LAUREN VAN METRE
Acting Associate Vice President for Applied Research / The United States Institute of Peace/ Washington D.C.
EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding infuses student learning with both the hard realities and the hope of building peace. The effects of violent conflict are studied in the classroom, encountered in field-based practice, reflected on personally, and learned from fellow students – many of whom have lived in violent conflict and made a courageous commitment to respond, repair and rebuild. EMU’s location in the mountains of Virginia is deceptive – this is not a “remote” learning experience, but an engaging, international education, which produces compassionate, knowledgeable peacebuilders who are fully capable of engaging globally and at home to help communities heal.
LEYMAH GBOWEE MA ‘07
Nobel Laureate 2011 / Executive Director, Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa / Monrovia, Liberia
Prior to enrolling at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at the Eastern Mennonite University, my view of conflict was limited to my region and to those close to my country, Liberia. After my graduate studies at CJP and my interaction with the dynamic local and regional peacebuilders from across the globe, that view changed significantly. Each global conflict has a face and a name. Today, my drive for global peace is due to the fact that every conflict is very personal. I have a name in my heart for every region of the world, a direct result of the CJP experience.
KOILA COSTELLO-OLSSON MA ‘05
Consultant / Co-founder and former director,Pacific Centre for Peacebuilding / Suva, Fiji
CJP offers a practical peacebuilding education program that contributes to strengthening accountability in adult learners, teachers and practitioners. If education is a way to influence us to be reflective in the way we think, feel and act, then this is what CJP is doing in an environment with global citizens who are diverse in culture, religion, language and gender. CJP equips us with ways that help discern choices in dealing with conflict and violence from a place of compassion, justice and love. This way of learning makes intentional the finding of words that contextualize stories of suffering, success, laughter and critical thinking, when so much misunderstanding is generated from the misinterpretation of words and action.