Clinton School students Kate Cawvey and Nicky Hamilton checked in this week from Cape Town, South Africa, where they are completing their International Public Service Projects in partnership with the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre.
Founded to advance Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s legacy of activism, the center focuses its work on peace, leadership training and sustainable development in Africa.
Cawvey and Hamilton are working to develop curriculum and implement training programs for the center’s Schools for Peace Program, which deals with violence and bullying in South Africa’s schools.
The students have played a major role in planning and developing curriculum for the center’s Youth Peace Summit, and the Peer Mediation Training, two annual events that focus on diversity, environmental awareness and nonviolence.
Cawvey reports that the Youth Peace Summit was a “huge hit” among the students who attended.
“It was amazing to see how the youth took hold of the ideas presented in the workshops, Celebrating Diversity, Caring for the Environment and Creating Cultures of Nonviolence and applied them to their own lives,” Cawvey said.
The Peer Mediation Training event for primary school students ages 11 to 13 is set for July 5-7 and will focus on conflict resolution and the essential skills of a peer mediator, Hamilton says.
Both students credited their experiences in the Clinton School core courses and through the team-based Practicum public service project for preparing them for their international project.
“The Clinton School curriculum emphasized the importance of engaging all stakeholders and finding opportunities to collaborate,” Hamilton says. “In order for the curriculum for the Youth Peace Summit and Peer Mediation training to be culturally relevant, it was important to engage South Africans throughout the process.”
A major thrill for Hamilton has been working down the hall from Archbishop Tutu, who conducts a mandatory tea-time session with the center’s staff every day at 11:00 a.m.
Clinton School student Molly McGowan is also in Cape Town working with the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre’s Young Women’s Leadership Workshop.