{"id":36813,"date":"2018-02-07T17:17:02","date_gmt":"2018-02-07T22:17:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=36813"},"modified":"2018-02-09T14:09:07","modified_gmt":"2018-02-09T19:09:07","slug":"local-global-practicum-experiences-prepare-emus-next-generation-peacebuilders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2018\/local-global-practicum-experiences-prepare-emus-next-generation-peacebuilders\/","title":{"rendered":"Local and global practicum experiences prepare EMU’s next generation of peacebuilders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Writing an instructional manual about growing and using elderberries for medicinal syrups may not look like peacebuilding at first glance, but Eastern Mennonite University senior Ben Rush\u2019s practicum last fall had broad implications.<\/p>\n

Peacebuilding and development (PXD) majors<\/a> complement their classroom studies with semester-long practicum placements that offer on-the-job training. Graduates have entered professional fields such as civil rights law, public policy, education, human rights, humanitarian action and others.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Nathan McKnight ’16 spent his practicum hours in an internship with Freedom Circles in Washington D.C. The nonprofit works with formerly incarcerated people to ease transition out of prison. (Photo by Joaquin Sosa)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Among those PXD graduates making big impacts:\u00a0\u00a0Jessica Sarriot ’11<\/a>\u00a0studies\u00a0public policy at Princeton University; Weber State economics professor\u00a0Matt Gnagey ’05<\/a>;\u00a0and\u00a0Larisa Zehr\u00a0’11<\/a> is a\u00a0law student at Northeastern University.<\/p>\n

For his placement, Rush worked at the Blacks Run Forest Farm with founder Jonathan McRay<\/a>, a 2013 graduate of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. The farm fosters the societal embodiment of \u201ca culture of trees: abundant, diverse, renewing, mutual, slow, rooted, cyclical, nurturing and deeply connected underground.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to writing the manual, Rush helped with tree propagation in the nursery and worked with school groups to plant a riparian orchard and thin unwanted species from streamside areas.<\/p>\n

Real-world placements<\/strong><\/p>\n

Such real-world opportunities abound in EMU\u2019s peacebuilding and development program\u2019s lineup of practicums \u2014 there have been 60 since 2007.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether in Colombia, Washington D.C., or here in Harrisonburg, our students have unique opportunities to develop practical skills, gain professional experience, and wrestle with the burning issues of our time,\u201d said Professor Timothy Seidel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The experience helps to ground students in skills learned in the classroom:\u00a0mediation, conflict analysis, program evaluation, group facilitation, community assessment and events organization.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
PXD students have had practicum placements with EMU’s Center for Interfaith Engagement. Here Interfaith Peace Camp participants visit the Islamic Center of the Shenandoah Valley in Harrisonburg.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In addition to Blacks Run Forest Farm, local placements have included EMU\u2019s Summer Peacebuilding Institute<\/a> and Center for Interfaith Engagement<\/a>, The Fairfield Center, New Bridges Immigrant Resource Center, and James Madison University’s Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence. A more comprehensive list of practicum sites is available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Further afield, students have fulfilled practicum requirements with internships through the Washington D.C.-based Washington Community Scholars’ Center<\/a> at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, World Vision, N Street Village, Maryland Citizens Against State Executions and Voices for a Second Chance, a nonprofit that empowers the incarcerated, returning citizens and their families in the transition into the Washington D.C. community. Read more about D.C. internships here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Several other students have spent time with\u00a0Justapaz in Bogota, Colombia.<\/p>\n

Local and unique<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 150-hour placement gave Rush a unique opportunity less than two miles from campus: In addition to learning practical skills for cultivating plants, he could work side by side with people who would guide him through conversations about both restorative justice and \u201cresisting oppressive behaviors and institutions, in a diverse neighborhood where people are trying to live well together,\u201d said the forest farm\u2019s co-founder Jonathan McRay.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Jonathan McRay MA ’13 (conflict transformation) with EMU senior peacebuilding and development major Ben Rush on McCray’s Blacks Run Forest Farm in Harrisonburg.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The experience, said Rush, allowed him to see \u201crestorative justice ideas taken and practiced in creative and effective ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

It also furthered the farm\u2019s mission, with \u201cmore growing plants to spread throughout our community to provide food, fuel, medicine, mulch, air conditioning, carbon converting, water healing and beauty,\u201d said McRay.<\/p>\n

Plus, the elderberry manual will be \u201ca great resource for the farm to share with folks interested in buying the plant from us or in cultivating it themselves and knowing exactly how to use the ripe berries,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/h3>\n