In his welcome remarks at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding’s annual Celebration of Blessings, Kory Schaeffer MA ’24 had one final request, not of the 17 CJP graduates, but of the families, friends, and loved ones seated with them.
“When you see them pouring themselves into the work of justice and peace, and you see them giving and giving, remind them to pause, please,” Schaeffer, director of programs at CJP, said. “Remind them to rest. Remind them to seek out something joyful because this work needs them, but it needs them whole.”
The ceremony honors graduates of CJP’s master’s degree and graduate certificate programs and was held Sunday afternoon in Martin Chapel following EMU’s 108th annual Commencement.
This year marks the 30th anniversary celebration of the CJP, which was co-founded and led by John Paul Lederach. His daughter, Dr. Angela Lederach, delivered the Commencement address earlier Sunday.
Graduates from EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding are embraced and recognized by CJP faculty and staff during the annual Celebration of Blessings in Martin Chapel on Sunday.
In the heartfelt ceremony, CJP faculty and staff members Dr. Gloria Rhodes, Amy Knorr, Dr. Paula Ditzel Facci, and Dr. Joe Cole provided words of tribute for each graduate. The following CJP graduates were recognized:
Master of Arts in Conflict Transformation
Diego Crespo Guido of Mexico City, Mexico
Jamila Gaskins of Los Angeles
Hannah Gilman of Salt Lake City
Chelsea Griffin of Flagstaff, Arizona
Leslie Meja of Nairobi, Kenya
Jacob Sankara of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
CatiAdele Slater of Upperville, Virginia
Tamera Vaughan-Drozd of Vienna, Virginia
Graduate Certificate in Conflict Transformation
Spike Coleman of Charleston, South Carolina
Devin Withrow of Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Master of Arts in Restorative Justice
Maria Arias of Viedma, Argentina
LaToya Fernandez of West Hartford, Connecticut
Sofía Garcia Pini of Buenos Aires, Argentina
Graduate Certificate in Restorative Justice
Réka Bordás-Simon of Nyíregyháza, Hungary
Mallery McShine of Fredericksburg, Virginia
Master of Arts in Transformational Leadership
Josiah Ludwick of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Tyler Stanley of Harrisonburg, Virginia
Dr. Gloria Rhodes ’88 (left) and Kory Schaeffer MA ’24 (right), co-directors of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, offer their welcome remarks.
As the graduates go out to create a more just and peaceful world, they also weave a web of connections and build an extended community of learning, Professor Dr. Gloria Rhodes ’88, academic director of CJP, said in her remarks.
“We’re a small community, and EMU is a very small university,” Rhodes said. “But together, we are enormous.”
She said there are more than 23,000 EMU graduates around the world, including more than 800 who have earned degrees from CJP’s master’s programs.
As a CJP alumnus, Schaeffer said he shared the graduates’ joy and quiet solidarity, as well as their sense of how much they had cared, questioned, and transformed throughout their time at CJP.
“This work was never just the books you read or the papers you wrote,” he said. “It was also the gray hairs, the tears, the tightness in your body, and the moments you questioned everything. It was the weight, literal or metaphorical, that comes with doing work that is both deeply personal and profoundly collective.”
LaToya Fernandez, an MA in restorative justice graduate, shares the journey that led her to CJP.
Conflict transformation graduates Hannah Gilman (left) and Jamila Gaskins (right) reflect on their experiences in the program.
Graduates LaToya Fernandez, Jamila Gaskins, Hannah Gilman, and Jacob Sankara shared their perspectives.
Fernandez recalled visiting Ghana a couple of years ago and experiencing something there that changed her life. “I grieved there, I left my burdens there, I cried for my ancestors,” she said. “I learned things about myself that I didn’t know.”
She left Africa with a mission to bring that sense of healing to her communities and to the United States. She had applied to another school’s restorative justice program, which offered her a full scholarship, when a friend encouraged her to learn more about CJP. “You want to go to a place that’s going to value you and all your decolonizing institution ways,” Fernandez recalled her friend telling her. “That’s exactly what happened. I came to EMU and I fell in love.”
Gaskins, who spoke at EMU’s Lavender Graduation two days prior, asked the crowd when they last breathed. “Not a shallow breath, the kind most of us live on, tight chest, shoulders up near our ears, but a full breath. One that goes all the way down, opens up the belly, and reminds you that you are here, present, alive.”
“So many of us are chest breathers, and I say this with love and a little humor, because chest breathing is a perfectly functional way to stay alive, but it cuts us off,” she said. “It blocks access to the richness of our emotional experience, the very experience this work demands we stay connected to. We cannot feel our way into someone else’s suffering if we are numb to our own.”
Gilman said their past two years in the program have involved real sacrifice, balancing work, family, stressful logistics, and a dream. There have been many hard moments and even some tears, but also triumphs, laughter, and joy. There were moments of fear, and they showed up anyway.
“What a unique experience it has been to do this in a place like CJP,” she said. “With faculty and staff who knew us, challenged us, believed in us, and who, bless them, gave us extensions. I’m so grateful to share this era of growth with you, this particular season of becoming, of stretching, of learning what we are made of and made for.”
Mukarabe Inandava-Makinto (right), a CJP student, her husband, Makinto GC ’26 (left), and their son, Joël Friebe-Makinto, perform the musical prelude
CJP students Virginia Maina and Kensly Cassy offer student blessings (left). Amy Knorr (right), CJP’s peacebuilding practice director, provides the graduate sending. “This is actually my favorite day of the entire year, even more than Christmas,” Knorr said. “And it’s not because summer break begins tomorrow, but because we are sending forth so many graduates who will go on to change and transform the world.”
Sankara shared that he felt two emotions when he received his acceptance to the CJP program: excitement and intimidation. “Some of my colleagues at [Mennonite Central Committee], when I was working there, had gone through the program, and they spoke about it with a kind of reverence,” he said.
Along with those emotions came real anxiety. How would Sankara, an international student from Burkina Faso, find the money to fund his studies? He said his family’s visa situation was also uncertain. “I had to make a decision to trust God and move forward, even without having all the answers, and slowly things began to unfold,” he said.
He received a helpful scholarship from CJP and support from friends and family. Eventually, his family was able to come to the United States and was there to celebrate with him on Sunday. Sankara described CJP as more than a program, calling it a community.
“When I say community, I don’t mean a group of people who simply agree with each other,” Sankara said. “I mean a space where we celebrate, laugh together, and step on each other’s feet, not once but repeatedly. But the difference is that we acknowledge it, address it, and grow through it.”
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