peacebuilding and related disciplines. At least 450 alumni of its master’s or graduate certificate programs – among them 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee – live and work in 60 countries on six continents. About 5,000 people from at least 120 countries have participated in non-degree study, often taking Summer Peacebuilding Institute classes or trainings in Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience, or STAR.
“From Somalia to the South Pacific to Washington D.C., CJP prepares peacebuilders to change the world, one community at a time,” says Daryl Byler, executive director of CJP.
At the undergraduate level, the EMU’s peacebuilding and development major is one of the university’s five most popular programs in terms of enrollment.