“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 honored graduates of CJP’s master’s degree and graduate certificate programs and was held Sunday afternoon in Martin Chapel following 91����Ƶ’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 91����Ƶ’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 91����Ƶ is a very small university,” Rhodes said. “But together, we are enormous.”

She said there are more than 23,000 91����Ƶ 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 91����Ƶ and I fell in love.”

Gaskins, who spoke at 91����Ƶ’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.”

Born and raised in the Mennonite church, Rhodes grew up believing she was called to be a peacemaker. But that early understanding of peace, she admits, made her avoid conflict rather than engage in it.

Then, two students, burly Russian men seated near the back of the classroom, began arguing. 

Within moments, the tension shifted. Chairs scraped. Voices sharpened. The exchange turned physical. And Rhodes realized something that would change the course of her life.

“I could talk about peace, but I didn’t actually know how to respond when presented with conflict,” she said. “When I returned to the United States, I knew I needed to learn how to handle conflict.”

She scuttled her previous plans to pursue a graduate degree in English and instead studied conflict analysis and resolution at George Mason University, earning both a master’s degree and a PhD. While at graduate school, she was hired by Professor Emeritus Dr. Vernon Jantzi ’64 to help coordinate the newly launched Summer Peacebuilding Institute (SPI) at 91����Ƶ. 

For 34 years, Rhodes has taught at 91����Ƶ, primarily in its world-renowned Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP). Today, she serves as academic director of CJP and professor of peacebuilding and conflict studies. She also teaches courses in conflict transformation and peacebuilding for the undergraduate program and the master of nursing program. 

Rhodes has led semester and summer intercultural programs in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Russia, South Korea, and the Navajo Nation. She has served as department chair of 91����Ƶ’s Applied Social Science Department, administrative director of SPI, and as a program assistant for the National Conference on Peacemaking and Conflict Resolution.

With SPI turning 30 this year, we sat down with the long-tenured professor to talk about the values-based education offered at CJP and how students are bringing more peace and justice to the world.

The following responses are from an interview that Rhodes conducted with photographer and videographer Macson McGuigan ’17. A video from their interview will publish later this spring. These responses were edited for conciseness.

What’s unique about CJP?

Many other programs teach basic communication or mediation skills, but what we add at 91����Ƶ goes deeper. Our focus is on who you are and what you bring. Beyond the technical skills of conflict transformation, students engage in deep reflection and introspection around questions of:

• Who am I?
• What are my values and identities?
• What do I uniquely contribute to this work?
• And where do I fit in creating a more just and peaceful world?

We challenge students to connect their personal growth with leadership. They consider how to bring these skills and values into the places where they already work and lead. That combination of skill and self-assessment is the value we offer.

What can CJP grads do with their degrees?

There are generally three directions our students take. 91����Ƶ a third go into direct practice, often working with nonprofit or non-governmental organizations anywhere in the world. These roles can include mediation centers, community outreach, or other supporting positions where they apply skills like facilitating discussions and bringing together diverse groups to meet community needs.

Another third pursue further education. Many go on to doctoral programs to study conflict more deeply, contribute to policy, or prepare to teach in this relatively new field. 

The final third continue in their current careers in positions ranging from ministry, health care, business, and government. They’re drawn to CJP because they want to improve how people work together, make decisions, and solve complex problems.

Why should people study at CJP?

We are truly about creating a learning community together. This isn’t a place where you come to be filled up with knowledge. You come because you want to explore your part in making the world more peaceful, and together, we figure out how to bring more peace and justice to the world. 

We can’t do it alone, and no single set of skills fits every situation. That’s why our approach is based on mutuality and learning, where everyone’s experiences and knowledge matter. Students contribute what they know, and at the same time, gain practical skills they can use in their own contexts.

Our focus is on practice, not just theory or research. We care about what people can do to make the world more peaceful and just. CJP is a place to learn, share, and build that future together.

What kinds of hands-on experience is offered at CJP?

Our curriculum is intentionally designed to include hands-on practice in the community. For example, in the facilitation course, our graduate students are contracted by local groups and organizations to help facilitate meetings or support decision-making processes. While students are learning and practicing new skills, the organizations also benefit from their work.

At the end of the master’s program, students can choose a traditional thesis, but most complete a practicum. These opportunities are diverse, ranging from restorative justice and trauma healing to mediation, facilitation, and training. Alumni often connect current students with new practice opportunities, ensuring a rich network of real-world engagement.

What is the Summer Peacebuilding Institute (SPI)?

Part of how we support our students is by offering courses in the summer, not as traditional summer school, but as a training institute. These courses and trainings, held in May and June, allow anyone to explore topics related to conflict, restorative justice, and other areas of practice. Courses generally last five to seven days, and multiple courses run simultaneously over the two-month period. 

SPI is intentionally designed as a learning community. Students live in dorms, attend classes and lectures, and learn from one another, all while experiencing what it means to live together in a diverse community. It’s both a retreat and a training space. As one alum described, SPI is like a well where people can take a drink of water. It’s not going to feed them forever, but it’s nourishment they can take back into their work and communities.

A description of the states:
In this bold anthem, feminist organizer and bestselling author Gloria Steinem and Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee share their parallel journeys as activists. … (Their) dual paths have inspired a friendship empowered by the principles of equality, progress, and hope for a new generation. Here, two friends come together to tell one uplifting story of girls and women strengthening one another and changing the world.

Watch the video of their appearance below!

91����Ƶ CBS Mornings

Each weekday morning, CBS Mornings co-hosts Gayle King, Tony Dokoupil, and Nate Burleson bring you the latest breaking news, smart conversation and in-depth feature reporting. CBS Mornings airs weekdays at 7 a.m. on CBS and streams at 8 a.m. on the CBS News app.

91����Ƶ Leymah Gbowee

Nobel Peace laureate Leymah Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist, social worker, and women’s rights advocate. She is founder and president of the Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa, based in Monrovia. As a writer, Gbowee is the author of the inspirational memoir Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War, and the children’s book A Community of Sisters. She is perhaps best known for leading a nonviolent movement that brought together Christian and Muslim women to play a pivotal role in ending Liberia’s devastating, 14-year civil war in 2003. Gbowee returned to 91����Ƶ to deliver commencement addresses in 2014 and 2018, the latter year being when she was awarded 91����Ƶ’s first honorary doctorate.

91����Ƶ Gloria Steinem

Gloria Steinem is a political activist, feminist organizer, and the author of many acclaimed books, including the national bestseller Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem. She is a contributor to the classic children’s book Free to Be You and Me. She is also the cofounder of the National Women’s Political Caucus and the Women’s Media Center. In keeping with her deep commitment to establishing equality throughout the world, Steinem helped found Equality Now, Donor Direct Action, and Direct Impact Africa.

A short documentary about the owners of Harrisonburg’s , co-directed by peacebuilding grad Mariana Martinez ’21, will premiere next week at Court Square Theater. 

The 20-minute film, titled ¡Hola, Paisano!, follows the owners, Hugo Hernández and Berenice Rodriguez, two immigrants from Mexico, as they build a life, family, and a business through baking. It traces their beginnings, introduces their family, and places their experiences within the broader context of today’s national conversations about immigration.

“In short, it’s a slice of life,” said Martinez. “It touches on themes of family, the immigrant experience, the American dream, and what it means to run a bakery in Downtown Harrisonburg. It feels like a niche environment to document in, but it truly is a channel where you can see the life of Hugo and Berenice, their story, and their life.”

Martinez is originally from Honduras and moved to Harrisonburg with her family when her father, Luis Martinez SEM ’15, began attending Eastern Mennonite Seminary to earn a master of divinity. She graduated from Eastern Mennonite School and attended Hesston College for two years before transferring to 91����Ƶ. 

Along with Jess Daddio, co-director and director of photography for ¡Hola, Paisano!, and Sarah Golibart Gorman, producer, the filmmaking trio met for the first time and began hashing out the idea in March 2024. Gorman, a writer for Edible Blue Ridge who runs the popular Instagram account, had written a about Latino restaurants in Harrisonburg and had interviewed the owners of El Paisano.

“She had a connection there, which helped create a rapport with them and allowed them to tell their story,” Martinez said.

¡Hola, Paisano!  will screen with English and Spanish subtitles and will be shown at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 18, with doors opening at 6:30 p.m. Tickets to the screening are pay-what-you-will and can be reserved online at .

A panel discussion with the documentary team and bakery owners will be held after the film, followed by cake to celebrate the bakery’s seven years in business. Afterward, attendees can continue the celebration at Broad Porch Coffee’s Latin Dance Night, which lasts until 11 p.m.

Trina Trotter Nussbaum ’00, MA ’17 will never forget the first time she saw the view from the Campus Center balcony. Standing on the balcony overlooking the Front Lawn and gazing east toward the Blue Ridge Mountains, the then-first-year student recalled telling a friend: “I don’t know what I’m going to study, but I know this is where I need to be. This is my place.”

“All it took was one look at those mountains, and they seemed to tell me, ‘You belong here,’” Trotter Nussbaum said. 

That was nearly 30 years ago. Today, Trotter Nussbaum is the new director of the Center for Interfaith Engagement, a position she’s held since Jan. 1. She still feels that same sense of belonging at 91����Ƶ and works to ensure others on campus feel it too. Through her role at CIE, she celebrates and supports students, faculty and staff from a wide range of faith traditions and backgrounds. 

It was a long road that led her to 91����Ƶ. After graduating from high school in North Lima, Ohio, Trotter Nussbaum, who was raised Mennonite, moved to Pittsburgh and completed travel agency school. She gradually learned that it wasn’t the career for her. Returning home to Ohio, she ran into a childhood friend about to graduate from 91����Ƶ who told her, “You should give 91����Ƶ a try.” It was just the push she needed. 

Trotter Nussbaum arrived on campus in the fall of 1995 as a 22-year-old first-year English major. She was older than the others in her Northlawn dorm, but she saw that as a blessing. “It helped me settle down and figure out what I wanted to do.”

That turned out to be theater. Trotter Nussbaum credits 91����Ƶ’s theater program with recognizing her strengths as a performer and teaching her invaluable listening and improv skills. During the second semester of her junior year, she added a psychology major. Though it delayed her graduation by another year, she said it ended up being one of the best decisions she ever made. “I might not be acting or counseling right now, but I draw on those skills every day,” Trotter Nussbaum said. She graduated in 2000 with bachelor’s degrees in theater and psychology, along with a minor in justice, peace and conflict studies. She said professors in her justice and theology classes challenged her faith with love and grace, ultimately strengthening it and shaping her into the faith-based peacebuilder she is today.

After a decade spent working at nonprofits and government agencies, Trotter Nussbaum returned to 91����Ƶ in 2013 as associate director of CIE. Fueled by formative experiences during a 1998 intercultural trip to Ireland and Northern Ireland, she began pursuing a master’s degree in conflict transformation at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. It took her another five years to complete the two-year program while working at CIE and raising two children. In 2017, she earned her MA.

Ever the lifelong learner, Trotter Nussbaum continues to seek out further education. She’s working toward earning MDiv equivalency so that she can enroll in the new Doctor of Ministry program at Eastern Mennonite Seminary. 

Over the years, she’s received numerous scholarships as a student. She said those scholarships, as well as 91����Ƶ’s tuition benefits for employees, made it possible for her to continue her studies. “I love how 91����Ƶ encourages its employees to take the classes they want to take,” she said. “The ability to take classes, even one at a time, for almost free is such a blessing.”

Trotter Nussbaum and her husband, Brian Nussbaum ’00, live in Harrisonburg with their two children. Her brother, Travis Trotter ’99, serves as university registrar for 91����Ƶ.

Your generous support helps students like Trotter Nussbaum pursue a quality college education without financial barriers. Join us for the 9th annual Lov91����Ƶ Giving Day and contribute to the scholarships that empower future 91����Ƶ students. Together, we can help write 91����Ƶ’s next chapter.

Read the previous profiles in our A Royal Tale series:

“I found that I really enjoyed both my music classes and my peacebuilding classes,” McClary said. “So, I approached [91����Ƶ Music Professor] Benjamin Bergey and asked him, ‘What would it look like to pair them?’”

Her question couldn’t have come at a better time.

“He told me, ‘This is crazy, but there’s this major I’ve been working on,’” McClary recalled from her conversation with Bergey. “It was this moment of total serendipity.”

In 2019, Bergey began developing the music and peacebuilding program, a passion project of his, following his dissertation work on the topic. He had been seeking approval to add the major when McClary approached him with her idea. The first-of-its-kind major, available only at 91����Ƶ, trains students to creatively transform conflict by using music to build common ground, facilitate healing and create a space of storytelling. It was formally added to 91����Ƶ’s list of programs in 2021. Learn more about the music and peacebuilding program by visiting .

Now, McClary, a senior, is set to become the first graduate of the program. Three other 91����Ƶ students, junior Reah Clymer and sophomores Eli Stoll and Miriam Rhodes, are following her lead as music and peacebuilding majors. Bergey said McClary is “a wonderful first graduate as she exemplifies the ethos of the program.”

“Maggie is deeply empathetic, seeking to listen and care well for others,” he said. “She cares about justice at any level of life, and she infuses music into all she does.”

McClary said it means a lot to her knowing she’s able to set a good example for others to follow.

“One of the hardest things about being the first major is that I didn’t know what it would look like,” she said. “Peacebuilding is such a broad umbrella that encompasses so many things, and music is the same. I feel like I’ve been holding out my arms and soaking in as much as I can.”

Her path to music and peacebuilding

Feeling burnt out in high school, the Broadway, Virginia, native had been planning to take a gap year after graduating in 2020. She visited 91����Ƶ during Honors Weekend and said coming here to study “just felt right.”

“I thought, ‘You know what, maybe a gap year is not for me,’” she said, “and I turned around and decided to come to 91����Ƶ instead.”

McClary grew up with music all around her. She learned to play the piano at a young age, performing hymn melodies at Grace Mennonite Fellowship Church, and then mastered the guitar. At Broadway High School, she was part of the auditioned choirs, participated in musicals during each of her four years, and competed in the marching band and color guard.

As she sharpened her musical abilities, she was becoming more active in peace and justice causes. McClary participated in the March for Our Lives (2018) in Washington, D.C., to oppose gun violence, attended Mennonite Convention and was one of the first members of the Virginia Mennonite Youth Council.

As a student at 91����Ƶ, McClary has been active in events with Mennonite Action, a grassroots movement committed to public actions to bring about a lasting peace in Israel and Palestine. She took part in a recent march and hymn-sing outside City Hall in Harrisonburg, calling on city leaders to support a cease-fire.

“That’s music and peacebuilding in action,” she said about the event held in February. 

McClary, who spent her intercultural in Peru, is also a member of the Chamber Singers, an auditioned touring choir that uses music to build connection and community. She said one of the most valuable skills she’s learned in music and peacebuilding is constant self-evaluation. She asks herself: “What is my perspective? Who am I talking to? What is the context and the history? What am I trying to do?”

“I’ve become better at moving through the world by examining myself and asking these questions,” McClary said. “They can be hard questions sometimes, but I feel like I’ve grown so much by doing that.”

Moving forward

For her senior capstone project, McClary hosted a “Musical Haven” space in the Student Union. From 1 to 4 p.m. on April 1, students, musicians and anyone else could join her in playing one of the many instruments available. Music could be made with singing bowls, gourd rattles, a mandolin, two guitars and a cajon drum. 

“Music is powerful as a healing tool,” said McClary, who presented on her capstone on April 10. “It can be emotional, social and even physical healing. I fell in love with this idea of using music to heal and promote well-being in peoples’ lives. … The semester was wrapping up, so there’s greater stress among students. I think it was valuable to have this space.”

After graduating in May, McClary plans to work one last summer at Kenbrook Bible Camp in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, with her husband. Other than that, her future plans are wide open. But, before she leaves 91����Ƶ, she’s been working on a duet from the musical Little Women with friend and fellow music and peacebuilding major Clymer.

“It’s all about saying goodbye,” McClary said. “It’ll be cathartic … a good way to feel those feelings and then let them go.”

She said she would like to see the music and peacebuilding program grow to eventually host regular events, bring in guest speakers and become a greater part of campus life. Donors can support the program by contributing at .

Looking back, she isn’t sure what she would’ve studied had the major not been an option.

“Honestly, if I didn’t major in music and peacebuilding, I might’ve dropped out,” she said. “I’m not really sure. I think it was a special time for the major to come together.”

Participants will experience three intense days of , all with the goal of learning from one another and deepening understanding of the breadth and depth of current global peacebuilding work among Mennonites worldwide. 

“These spaces have proven to be significant as they offer an opportunity to build relationships and to share diverse understandings and work related to different peacebuilding efforts around the world,” shared Andrew Suderman, associate professor of Bible, religion and theology and chair of the GMP III Planning Committee. “Such events create wonderful opportunities to wrestle with our faith and practice, Christian and Mennonite identity, and what it means to embody Christ’s peace in today’s world.”

91����Ƶ is just the third location for the conference and festival. The first was held in 2016 at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, and the second in 2019 in The Netherlands.

“We are excited and honored to host this conference and festival at 91����Ƶ,” said Dan Ott, dean of the School of Theology, Humanities and Performing Arts. “Bringing artists, practitioners and scholars together in the name of building peace resonates with our mission, and our beautiful campus in the Shenandoah Valley will be a fitting and inspiring atmosphere for this important work.”

There are several ways people in the campus and local communities can get involved:

• Come! Come and participate in the discussion. Come and meet others who are actively working for peace. Come and share with others how you are working for peace.
• to provide travel bursaries for participants coming from the majority world/Global South.
• Volunteer! Welcome visitors to Harrisonburg and 91����Ƶ, set up and take down different spaces, or drive participants to and from the airport. 

Visit 91����Ƶ’s conference web and pages for more information and to

The announces a six-session course about police and community justice partnerships this summer. The course will be co-taught by Officer Vanessa Westley, a 25-year veteran with the Chicago Police Department, and Lt. Kurt Boshart, who recently retired after 28 years in the Harrisonburg (Va.) Police Department, where he led the department’s .

Institute co-directors Dr. and Dr. will also join some sessions. The Zehr Institute is a program of the at 91����Ƶ.

The course will begin Wednesday, June 28, from 3-4:30 p.m. (EST) Eastern Standard Time and continue through five consecutive Wednesdays. The final class will be Aug. 2. Cost is $99 (no additional fees).

“Given issues around policing in this country, we are seeing increasing interest among both police departments and communities in restorative justice,” says Zehr. “Restorative justice offers a more positive way to approach wrongdoing, but also possibilities for transforming police/community relationships.  This online course offers an opportunity to explore these possibilities.”

The course will be an introduction into restorative justice with an emphasis on its applications in law enforcement. Participants will explore innovative ways to incorporate restorative justice within an agency and in collaboration with their communities. Through presentations and interactive discussions, examples of implementation, including case studies in many police agencies throughout the United States, will be showcased.

The course builds upon a November 2016 co-hosted by the Zehr Institute and Harrisonburg Police Department in Virginia. Agencies from four states — California, Illinois, Massachusetts and Virginia — were represented by executive leadership, who have led or continued to lead implementation of restorative justice practices in their respective jurisdictions. Expert practitioners also attended, including Zehr. [Read the and .]

Participants were in agreement that utilizing restorative justice principles—being proactive, using good communication skills, building relationships and social capital by empowering and including community members — called for a holistic culture shift from “the top down and back up,” from new recruits to administration, said Chief Joe Garza, Reedley (Ca.) Police Department. At the same time, they agreed that many police departments, and individual officers, are already doing this kind of outreach, though perhaps under a different name.

Westley is currently program manager for the “Bridging the Divide,” a joint program of the Chicago PD and the Metro YMCA. She is also special projects coordinator for the Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy Revitalization effort launched in 2013.

Through DePaul University’s Center for Urban Education, she leads the community engagement training program, and is also  a restorative justice and “Art of Hosting” practitioner and trainer.

Four lectures remain in the series, which will take place during each of the five sessions of the , an annual program of the (CJP).

FCNL’s Annual Spring Lobby Weekend, a four-day conference with training, networking, policy briefings, community and advocacy, is regularly attended in the and programs.

“We’re fortunate to hear from Diane about her experiences and expertise today,” said CJP Practice Director , who introduced Randall and has attended several lobby weekends with students. “I especially appreciate her deep lifelong commitment to building a more just and peaceful world and the passion she brings to this work.”

Randall is joined in her Washington D.C. office by several staff, including Theo Sitther MA ‘13, who directs the peacebuilding program.

“The essential work FCNL does is to lobby Congress,” she said. “We are not a think tank though we try to be thoughtful. We are not a research center, though we take other research and use it to lobby. We stay focused on what we do well and partner with others to be most effective.”

FCNL surveys more than 700 Friends Meetings every two years to determine priorities, such as health care, climate change, peacebuilding policy, and mass incarceration, as well as core peace and justice issues.

“The ability to work with others in coalition is essential,” she said, adding that Quakers have a reputation for “holding neutral space.”

“At our best,” Randall says, “we stay open to how God is moving and how the spirit is moving among us and that means we don’t close off people who may not share different beliefs from us.”

FCNL also trains people to advocate through grass-roots networks. “In some cases, constituents can have a remarkable impact and even change their vote, but it doesn’t happen in one visit. You have to go again and again and bring new allies each time.”

Randall was raised Lutheran but joined the Friends in her thirties, drawn to the core value of non-violence. She began working with FCNL in 2011, initially wrestling with the confluence of the spiritual with the political.

FCNL helps to elevate and amplify “the voices of people who feel called to work with elected officials with clarity and commitment both for what they’re advocating for and for the long term,” she said. “There is a moral hunger… people around the world are longing for a sense of justice. That can mean different things to different people, but we should be having that debate about what that means, instead of about personalities.”

Upcoming Horizons of Change events

May 24 (lunch, 12:30-2:30 p.m.): Jean Claude Nkundwa MA ’14 will be presented with the . Nkundwa is executive secretary of Burundi Citizen Synergy, an organization he helped to found to create joint advocacy and communication strategies in Burundi.

May 29 (dinner, 5:30-7:30 p.m.): Benjamin Douglas and Jonathan Kuttab, a leading human rights attorney and peace activist, bring diverse perspectives on Israel-Palestine.

June 7 (dinner, 5:30-7:30 p.m.): Dr. , assistant professor of restorative Jjustice and Peacebuilding at 91����Ƶ, speaks on “Leading From Within” when organizing against oppression, repression and violence. How we might draw on our faith journeys and spiritual practices in order to be formed into the leaders we long for?

June 14 (dinner, 5:30-7:30 p.m.): Kai Degner, former Harrisonburg major, speaks about his new project, “The Listening Corps,” in a lecture titled “Listening for Change: Exploring the overemphasis of talking in dialogue programs.”

Tickets are $18 per person. To purchase and reserve your spot, e-mail alison.dsilva@emu.edu or call 540-432-4295 at least 4 days in advance of each meal.

The small-group skits were focused on inviting students to learn how their actions might be a result of an emotional response: how, for example, teasing Pakistani refugee Hayat Zahra, 16, about her hijab might be a result of their own discomfort in a new American culture.

“That was hard,” Zahra said later. Though the situation was only acting, her emotional response was visible to those around her. The students, refugees from Africa and the Middle East who are members of a leadership training program, were then able to talk about how words can hurt and how such hurt might cause other negative behaviors.

Harrisonburg High’s Peer Leaders program is a grant-funded project led by James Madison University’s (CISR), and involving partners Church World Service (CWS), 91����Ƶ and Harrisonburg High School. Funds for the 2016-17 academic year were provided from JMU’s Faculty Senate Vision Mini-Grant program.

The program began in spring 2015 with initial funding from CWS and the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services.

Teens are valued leaders

Though they may not have mastered English and may not realize their own influence, high school-age refugees are vital contributors and leaders within the high school community, said Rebecca Sprague, of CWS. “Building their knowledge about the school and community helps them be a resource to new refugees and their family members, as well as to our community. There are all different ways to be a leader, including helping to decide what kind of welcoming community the high school will be.”

Self-advocacy is another goal, said Laura Feichtinger-McGrath, ESL coordinator at the high school, “both for themselves and their peers … recognizing they can’t change the traumas of their past, and they all have traumas, but also not allowing their past experiences to cripple them or close doors to opportunities.”

Approximately 40 students participate in the program, all of whom have come to the Unites States to escape war, persecution or other dangers. Not every student comes to every weekly meeting, or every enrichment opportunity, Feichtinger-McGrath said.

Swahili speaker Kajungu Mturi, a graduate student at 91����Ƶ’s from Tanzania, and Felix Kioko, a Kenyan earning a second degree at 91����Ƶ, facilitate the group. Rabab Hassan, an Arabic-speaking teacher’s assistant from Iraq, and Valentina Sokolyuk, home-school liaison, lends her language skills. Paige Ober, CISR’s representative, attends each meeting and planning session.

“We want to develop a rooted sense that they are a part of the community here,” Feichtinger-McGrath said. “They have around them lots of adults with different perspectives and backgrounds that have their best interests at heart.”

Learning about themselves and moving between cultures

Monthly sessions alternate between providing information about community and school opportunities and group activities off-campus.

91����Ƶ resources were also tapped during a fall conflict and communication training with a CJP team that included Professor , Practice Director , Mturi and fellow graduate students Diana Tovar and Jalal Maqableh, and alumnus . In a day soon after the elections, when many questions had begun to surface, the group from CJP facilitated learning about “acting in, acting out, and acting with” to help students explore their questions and strategies for engagement.

The February workshop was focused on learning how the body responds to stress and how those responses can lead to unhelpful behaviors. Gloria Bafunye, a ninth-grader from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, explained it as the difference “between head and heart, how sometimes you think something and your body is because of that.”

, director of the (STAR) program, facilitated the learning experience. She said she was inspired by the students’ sensitivity, insights and questions.

Mansfield typically works with adults. For this day with 30 high-schoolers, she drew upon her first experiences in peace education with an organization called Peace Games, which involved playing games and asking questions to invite young people to learn from their own embodied experience. Mansfield offered arts-based activities, small-group sharing and team-building experiences, and joined in when a student started an impromptu dance session during the lunch break.

Both Bafunye and Zahra mentioned the lunch-time dancing as a highlight, one occasion when even the newest student, who had only been at the high school for three days and spoke almost no English, enjoyed himself.

Other Anabaptists involved in interfaith issues agree. Citing “the urgency of positive interfaith engagement in a climate of religious hostility, Islamophobia, and more,” including a recent surge in anti-Semitic acts, Nussbaum and eight other interfaith, peacemaking, and mission workers from Anabaptist agencies met to explore ways to improve interfaith engagement locally and globally.

The February 15–16 meeting gave participants a chance to look critically at their agencies’ roles in interfaith engagement and develop best practices for relating across faiths. Facilitators Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) and Mennonite Mission Network were also joined by Mennonite Church USA staff, Eastern Mennonite Missions  and Christian Peacemaker Teams.

Gathered at MCC’s Welcoming Place, representatives from the six agencies helped each other identify weaknesses in the way their agencies, and the U.S. Anabaptist community as a whole, approach interfaith engagement.

Anabaptists bring ‘rich history’ of interfaith work

One problem identified was a tendency to retreat into enclaves and not engage with those who are different, including non-Christians. Some other weaknesses included insufficient passion for sharing the gospel, congregations’ fear of relating to people of other faiths, and the involvement of Anabaptist churches in the U.S. culture wars.

While acknowledging weaknesses, participants also agreed that Anabaptists have certain strengths that give great potential for rich interfaith engagement. Participants noted that Anabaptists have had a disproportionate influence in the arena of interfaith engagement relative to their demographic size in the U.S.

Some particular Anabaptist strengths listed by participants included extensive development and disaster response efforts worldwide, which exhibit care for all; a long history of respectful and widespread cross-cultural engagement; and the pacifist stance of Anabaptists, which has helped build trust in many places globally.

The representatives wrote a list of lessons learned from each other to shape the way they approach interfaith engagement going forward. The first three lessons on the 18-item list were to practice hospitality, to practice self-reflection before undertaking interfaith engagement, and to approach interfaith engagement with humility and a readiness to repent.

Mennonites have ‘important niche’

Alain Epp Weaver, strategic planning and learning director with MCC, said he came away from the meeting “convinced that Mennonites have an important niche” in the work of interfaith engagement.

Weaver’s experiences working with MCC have shown him the possibilities that interfaith cooperation can bring. Recently he has been inspired by stories of Christians and Muslims working together to protect each other and provide relief in war-torn Syria.

Jonathan Bornman, a member of Eastern Mennonite Missions’ Christian/Muslim Relations Team, said that the need for better interfaith engagement can be felt locally. Recently his friend, an asylum seeker from Iraq, told Bornman he was afraid for the upcoming hearing to determine his asylee status. If he is sent back to Iraq, his life will be in danger — but as a Muslim immigrant, he is afraid he will not be allowed to stay in the U.S. He asked Bornman to pray for him.

Other attendees of the meeting included James Krabill, senior mission advocate with Mennonite Missions Network; Rebekah Simmerman, research assistant at 91����Ƶ’s Center for Interfaith Engagement; Jonathan Brenneman, coordinator for Israel/Palestine Partners in Peacemaking with Mennonite Church USA; Jason Boone, peace and justice minister with Mennonite Church USA and a member of Christian Peacemaker Teams’ steering committee; John Kampen, professor of Biblical Interpretation at Methodist Theological School in Ohio, who also works as a Jewish-Christian relations consultant with Mennonite Church USA; and David Shenk, Eastern Mennonite Missions’ global consultant.

Anabaptist interfaith workers had a similar meeting before the Council of International Anabaptist Ministries meeting in January 2016, and they are planning another for next year.

Common affirmations among different approaches

“An explicit attempt to address the issue of interfaith relations is a relatively new agenda for the (Anabaptist) body as a whole,” said Kampen. “We come from very different places and experiences, so the conversation is very important.”

“Those assembled did not all agree on how (interfaith engagement) should happen, but that just illustrates why the conversation is so important,” Krabill elaborated. “We made some important steps toward common affirmations on how to proceed, and agreed that we needed to give more attention to how our agencies equip the church to more effectively understand and engage our neighbors of other faith traditions.”

“The advantage of meeting together as organizations is the overlap and synergy to be had, and the broader reach that working together can bring,” Weaver said.

Each organization has its own vast networks, whether global or local. Mennonite Missions Network currently fosters relationships with workers and partners in over 55 countries. Eastern Mennonite Missions served in 36 countries in 2016, while MCC serves in 54 countries. 91����Ƶ’s Center for Interfaith Engagement serves a student body of about 1,880 from over 50 countries. Christian Peacemaker Teams works globally in peacemaking and advocacy in regions with violence or injustice issues, including advocating for indigenous peoples in North America. Mennonite Church USA reported 95,000 adult members in about 875 congregations as of May 2015; Mennonite Church USA is also part of Mennonite World Conference, which includes more than 1.7 million baptized believers in 83 countries.

The eventual goal of these meetings, said Weaver, is for the organizations to better support and resource congregations as they reach out to neighbors of other faiths. When the representatives meet again next year, they plan to identify best practices for interfaith engagement to recommend to Anabaptist congregations.

“It has never been more important for the church to step up to the plate and provide a model for how Christ followers should engage people of other faith traditions,” said Krabill.

Nkundwa has devoted himself to peace processes in his native Burundi. Since May 2015, he has been living in exile in Rwanda while advocating for sustainable peace and human rights in Burundi.

The CJP Peacebuilder of the Year Award, formerly known as the Alumni Award for Outstanding Service, is given annually “to CJP alumni who have demonstrated exceptional commitment to CJP’s mission of supporting conflict transformation, restorative justice, trauma healing, development, organizational leadership and peacebuilding efforts at all levels of society,” according to CJP Executive Director .

The award honors Nkundwa’s “creative and courageous peacebuilding work that combines grassroots education and networking, trans-Africa coalition-building, engagement with multiple stakeholders, effective use of the media, and strategic advocacy at the United Nations and in Washington D.C.,” said Byler.

A colleague noted in nomination materials that Nkundwa “has accomplished this at extreme risk to himself and shows courage, resilience, and deep faith in the face of uncertainty and violence.”

Advocacy leads to formal organizing

The award is “humbling and encouraging,” Nkundwa said, especially because he has been working independently of any organization until recently. “When you have an institutional affiliation, it is easy to talk about your work and have formal networking and clear channels of communication. But working out of your passion and calling, it’s sometimes difficult to communicate and even measure what you’re doing.”

Nkundwa’s independent work, as well as his collaborative and strategic skills, have clearly made an impact. After returning from a frustrating advocacy trip to the United States last summer, he decided more strategic planning and cohesion was needed to effectively tell the story of what was happening in Burundi.

In the fall, Nkundwa invited fellow African peacebuilders and organizational experts to a comprehensive strategic planning that resulted in a formal organization called “Burundi Citizen Synergy.” The organization joins various movements, media leaders and labor union leaders, among other groups, “to build a stronger network of joint advocacy and communication strategies,” said Nkundwa.

After the planning process, he was elected by the board to a two-year term as executive secretary. His current task is to develop an annual action plan, mobilize partners and resources, and secure funding.

Sustainable peace for Burundi is the goal

Nkundwa is also coordinating civil society leaders mainly based in Kigali, Rwanda, to engage with the East Africa Community, specifically chief mediator Yoweri Museveni, the president of Uganda, and EAC chair, John Magufuli, president of Tanzania. Inclusive peace talks are the goal, he says. “The Burundi civil society groups in exile want to make sure all social categories are represented in the talks in order to ensure Burundi reaches agreements that lead to a just, sustainable and long-term peace.”

He plans two speaking tours to the United States, one in mid-March and a second this summer when he will come to 91����Ƶ to accept the award.

Nkundwa will be honored during a luncheon event at this summer’s . The award comes with a transportation grant to attend one SPI course.

The was conferred in 2015 to , MA ’02, founder and executive director of in Pakistan. Last year’s recipient was , MA ’99, an expert in restorative justice. All of the 590 alumni who have earned master’s degrees or graduate certificates in conflict transformation from CJP are eligible.

To nominate an alumnus for the Peacebuilder of the Year award, email cjp@emu.edu.

happening with our neighbors,” said Professor during ’s School for Leadership Training. “In the 21st century, we don’t need to travel 6,000 miles to meet others, ethnic others, racial others. We just need to open our doors or walk down the hall. We could do better to love our literal neighbors, those people closest to us.”

Evans’ point, made during a panel presentation on the themes of “neighboring” and “othering,” drew nods from listeners in Martin Chapel – all of whom had come to the two-day workshop to deepen knowledge and explore engagement with the diversities of politics, culture and theology in today’s modern church and culture.

Approximately 240 pastors and lay leaders from 16 states attended. At least eight denominations were represented: Brethren in Christ, Church of the Brethren, Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ, Mennonite Church USA, United Methodist, Lutheran and Unitarian Universalist. The event included four keynote addresses, workshops and a seminary faculty panel addressing the theme of “Yearning to Get Along … And Stay True to Ourselves.”

‘It is not enough to stay silent’

Participants ranged from veteran pastors to seminary students to laypeople such as Janelle Clark, of Newport News, Virginia, who is contemplating seminary studies. Pastor Sandy Drescher-Lehman has attended for the past seven years, anticipating by January, the need for collegial connection, spiritual sustenance and reflection “on where I was when I came last year — spiritually, emotionally and vocationally — and comparing that to my current place in the world.”

“As a white person living and working in a multicultural neighborhood,” Cynthia Lapp, pastor at Hyattsville Mennonite Church in Hyattsville, came to learn “more about racism and the ways white privilege functions … It is not enough to stay silent. Racism will not just fade away; we must act and speak.”

“I came to help uncover and discover what is often hidden in our racialized society and to consider how these forces of racialization are forming and shaping us as a church,” said John Stolzfus, Franconia Conference youth minister and campus pastor for Dock Mennonite Academy.

Reflecting after the event, Stolzfus questions: “How can we as leaders empty ourselves of our privilege and power in the self-emptying way of Christ in order to embody the incarnational love of God? To the extent in which we are not able to see or understand the suffering and struggle of the immigrant, racial minority, foreigner, sexual minority, or anyone who may be different from us reveals the poverty of our relationships. We need to be in proximity to and stand next to those who are “other” in order to truly be a neighbor.

With opportunities for worship, reflection and prayer in the midst of education, many came away with more questions than answers.

Mick Sommers, lead pastor at Ridgeview Mennonite Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was “sobered by the realization that generations of attitudes and structure within the church will likely not be altered in a short span of time … I recognize within myself the need for a constant awareness and intentional mindfulness to counteract what has been my own socialization about race and power.”

Inequality and the ‘whitened Jesus’

, of Duke University Divinity School, and , of Messiah College, offered three extensive keynotes on the subjects of a practical theology of inequality, power and unity and the whitened Jesus, respectively.

Cleveland, a social psychologist, talked about the socialization of racism, the current politics of victimhood and related both concepts to Jesus’s statements and actions as a marginalized and oppressed person.

“If you looked to see where Jesus was socially located in every single one of his actions, how he emptied himself of his influence, platform and power … you’ll probably be astounded,” she said. “Jesus was always using his voice to make a point about what our relationships should be.”

Hart drew from history and culture to highlight the ubiquity of the “white European Jesus fixed in our places of worship,” an image that “bolsters a social system organized around racial hierarchy. “

While lifting up the constructed image of the blonde, Nordic and explicitly non-Jewish Jesus, Hart asked, “Where do we go with that image … to recover our Gentile identity? None of us have a copyright on Christianity or Jesus … Let us remember that it is someone else’s story that shapes our lives.”

Selected seminars summarized

A complete list of seminars is available .

Understanding the ‘other’ through the mirror/window of popular culture with Benjamin Bixler, PhD student, Drew University.

Bixler began with a clip of Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy Awards performance of “The Blacker The Berry,” in which the rapper and dancers, dressed as convicts, perform in the setting of a jail. Bixler discussed popular culture (movies, novels, music, etc.) as a way of engagement with “the other” on several levels: not only does the alternate world and characters offer alternate perspectives and provoke empathy, but the people who are discussing, analyzing or critiquing the work are also learning about themselves and each other.

Rebirth of a White Nation, with Dr. David Evans, EMS professor.

Evans facilitated discussions about white racial identity, a brief history of race in the United States, and the characteristics or qualities of “good white people” before asking the question “How might following Jesus be consistent or inconsistent with pursuing white status?”

“Race is national discipleship that teaches us the values we must have in order to belong to a certain status or group,” Evans says. “These values rival what Jesus calls us to be or to become … If we’ve been discipled into white nationalism, and no one was born white, then we’ve been converted into something that we need to be converted out of.”

How Do You Measure Life Change? The Role of Data and Measurements in Community Engagement with Wes Furlong, director of church development, EVANA network.

• Churches often take an input-focused approach to thinking about social/service work (e.g. pounds of food gather for food drive) rather than thinking carefully about outputs and desired impact.
• Serving communities, at its best, begins with careful work to fully understand context, strengths and assets and to ensure that all actors are involved.
• Those involved in social/service work need to avoid the temptation of taking a short-term or transaction view to their efforts and instead strive to take a systems view with a focus on the long-term.

Seeking the Peace of the City, with Dr. Johonna Turner, 91����Ƶ professor, and Julian Turner, graduate student.

The Turners, both raised in the Washington D.C. area, also lived and worked there until moving to Harrisonburg. Johonna Turner was a public school teacher involved in peacebuilding and empowerment work with youth, while Julian Turner worked in social services, specifically with HIV-AIDS patients. The Turners led discussions, framed by Jeremiah 29.7, about perceptions of the choices inner-city citizens make and the visualization of a more peaceful and harmonious city. This was conjoined to a scriptural exploration of compassion as modeled by Jesus, leading to a model for action in connection, lamentation and amplification. Presenters emphasized that care and consideration for voices of all citizens, whether urban dweller or rural folk, because “we are all connected.”

Panel: Navigating the move from ‘other’ to ‘neighbor’ in the context of theological education.

A panel of seminary faculty — including Dr. Kevin Clark, Dr. David Evans, Dr. Lonnie Yoder, Dr. Andrea Saner, Dr. Emily Peck McClain, Dr. Kenton Derstine and Dr. Dorothy Jean Weaver — discussed the role of theological education and cross-cultural engagement in shaping the move from ‘other’ to ‘neighbor’ in students and communities; how society defines each of these terms; and issues of power and privilege in the seminary classroom.

The print issue should arrive in mailboxes of alumni and friends of 91����Ƶ who live in North America this week [Dec. 18].

To view or share a digital issue, click .

Here’s a list of features, with individual links to articles:

• Social work professor on her journey from Harlem, New York, to 91����Ƶ;
• Attorney , first Latina president-elect of the Pennsylvania Bar Association;
• on life and work in Flint, Michigan;
• A trio of alumni, led by , empower entrepreneurs;
• Pastor and his work with Indonesian immigrants in Philadelphia, Pa.;
• leads a sewing circle with refugees from Myanmar.

Also see features on the Center for Interfaith Engagement led by new director , Pastor and the welcoming signs spreading across the nation, and the similar work of .

A Genesis Story, or How This Issue Happened…

The theme of this magazine came about nearly a year ago on a cold January morning in a minivan zooming through Harrisonburg.

I was in the back seat of the van. , then associate director of 91����Ƶ’s Center for Interfaith Engagement, was driving and Bex Simmerman MA ‘16, then a graduate student at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, was seated next to her.

The 2016 presidential campaign was warming up; indeed, already it was looking hot. We were on the way to a monthly Harrisonburg/Rockingham Interfaith Association meeting at the Islamic Center of Shenandoah Valley. The topic of discussion was how to respond to a growing prevalence “by citizens emboldened by presidential candidates and amplified by media outlets” of inflammatory language against immigrants.

I do not remember exactly how subject came about, but I do remember that when we hit upon the idea of devoting an issue of Crossroads to alumni doing similar kinds of advocacy work in the United States, Trina turned completely around in her seat to share her enthusiasm.

And she was driving at the time.

We did arrive at the mosque safely. The building was packed. By the end of two hours, the large group of faith leaders had collected contributions and agreed on language for a full-page ad in the local newspaper titled “A Call For Action To Create Mutual Understanding and Acceptance in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County.” (See the text below.)

The other result of that day was a Crossroads theme that, in the coming months, would be refined to focus on alumni in the United States, working for the common good and for social justice in multicultural settings. We knew this magazine would come out after the presidential election. And we knew, depending on the country’s choice, that the world could be vastly different at its conclusion. As photographer and graphic designer Jon Styer ‘07 and I created this magazine, we both took hope from the stories of alumni working day to day in selfless compassion to bring comfort and care to their neighbors. Again and again, we were reminded in interviews with alumni that we can make the choice to meet our neighbors, to share our lives, and to live fully, even if we are uncomfortable, with our differences.

Nearly 11 months later, the words created so carefully in January 2016 by the men and women of the Interfaith Association are worth printing again. I thank them, Trina and Bex for the initial inspiration of this theme.

Harrisonburg-Rockingham Interfaith Association’s “Call for Action to Create Mutual Understanding and Acceptance in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County”

The organizations and individuals endorsing this statement are deeply saddened by the recent hatred expressed toward immigrants by citizens emboldened by presidential candidates and amplified by media outlets. We are deeply saddened by the violence that is taking place at home and abroad. We desperately need a productive public struggle over our different ethical and social choices. Productive politics can only happen within a commitment to live together in respect.

It is time to stop and recover our shared values. We are a nation of immigrants of different cultural, linguistic, and religious backgrounds, which makes our communities rich, diverse, and productive. Our community of Harrisonburg and Rockingham has a long lasting history of welcoming immigrants and celebrating the role that everyone contributes to our society, and we will not lose our souls to hate. Our call is not only to pray, but also to educate and engage in loving one another, as is the mandate of all of our faith communities.

We would like to let our community know that we intend to work together to stop religious intolerance, bigotry, religious discrimination, and fear of strangers from taking over the hearts of our institutions and members of our community.

We add our voice to the call of many others in the country who seek to promote common understanding, to love our neighbor, to dialogue with those who are different from us, to recognize and celebrate our differences, and to demand that our political parties return to civil discourse in society.

[Supporters, in the hundreds, were listed below the text.]

Shortly thereafter, Tarik jumped on a dream opportunity to consult for CJP on a peacebuilding project in Iraq, which he hasn’t been back to since leaving a decade ago.

“My entire trajectory up to this point has been to do something with peacebuilding and conflict resolution in Iraq,” he said.

Tarik is one of several CJP alumni working on the project, intended to establish a dialogue center at Kufa University in the Iraqi city of Najaf and train dozens of young people in peacebuilding. The $700,000 initiative is funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and is being jointly implemented by CJP, Kufa University and two NGOs, the Iraqi Al-Amal Association and the Imam Al-Khoei Foundation.

Iraqis ‘hungry’ for training, self-expression through peacebuilding

Central to the effort are six trainings led by Dr. Alma Abdul-Hadi Jadallah, a consultant and professor who regularly teaches at CJP’s . Three of the trainings are for academics and three are for youth from across Iraq.

Jadallah led the first youth training in September 2016 and the first academic training in October 2016, with about 25 participants in each. Afterwards, she said participants from both groups were engaged and eager to learn.

“They were hungry for this, really looking for something to give them a way to speak about what they are experiencing, and also to address it,” she said.

While the academic trainings will lead to the establishment of the dialogue center at Kufa University, the youth trainings will culminate in a series of community peacebuilding project proposals from participants, 42 of which will be funded by the grant.

The year-long project runs through June 30, 2017.

From his home in Baltimore, Tarik is supporting Jadallah’s trainings by translating curriculum materials into Arabic and writing new, culturally relevant material for the Iraqi participants. One of the aspects that most excites him is the opportunity to support peacebuilding among young Iraqis, many of them around the same age at which violence forced him from the country.

“Peacebuilding work is just planting seeds and hoping that they’ll grow, and this project is nothing but that,” he said. “It gives me hope. I don’t know what’s going to come out of it, but you keep pulling one thread and hope something comes out of it.”

Other alumni involved

Also involved are ’14 and ’15, from Lebanon and Libya, respectively. After studying at CJP on Fulbright scholarships, both are pursuing doctorates at George Mason University. They will evaluate the project proposals that will be submitted by participants in the youth trainings, recommending the ones that should receive funding.

Another key supporter of the project is , a 2014 CJP graduate who works for the UNDP in Iraq. She said that Kufa University’s dialogue center and the newly developed Arabic-language peacebuilding materials developed for the trainings will enable the project to remain relevant after the grant period ends.

According to Jadallah, the longstanding connections that CJP has in the region through Ali and others involved on the project provide important credibility to the effort.

“That’s such a critical point in peacebuilding,” Jadallah said. “That was in my favor as the lead facilitator. People came in ready to trust us.”

“We’re extremely excited about this project because of its use of alumni,” says CJP executive director D. “It’s something that we’ve wanted to do for a long time, and it’s something that seems to be making the best use of the skills that alumni bring.”