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!

About 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.

About 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 EMU to deliver commencement addresses in 2014 and 2018, the latter year being when she was awarded EMU’s first honorary doctorate.

About 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.

Paegar, a native of Monrovia, Liberia, had set up an internship there when the Ebola outbreak suddenly spiraled out of control. His quick decision-making and networking resulted in other opportunities, however.

He spent eight weeks with , an environmental solutions consultancy in Rockville, Maryland, and four weeks with the grassroots organization in Nairobi, Kenya.

“Both internships equipped me with valuable knowledge and skills in the area of environmental policy, a field in which I’m looking to pursue a professional career,” he said. Paegar hopes to continue to graduate school and then eventually return to Liberia.

Here, he talks more about his experiences.

How did you set up these internships?

I had initially planned to intern in Liberia with the Society for the Conservation of Nature in Liberia. However, because the Ebola outbreak hadn’t been contained, as well as the fact that their operations are based in the areas severely affected by the outbreak, I decided to call off the trip. Fortunately, I found that I.M. Systems Group had once worked in Liberia and partnered with SCNL. Thus, I used my contacts from Liberia to inquire about the possibility of obtaining an internship with I.M. Systems Group. My credentials were later requested, followed by an interview and I was awarded the internship.

The Green Belt Movement internship came from a recommendation. I sat at the same table as Nobel Laureate , MA ‘07, when she visited campus in February to speak at the . Her family and mine are close friends. When she asked about my summer plans, I indicated that I was seeking an internship to fulfill my practicum requirements. She provided several suggestions, instructed me to e-mail my resume to her, and later introduced me to the directors of the Nobel Women’s Initiative, who recommended me to the Green Belt Movement.

What were your responsibilities at I.M. Systems Group?

I worked on a research team that reviewed the existing environmental policies, concepts and frameworks in the context of mangrove restoration, climate change adaptation and poverty reduction in the Southeast Asia region. We researched and proposed several projects aimed at providing economic justification to support the restoration of marine ecosystems and coastal habitats in the Philippines, as well as improving the country’s coastal economy. The research was published in a review paper, which assesses the outcomes of several mangrove restoration initiatives in the Philippines and suggests a sustainable solution to future restoration initiatives.

What were your responsibilities at The Green Belt Movement?

The Green Belt Movement (GBM), founded in the late 1970s by Wangari Maathai of Kenya, empowers communities, particularly women in those communities, to conserve the environment and improve livelihoods. I worked at the headquarters in Nairobi in the climate change and corporate partnership division.

The GBM contributes to Kenya’s national climate change consultation group. As Kenya had recently adopted a National Climate Change Action Plan, our task included reviewing the national climate change position papers and identifying questions about the government’s priorities in responding to climate change. These inquiries were not exclusive to the Kenyan context as many involved questioning of global, regional and local policies and policymaking processes that ignore community engagement in decision-making, sustainable livelihoods and environmental conservation.

I also helped to review the “Intended Nationally Determined Contributions” policy ahead of the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, France at the end of this year. Even developing nations who are particularly vulnerable to the deleterious impacts of climate change (but have done the least to cause the problem) are required to submit this.

I also worked on a program to train 400 women leaders from the Great Lakes Region in natural resource management and climate change mitigation/adaptation. These women would in turn train 20,000 individuals from several communities across East Africa. I observed a training session and learned about the approaches utilized by the GBM in its development projects.

Can you share a favorite experience with both internships?

I didn’t have a single favorite moment or experience. I found every single day exciting. I was motivated by the desire to learn hands-on from seasoned professionals in the field.

At the GBM, I was really impressed by the enthusiasm exemplified by the employees. It felt like a big family.

Other activities outside of the actual internship experience were also enlightening, like experiencing a different culture while in Kenya. I’m from Liberia, which is in West Africa, and Kenya is in East Africa. The cultures are distinct for the most part, but living for the past few years in the United States, I’ve observed that the fallacy of a monolithic African culture is often perpetuated; therefore, I found it interesting how different we were/are. I love and value diversity so that was exciting.

What would you tell a student who wants an internship?

This might sound cliché, but I’d tell a student who wants an internship to go for it, and not be scared to step outside your comfort zone. There are a lot of things out in the world waiting to be discovered. As Dr. Seuss said, “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.” You might just stumble upon something you love doing and that could end up being your profession.

Securing an internship: tips from Kimberly Phillips, Director of Career Services

Approximately 80% of job and internship seekers secure opportunities through networking. Gee proved that networking with family members, friends and professional contacts can be a successful strategy to gain experience. Perseverance and a back-up plan are helpful tools, as well!

Give yourself permission to try new experiences and to work with people and organizations you may not have previously considered. The more open you are to different options, the more opportunities you will find.

But she never imagined her father’s participation in the 2009 (SPI) would so directly impact her own future. Winifred, a junior economics major, spent the summer as a community assistant at SPI – the very program that first brought her father to EMU.

SPI director knows both father and daughter. “Wilfred fills up the room,” said Goldberg. “He is very outgoing … and tall. Winifred is quieter, but there is definitely a presence that they both share.”

As a community assistant, Winifred has offered support and information to the many international citizens who stayed on campus this summer. SPI employees accompanied participants to the grocery store, and on trips and tours over the weekend. The assistants were also available around the clock should someone need help or advice.

“They are incredibly dedicated to the participants,” said Goldberg. “They are always willing to answer questions and provide help whether they are working or supposed to be off.”

Her experience at SPI this summer has further solidified her commitment to follow in her father’s path of peacebuilding work, Winifred says. “It’s blown my mind how great everyone has been. Watching the dynamics between people from all over the world, the way they connect with each other – it makes me want to do good things.”

SPI plays ‘a critical role’

Wilfred Gray-Johnson, executive director of the (LPBO), attended SPI in 2009 and 2014.

“SPI has enormously enhanced my theoretical knowledge and application in peacebuilding, which has contributed to the level of success of the LPBO,” he said. “We are responsible for coordinating the Government of Liberia peace and reconciliation programs, and lead the development of various peace and reconciliation strategic policy frameworks. SPI, having built our skills in the areas of conflict and context analysis, as well as restorative and other forms of justice, continues to play a critical role in our work.”

Gray-Johnson has also sent members of his office to SPI every year since 2009. Participants from the LPBO include Sunny A. George, training and conflict sensitivity officer; Togar S. Tarpeh, national early warning and early response program officer; John R. Dennis, national monitor and evaluation officer; Matthew B. Kollie, who now works with the Governance Commission; and Victor Smith, who currently heads a USAID project in Liberia.

Tough transition

It wasn’t always apparent that Gray-Johnson was bound for Virginia. Soon after she graduated from high school, her mother passed away. Wanting to remain close to her father, two younger siblings and 10 extended family members, she attended a local college in Liberia for two years, after which she sat down with her father and had a long conversation.

“It seemed like the best thing, for my education,” she said. “At that point I needed to get away, to focus.”

Her father agreed. “EMU’s campus environment is conducive to focus and learning, par excellence,” he said. “I applaud the school for its multicultural environment that encourages respect for diversity, while remaining distinct in championing moral and ethical values.”

Winifred says her father’s familiarity with – and affection for – the campus made a hard decision a little easier. “My father loves EMU. He has so many friends here,” she said. “He wasn’t afraid to leave me here on my own.”

While her father’s connections to the campus drew her to EMU, they didn’t smooth her transition from Liberia to Virginia. The cultural transition, food and the winter weather proved the highest hurdle.

“I had a keen sense of being alone,” she emphasized. Furthering this feeling was a discomfort with certain social norms. “The hardest thing to adjust to was addressing my professors and supervisors on a first-name basis. I probably went for two months without saying their names. It just wasn’t comfortable for me.”

But frequent Skype conversations with her father helped ease her. ‘“We weren’t always close,” Gray-Johnson said. “Now we are close. We have become good friends.”

They are, however, good friends who haven’t seen each other for the past year. Though Wilfred Gray-Johnson was able to visit his daughter in Maryland last summer, where she was staying with her aunt, the two haven’t been on campus together since he dropped her off at the start of her first year. “I’d love it if he was on campus with me. Then he could introduce me to everyone he knows,” she said.

For his part, her father plans to attend an SPI session next summer. “Hopefully my daughter will be an SPI community assistant once again, and we can spend time together then,” he said.

Help for home

Nor has Gray-Johnson been able to return to Liberia, due to the Ebola outbreak in the summer of 2014. Watching from afar while the disease threatened her family and her father worked on the front lines of the crisis in Liberia, Gray-Johnson to supply aid and raise awareness of the devastation in her home country.

The group reached out to Nobel Laureate , MA ’07 (conflict transformation), a fellow native of Liberia, and who knows and has worked with Wilfred Gray-Johnson. Winifred first met Gbowee when she was the 2014 commencement speaker (her son Joshua Mensah graduated with the class of 2014), and was eager to bring her back to campus.

To the group’s surprise, Gbowee accepted their invitation, donating her time and services to the cause, waiving even travel fees. Bolstered by Gbowee’s attendance, ISO raised over $4,000 to assist in fighting the Ebola epidemic. In addition, student participation in ISO events rose significantly over the remainder of the semester. “We had so much involvement,” Gray-Johnson said. “It was really wonderful.”

And when Liberia was declared Ebola-free earlier this summer, Gray-Johnson offered a prayer of thanks. “When I heard that, I gave a long exhale,” she said. “I was so relieved.”

Future peacebuilder

Her summer experience has contributed to a long-term plan that she hopes one day leads back to Liberia. In the meantime, she’ll spend the next year as president of a newly invigorated International Students Organization.

Following graduation from EMU in 2017, she’d like to spend a year interning or volunteering in a French-speaking country, to learn the language. And after that?

Gray-Johnson contemplates graduate school, maybe even at EMU’s. That thought gives her pause, though. “My father is so well known there, I am worried the level of expectation will be too high,” she said, a momentary frown crossing her face. Then she shrugged and smiled. “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

Pausing, she reflected for a moment on her father’s love for SPI and EMU, and his eagerness to share both with her. She nodded. “Now I see what caught his attention.”

Having her family there helped Alicia recover from a tough loss after a standout season when the team posted a 15-1 conference record and a 23-5 overall record (After the loss, the Royals received an NCAA tournament bid, where they lost to undefeated Thomas More College in Crestview Hills, Kentucky, in the second round).

“I cried. It was so heartbreaking,” said her mother, Joyce Ygarza, referring to the family’s emotions in their hotel room following the semi-final loss. Joyce and her husband, who live in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, have been loyal fans since the girls began playing at age 4.

It was easier to get to games when the girls were playing at , than when they opted to attend a university more than three hours from home. The trips south to Harrisonburg meant many hotel rooms and late nights. And the rigorous schedule of basketball kept Bianca and Alicia away from home for the majority of the holidays.

Despite these challenges, Joyce said EMU has been a great choice for both daughters: “It’s helped them grow up.”

Coach , a 10-year veteran with the program, has played a large role in this, making coaching and mentoring the whole student-athlete a priority.

The elder sister

Bianca graduated from EMU with a degree in . It is one of the most demanding majors EMU offers. Many late nights are spent with a head crammed in an anatomy textbook. And when nursing students have their clinicals (the nursing equivalent of an internship), they often awake and leave for the hospital before the sun rises.

“There were times I cried because I thought I would fail out of nursing school,” Bianca recalls. She has one more hurdle to cross. Now back in Lancaster, she spends her time studying for the NCLEX, an exam that aspiring nurses must pass in order to receive their nursing license.

While in school, Coach “Griff,” as he is called by his players, gave Bianca his support, giving advice when she confided troubling life situations, she says. Griffin says he likes his players to be exemplary role models, both on and off the court.

“Two of the hardest working kids I have ever coached,” Griffin says of the Ygarza sisters.

The artistic sister

Alicia’s hard work shows off the court. A digital media major with a talent for singing, Alicia often finds herself after practice in the lab working on a project, or in a practice room in the basement of Lehman Auditorium with a cup of tea practicing her vocals.

Alicia started singing around the age of 6, mostly in church. She performs in the gospel choir, and at chapels and banquets. She recently gave two riveting performances at a campus event featuring .

Since her freshman year, she has developed increased confidence in her artistic expression, says her academic advisor, , a professor in the . He says that, above all, he has seen Alicia’s maturity of thought develop.

The digital media major, Holsopple says, is very public – students’ productions often find themselves under critique, which means students’ progress is often witnessed, and supported, by the campus community.

On the court, Alicia is not afraid to make suggestions to the coaches during time-outs. She plays the point, a role that does not always make for a glamorous stat-line. She directs the offense, sees the court, and gets players involved in the game.

Bianca, during her time at EMU, was a versatile post player. She earned first-team all-ODAC honors as a sophomore, junior, and senior, and she was the EMU Women’s Athlete of the Year in her sophomore and senior years. She joined EMU’s 1,000 point club as a senior, finishing her career with 1,215 points. This placed her sixth in the program’s history.

The two sisters grew up playing basketball together, but they are more than teammates. During the two years that they overlapped at EMU, Bianca says that they would hang out nearly every day. They aren’t just sisters, they’re best friends.

It also helped that Gbowee knew ��ݮ���� well. She had earned a in 2007.

Gbowee, a social worker who led a women’s peace movement that helped end Liberia’s civil war 10 years ago, addressed a fundraising dinner for over 100 people at EMU on Feb. 7. Organized by the school’s International Student Organization, the event was followed by a public address to about 200 attendees, who put contributions into baskets passed by the students.

The events raised over $4,000 after expenses for the care of children whose parents died from Ebola. The funds will go to the Nobel winner’s in the Liberian capital of Monrovia. The foundation makes grants to grassroots groups, including two Liberian organizations founded by graduates of .

The countries hardest hit by Ebola, which started in March 2014, were Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, said Gbowee in her public address. The 3.4 million people of her country had only 51 doctors. “We were not prepared for Ebola, but Liberian civil society rose to the occasion,” she said. “We didn’t wait around for the international community to come and help us.”

Gbowee told the stories of three Liberian heroes – a doctor who cared for Ebola victims in his humble clinic at the risk of his own life, a taxi driver who transported dangerously infectious patients to the hospital, and a young man with a full-time job who provides care for orphans in his off hours.

The epidemic has finally abated in Africa, she said. The Ebola clinics are emptying and students are going back to school. But, she added, the people still live in fear, the economy is ruined and orphans abound.

“We appreciate the help of international organizations,” Gbowee said. “But sometimes they didn’t bother to consult with the local people about how to fight Ebola. They thought they had the expertise, but if you don’t really listen to what the people want, then it’s not much use.”

Gbowee has a reputation for speaking truth to power, most notably when she publicly confronted the president of Liberia during the country’s civil war. Most recently she criticized the United Nations’ humanitarian aid efforts during a meeting of the UN Security Council.

During a question-and-answer session at the conclusion of her speech, Gbowee praised young people for their idealism and gave advice on how to start on the path to activism. “Ideas that are ground-breaking and keep you awake at night might seem like crazy ideas,” she said. “But write them down, tell a friend and step out boldly. Getting angry about an unjust situation is not only okay, she added, but a good thing.

The students who organized the fundraiser represented five continents: Kaltuma Noorow and Nandi Onetu of Kenya, Winifred Gray-Johnson and Gee Paegar of Liberia, Sun Ju Lee of South Korea, Wael Gamtessa of Ethiopia, Brenda Soka of Tanzania, Zoe Parakuo of the United States, Norah Alobikan of Saudi Arabia, Danika Saucedo of Bolivia, Victoria Gunawan of Indonesia, and Marcus Ekman of Sweden. , EMU’s director of , is the advisor for the International Student Organization.

Gbowee’s last trip to EMU was in April 2014, when she was the that included her son, Joshua Mensah. Before that she came to campus in . Just prior to her arrival, the was announced, and thus her appearance made for a frenzied weekend.

Editor’s note: Kara Lofton, a 2014 EMU grad, reported on Gbowee’s appearance at the Ebola fundraiser for local public radio station WMRA; her four-minute report can be heard.

These are the messages being spread by alumni of the of ��ݮ���� who are working in West African countries affected by Ebola.

“Local communities should not be seen simply as the source of problems or as victims,” writes Libby Hoffman in an published this month (January 2015). “Ebola is not just a medical problem – it is a community problem, and this dimension is being largely ignored within the current international response.”

Liberian peacebuilding alums Nathaniel Walker ( ’10) and Gwendolyn Myers ( ’14) offered similar sentiments in commentaries published in The Guardian and the Liberian Daily Observer, respectively.

“Communities that have taken Ebola prevention and control matters into their hands have recorded [a] significantly low number of cases,” wrote Myers in a . “Whereas, in communities that are yet to fully embrace the outbreak and to take action to avoid infection, we have seen an increase in transmission.”

Local efforts include developing the Pen-Pen Peace Network, an initiative of motorcycle taxi drivers. The Network has communicated about Ebola prevention through text messages, billboards, social media and loud speakers, distributed 3,000 fact sheets through communities, and built handwashing sanitation stations for citizens, wrote Walker and co-author Kai Kuang in an .

Women are playing important roles

In another grassroots initiative, Vaiba Flomo (CJP Grad. Cert. ’13) has rallied her close-knit Rock Hill community in Monrovia – where many of the 25,000 adults and children survive by hand-crushing rocks to sell for construction projects – to do health education. With her women’s team (called GSA Rock Hill Community Women), Flomo has distributed buckets, chlorine, and soap to various groups and centers where youths and adults typically gather, including clothing shops, prayer bands, video clubs, and drug stores. In an impoverished community largely ignored by governmental agencies, Flomo and her team have received .

Liberia is still recovering from a brutal civil war (as is Sierra Leone, one of the other West African countries hit hard by Ebola). For Walker and Myers, community-driven efforts toward Ebola prevention are vital not only to eradicate the disease, but to preserve the fragile peacebuilding steps that have been taken in recent years to heal these communities. (Guinea, the third West African country widely affected by Ebola, has suffered from political violence, but not outright civil war.)

In both Liberia and Sierra Leone, peace remains tenuous and distrust runs high (in many of these communities victims and perpetrators are living side-by-side), so fighting Ebola is intimately tied with communities’ ability to transcend past transgressions and develop open and honest communication.

“Lack of trust within communities is the unseen but powerful inhibiter of Ebola prevention and treatment initiatives,” writes Hoffman, whose charitable foundation, , is the main U.S. backer of , a Sierra Leonean peacebuilding initiative.

“Conversely, empowered and trusted local voices and leadership magnify the success of prevention efforts, and they do so while strengthening community capacity for post-Ebola recovery.”

Gaining strength to handle any crisis

Hoffman writes that building trust in communities actually provides a “social immunity” that goes beyond the disease at hand, and into the underlying fabric of society, leaving communities “stronger to face the next crisis, whatever it may be.”

Fambul Tok community members in Sierra Leone have been using their hard-earned trust to distribute soap to their communities, teach about prevention techniques, and develop the Bridging Communities Network, which functions much like the Pen-Pen Network in Liberia. [Hoffman attended EMU’s Summer Peacebuilding Institute (SPI) in 1996 and 2000; she has employed CJP graduates to work with Fambul Tok and sent Fambul Tok staffers to SPI sessions.]

As an example , who attended SPI ’14, heads a group called Peace Mothers under Fambul Tok. These mothers have been distributing soap and promoting handwashing in six mainly rural districts of Sierra Leone, seeking to reach about 250,000 households per district, often by going door to door.

“We believe that the outbreak will end when actors at all levels – the national and district governments, community-based organizations and the health sector – work cooperatively to engage local communities,” said a “project report” released Sept. 2, 2014, by the Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa, founded by Nobel Peace Laureate (MA ’07 in ).

The tide may be turning

This seems to be happening at last. The tide seems to be turning from Ebola in West Africa. On that weekly UN figures show a decline in new Ebola cases in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Even though the “death toll from the world’s worst Ebola outbreak has reached 8,429 with 21,296 cases so far,” schools in Guinea opened Jan. 19 after a five-month closure and the national daily infection rate in Sierra Leone is two-thirds lower now than it was in November. Liberia had its lowest weekly total since June and all three countries “have sufficient capacity to bury all the people known to have died from Ebola,” said the BBC.

In Sierra Leone, New York Times reporter Jeffrey Gettleman has found that the locals are proving amazingly resilient.

“Vigor seems to be part of Sierra Leone’s national ethos,” he wrote in a on Sierra Leone’s passionate surfers, “especially now, when so many people are fixated on staying healthy. Freetown’s streets thicken at dawn with men and women decked out in the latest and brightest spandex — jogging, stretching, jumping rope, or doing situps and push-ups in the grass.”

If one visits , you’ll see that interspersed with updates on trainings in handwashing to stop the spread of Ebola, are fun photos of Myers in colorful clothing and high heels, sometimes with color-coordinated decorations around her neck and in her hair. It’s as if she’s saying, “We are not all gloom and doom here! We’re resilient Liberians and proud of it!”

at a to. The money raised will be distributed by the to two Liberian service organizations founded by alumnae of : GSA Rock Hill Community Women in Monrovia, founded by Vaiba Flomo, and Messengers of Peace, a youth outreach group founded by Gwendolyn Myers. To or for more information, click .

She never imagined that desire, born from hours of long-distance conversation with her family members and prayer over the sufferings of fellow West Africans, would draw the attention and support of her university community – and a .

“Doing something was a way to help myself with the panic of thinking about my family and what was going on in my country,” said the economics major. “I didn’t want to be silent and just sit on my hands, so I started thinking, ‘What could I do?’”

That question quickly became “What can we do?” when shared with fellow members of EMU’s International Students Organization (ISO).

To Gray-Johnson’s surprise and delight, Liberian peace activist and ( ’07) learned of the fledging movement and enthusiastically agreed to headline a fundraising dinner.

at EMU’s Martin Chapel, with a seating capacity of 140, are $100, with $80 of that a tax-deductible donation to the Africa. Dinner guests will receive preferred seating at a public lecture later in the evening in Lehman Auditorium.

A freewill offering will be taken at the lecture, with an for those who cannot attend.

To those who need most help

“She is helping us raise awareness, but at the same time, we know that this money will go through her organization to those who most need it, [to] the children who have lost family members or been displaced,” Gray-Johnson said.

Gbowee, who received the 2011 prize for her work in ending Liberia’s civil war, says that her country’s decade-long peace is threatened by Ebola.

“We must face another enemy from within,” she wrote in an in Britain. “…Ebola is resurrecting old traumas from those who survived the war.”

Since the Ebola outbreak began, Gbowee’s Monrovia-based non-profit has contributed to community-based, . Donations from the EMU fundraiser will be shared by the foundation with two Liberian organizations founded by alumnae of : GSA Rock Hill Community Women in Monrovia, founded by Vaiba Flomo (CJP Grad. Cert. ’13), and Messengers of Peace, a youth outreach group founded by Gwendolyn Myers (CJP Grad. Cert. ’14).

Gbowee’s visit kicks off a series of events planned by the in March, including a color run, chapel talk, and movie showing.

Kaltuma Noorow, ISO co-president, said students have rallied to the cause, inspired first by Gray-Johnson’s willingness to share how she and her family were personally affected by the outbreak.

Wilfred Gray-Johnson, Winifred’s father, is executive director of the . During the outbreak, he and his team travelled frequently to rural areas “to work on an early warning and response mechanism to ensure that Ebola did not lead to a national conflict,” Gray-Johnson said. “While in the field, he could see firsthand what was happening.”

At later ISO planning meetings, student organizers discussed “the stigma of disease and who was getting aid and who wasn’t, which led to conversations about who needed help who wasn’t getting it. We’ve all seen that in our own countries,” said Noorow, a junior peacebuilding and development major from Kenya.

Learning from action-taking

In a year of new leadership and transition for the organization, Noorow credits ISO members for pulling together and taking on “huge responsibilities” to work on this fundraiser and the upcoming events in March, she said, adding that she’s reluctant for any one member of the group to be singled out for attention. “We’ve all learned a great deal from the process. It’s important that every member be recognized for their thoughts and all the time spent deliberating and processing.”

Her own involvement with the project has been empowering, Noorow added. “In class, we learn a lot of theory and just reading about it is great, but I’m interested in change. I’m a doer. This event shows that we students can actually do something given the platform. We never imagined it to reach this magnitude. It’s been a lot of work and a lot of time, but we’re all really excited.”

From following appropriate fundraising protocols to parsing out the correct wording for public relations releases and invitations, Gray-Johnson says the hands-on experience has taught her about the complex realities of fundraising for international causes.

“I’ve learned a lot about professionalism and credibility, about raising money for a cause,” she said. “It is important to me that the money raised here go through the right channels… [It helps that] Leymah’s giving us her credibility and that of her foundation.”

Noorow and Gray-Johnson both met Gbowee briefly when she came to campus in spring 2014 to deliver the commencement speech and celebrate the graduation of her son, Joshua Mensah, a major. They are looking forward to learning more about Gbowee’s peacebuilding experiences from the woman herself.

Gray-Johnson hopes to share the experience with her 14-year-old sister, Addy, who moved from Liberia this summer to Maryland, where she’s living with an aunt.

“EMU’s two-year-old and its connect students with internationally known figures associated with fostering world peace,” Virginia Living wrote.

The upscale magazine is distributed across the state and advertises a readership of 500,000.

Founded 20 years ago, the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding was one of the first university programs to offer a master’s degree in peacebuilding and related disciplines. At least 450 alumni of its master’s or graduate certificate programs – among them – live and work in 60 countries on six continents. About 5,000 people from at least 120 countries have participated in non-degree study, often taking Summer Peacebuilding Institute classes or trainings in , or .

“From Somalia to the South Pacific to Washington D.C., CJP prepares peacebuilders to change the world, one community at a time,” says , executive director of CJP.

At the undergraduate level, the is one of the university’s five most popular programs in terms of enrollment.

Speaking to about 100 members of the dining at Spotswood Country Club, Swartzendruber offered several stories to explain the transformative impact of the , including one involving his son Steven.

Steven did his cross-cultural in Central America as a 20-year-old in the spring of his junior year. Inspired by that experience, he did a year-long service stint in Mexico after graduating in 2000. There he lived with a family whose host mother became ill. Steven was holding her hand when she died. He returned to EMU to earn an MDiv in 2005. Today, as a 36-year-old hospice chaplain, he often relives his Mexico experience by being present for, often holding the hands of, people who are dying.

For students who feel unable to spend a semester off campus, such as some collegiate athletes, Swartzendruber said EMU offers shorter-term possibilities, often during the summer.

“But we would prefer that our students do their cross-cultural internationally and for a full semester,” he said, adding that “internationally” typically means in a second- or third-world country, rather than in a “posh” location.

He cited standout volleyball player – who graduated from a local public high school – for choosing to go to Spain and Morocco in the fall of 2013, though she missed a season of playing. The cross-cultural sparked her interest in doing three years of service in Central America after she graduates this academic year.

“We don’t send them as a single student to take a course in a university on their own,” he said. EMU sends students as a cohort, accompanied by a faculty or staff member who typically has years of experience in that culture.

The first question from the audience after Swartzendruber’s talk pertained to the process by which EMU selects the homes where students stay during their cross-culturals.

The president noted that the university’s decades of experience with these trips, coupled with the on-the-ground knowledge of the EMU trip leaders, has enabled the university to build up a base of host families and to know how to locate other suitable families as needed.

Another questioner wanted to know about opportunities for people from other countries to study at EMU. Swartzendruber cited EMU’s , which has attracted more than 1,000 students from 62 countries since it began in 1989 and is one of the fastest-growing programs at EMU. Once these IEP students have mastered English, they often go on to enroll at EMU or at other area colleges and universities.

He also spoke of EMU’s 20-year-old , which hosted 184 students from 36 countries in 2014. Since its founding, the institute has brought more than 2,800 participants from 121 countries to Harrisonburg.

Finally, he noted that about 37 percent of EMU’s incoming class is “diverse,” meaning they are not Caucasians from the United States.

The luncheon wrapped up with a Rotarian offering his congratulations to EMU for having a and a among its alumni group.

During her early years as a nurse at several hospitals, Good’s leadership abilities were quickly noticed. She chose a challenging program at Case Western Reserve University, and in 2007, received dual master’s degrees in business administration and nursing. “EMU helped me develop all the essential skills for my time in graduate school,” she says. “The school curriculum was very rigorous and required us to develop strong study schedules, to work hard, to be organized and prepared.”

Several years ago, Good was promoted to director of the 150-employee emergency department at Aultman Hospital in Canton, Ohio, which cared for 90,000 patients a year. She led her team to win the prestigious Lantern Award presented by the .

Good is now director of corporate education at Aultman. As she moves into leadership positions and away from frontline patient care, she still draws on the philosophy of whole-patient care she learned at EMU. “Consistently, throughout the curriculum, we were reminded that we weren’t just caring for a specific disease or injury.

“The patient’s physical, mental, and spiritual health were all part of the disease and healing process,” says Good. “In my present role, I can’t just focus on the financials or the more business-related aspects of the job. In order to be most successful, I must make room for the heart.”

Her caring heart has led Good to participate in service trips to Liberia and Puerto Rico. “I went to Liberia as a result of attending the a few years ago when .  I attended about every event where she was present or spoke. I was so inspired. A few months later, when I learned a group from was planning a trip to Liberia, I asked to go. Learning to know the girls at was a wonderful mentoring experience.”

Good is a sponsor of her church’s youth group and traveled with them to Puerto Rico on a mission trip. “The biggest takeaway I had from that trip was how amazing our youth are,” she says. “We hear a lot about the youth in our country and how bad they can be. But we really should be thankful for and proud of our youth and how they represent the Mennonite church.”

Good serves on the board of the Domestic Violence Shelter of Stark County, Ohio, volunteers for Meals on Wheels and has served as a mentor in the , to name just a few of her civic activities.

“My EMU semester to the Middle East changed my life forever,” says Good. “I just can’t sit still anymore! While on cross-cultural, we moved about every two weeks to a different city or town. A fellow student commented, ‘What are we going to do when we get back to the States, and we aren’t moving every two weeks?’ I feel like I haven’t stopped moving since!”

Good will be honored with the Outstanding Young Alum award during Homecoming and Family Weekend 2014 at EMU, Oct. 10-12. Celebrations include: class reunions for years ending in “4” and “9”; community picnic on Saturday, Oct. 11, for all members of the EMU community; sporting events; !

“Dare to be laughed at, mocked and scorned.”

A Nobel Peace Prize winner gave those words of advice to Sunday afternoon.

Leymah Gbowee (pronounced bowie) — a 2007 — addressed a crowd of 467 graduates, along with their friends, family members and EMU faculty during the university’s 96th commencement Sunday on the campus lawn.

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Gbowee, whose son Joshua was a member of the graduating class, encouraged graduates to reach for their dreams but also to learn how to stay in the moment.

“Embracing the present allows us to see practical ways to make a difference even when our lives are in conditions of pain,” she said.

Gbowee, who is Liberian, won the Nobel Prize for her contributions to a women’s peace movement that helped bring about the end of the second Liberian Civil War in 2003.

She recalled a woman from her country who had lost two sons to civil wars. The woman came to a protest and got involved because she didn’t want others to lose their sons.

“Her present was full of heartaches and pains but she chose to embrace it for a better future for Liberia,” Gbowee said.

Gbowee was a poor mother of two and only had a high school diploma, but decided she wouldn’t let her income or social status, or her lack of a college education, limit her.

“I never set out to be a global women’s rights activist,” Gbowee said. She just wanted to make a difference.

And she did.

Among her efforts was an initiative working with young girls in Liberia.

Many young people in her community had sexual relations early in life and wound up pregnant before they had a chance to finish school, she said.

One day Gbowee invited four girls from that environment into her living room. She was thrilled when, many years later, one graduated from high school without having had children of her own.

“That was like a Nobel Peace Prize for me,” Gbowee said.

She encouraged EMU graduates to not let others’ perceptions of what they will do after graduation stop them.

All one needs is a “crazy idea or concern and a whole bunch of enthusiasm,” to make a difference in people’s lives, Gbowee said.

Having one friend who helps can be a big plus, she said, citing the examples of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

Quoting Mahatma Gandhi, she added: “The world is crying out for risk-takers and change-makers. The future depends on what we do in the present.”

Cristian Quezada, 33, a Santiago, Chile, native who received a with an emphasis in and , said it was an “immense privilege” to hear Gbowee.

“EMU, and particularly [the ], focuses on the importance of being relevant peacebuilder practitioners that are generators of transformative revolutions, so Leymah’s address felt tremendously relevant to us all.”

Mariana Lorenzana, 52, is a school teacher at Smithland Elementary in Harrisonburg.

Originally from Honduras, Lorenzana said she wanted to be an example to the Latino community and her children.

“It’s not easy, but it’s not impossible,” she said, after attaining her master’s degree in education.

It took her three years of going to college part-time to finish, said Lorenzana, who has been teaching for 20 years.

“I wanted to give back to the community,” she said. “EMU gave me the opportunity to continue working, be a mom and get a higher education.”

Courtesy of the Daily News Record, April 28, 2014

“Begin with what you have,” she said, using “your little gift to change the world.”

Gbowee referred with pride in her to being a graduate of EMU (she earned a in 2007) and to being the mother of a 2014 graduate, . “My home is 5,000 miles away from this campus, but this is a place that is very close to my heart.”

She said she chose EMU for her eldest son because she wanted a university with “a whole lot of Jesus and lots of churches” in the vicinity, but “limited partying.”

Mensah, a major, was one of 351 students receiving bachelor’s degrees. Eighty graduate degrees were conferred, including the first graduates from EMU’s two-year-old . Graduate certificates, associate degrees, and pastoral ministry degrees were also conferred.

Among the thousands of family members and friends in the audience were 10 relatives of , a well-known figure on campus for his basketball prowess. Less well-known is that he flunked out of EMU after his freshman year.

Thorne appealed for re-admission, hoping to prove that he could be the first member of his extended family to finish college. The following years were not entirely smooth, including at least one brush with the law. But, in Thorne’s words, basketball coach “stayed in my ear to push me along and to be honest. He never gave up, and he’s been getting on my nerves for four years! But that’s what people need.”

An published in December 2013 showed that Thorne, in his fifth year at EMU, was still struggling to complete his required coursework. Upon reading the article, Coach Dean posted this comment:

You need to really focus and finish strong! You can see the light at the end of the tunnel so keep grinding! Years from now, I need to be able to tell other recruits about ‘Andrew Thorne’…where he came from, what he had to overcome, the contributions you are making to society, and the successful life you are leading now. That’s where this story needs to go over the coming years. Get it done.

When Andrew’s name was called and he walked across the stage to receive his diploma, his father James waved the commencement program in the air and yelled, “It’s about time!”

Andrew’s 27-year-old brother (named James like his father) got leave from his work as a Norfolk-based petty officer in the U.S. Navy to be present. “I knew he was going to make it,” said his brother, though “it was not an easy ride for him.”

Their mother, Wanda, said she is sure “Drew” – as the family calls him – “is going to be successful – he’s proven that he can overcome a lot of obstacles in his life.”

Drew himself was all smiles as he hugged his family, but he was a man of few words in talking about his accomplishment. He simply said, “It means the world. It’s a fresh start. It’s a new beginning.”

More from commencement weekend:

Cords of Distinction ceremony��(��ǻ峦������)

Seminary commencement ceremony (podcast)

“” – WHSV/TV3 (video)

Nurses’ pinning ceremony (podcast)

Seminary Baccalaureate��(��ǻ峦������)

“Coming from an African culture, your parents are in charge,” says Mensah. “You may have an opinion, but they have the final say. They know what’s best for you.”

A , Mensah received his bachelor’s degree from EMU on April 27. His mother, a 2007 MA graduate of EMU who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011, was the speaker.

When he first saw the small quiet campus, Mensah had doubts about his mother’s choice. “I’ve always lived in cities. I envisioned a larger place. My first impression was – ‘What is this?’”

Mensah’s family is currently centered in New York City. He takes annual trips to Ghana and Liberia to reconnect with extended family and “refresh my culture.”

He readily identifies with “” raised in multiple countries and cultural settings. “I notice things, subtle differences that others might miss. I describe myself as an introvert-extrovert. I get energy from people, but I like thinking, collecting ideas, analyzing.”

Mensah hopes to return to Africa to share what he’s learned with his generation of budding artists after completing his cross-cultural requirement at this summer.

“I want to be an entrepreneur, do business after college. I feel like I have the right ideas,” says Mensah. “I want to take this newfound love for media, visual communications, and apply it back to Liberia and Ghana.”

This spring, for example, Mensah was part of a group of student videographers who produced “,” a documentary that linked a chemical spill in West Virginia’s Elk River in early 2014 to pollution feared from a proposed 4.5-mile open-pit iron mine in Wisconsin’s Penokee Hills.

Mensah says he wants to “re-teach, share what I’ve learned at EMU and not just make money off of it” by opening a photo studio and offering classes “as a way to bring young people into this line of work.”

Mensah’s artistic skills were apparent at a young age. In high school he began hand-painting designs onto white t-shirts. He now has a line of international urban clothing which he sells through /.

The street word “dub” is the brand name Mensah chose for his business venture. “It can mean a number of things. It could mean twenty, it could mean to win, as in ‘we got the W.’ Dub means a re-mixed Jamaican song. I think it’s a special word. I took that word and I put another meaning to it. And it still means we are winning, we are champions. We’re pushing something good.”

During his junior year in the only business class he took at EMU, Mensah parlayed his idea for an app to a weekend at James Madison University. He convincingly communicated the concept for his event finder and planner app, which he named “Vite-us,” to the win the “silver medal” among 24 competitors. He also won a business plan competition among students taught by EMU business professor Tony Smith.

Mensah’s multiple talents were on display in the he created for his senior show in early April, an original song “Beauty” to celebrate the life of a high school friend who died earlier this year in Ghana.

Combining original lyrics, collaborative music by a high school friend and a kaleidoscopic montage of double-exposure video, Mensah’s capstone project showcased his visual and musical abilities.

“What pushed me to make this project – I’d hear people say, ‘Oh, your friend was so beautiful.’ I felt like they didn’t know how beautiful she really was. They only saw the physical beauty,” says Mensah.

“You can’t rely on how you look to sustain you. What is fundamentally beautiful is compassion for yourself and your people,” is the Lupita Nyong’o quote he chose for the opening lines.

Gbowee’s advice to her son during his college years? “Work hard…and focus. Focus, that’s the one word I try to remember,” says Mensah.

Focus… and a strong dose of optimism and wonder. “Life is so crazy. God is so mysterious. He’s wonderful,” says Mensah. “When I think about how my life is unfolding, it’s motivation to keep moving forward, to think positive for the future.”

The ten women—doctoral students at the seminary—will join 130 international students on the campus of ��ݮ���� (EMU) in Harrisonburg, Va., to learn concepts and practices of peacebuilding, conflict analysis and resolution and restorative justice.

“Our goal is to train Iranian women seminarians to become ambassadors of friendship and voices for unity and dialogue,” says Dr. Mohammad Shomali, the director of international affairs at Jami’at al-Zahra who will escort the group.

The students are being co-hosted by as well as its Center for Interfaith Engagement. They will also visit Amish and Mennonite communities in Lancaster Co., Pa., and the in Washington, D.C.

Since 1994, SPI has attracted more than 2,700 students of diverse faiths from 120 countries for academic instruction and cultural exchange. More than 90 percent of former students work in peacebuilding-related disciplines, including , of Liberia.

Ten Iranian students have attended SPI, and two have continued their studies to earn master’s degrees in conflict transformation.

However, hosting a large group of accomplished women scholars is “a rare opportunity,” says , executive director of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU. “This is a unique step in our long history of interfaith dialogue. We look forward to the theological and cultural insights they will bring.”

Shomali has previously led two groups of women in 2011 and 2012 to study Anabaptist and Christian theology at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

The academic exchanges build on more than 20 years of Mennonite-Shi’a interfaith dialogue fostered by the , a partial sponsor of the upcoming trip. MCC first reached out to Iran after a devastating earthquake in 1990, offering relief supplies in partnership with the Iranian Red Crescent Society. The organization’s outreach has since focused on “understanding, friendship, and interfaith connections between the people of Iran, Canada, and the U.S.,” as well as “peacebuilding through shared knowledge,” according to a press release.

Major funding has been provided by the .