Gumm, who graduated this spring from ��ݮ���� (EMU), chose the dual degree program with EMU’s and because of their practical focus. He did not anticipate drinking in the global awareness, curriculum flexibility, and integration of disciplines offered by EMU.

“I was drawn to the strong practical focus of both programs at EMU,” says Gumm, who now holds two master’s degrees, an and . “The seminary has this vibrant, beating, pastoral heart, and CJP (Center for Justice and Peacebuilding) has people who are involved in peace and justice work all over the world.”

Global Awareness

Taking some of his classes in EMU’s , Gumm was impressed with the way the institute attracts people from all over the world. He says that experience, along with studying during the year with international students in CJP and the seminary, created his new global awareness.

As part of his required practicum for CJP, Gumm and his family traveled to Ethiopia last summer so that he could teach at a Mennonite-rooted college there, Meserete Kristos College in Debre Zeit.

“I didn’t leave the country until I was 17, and that was as a tourist. My 11-year-old daughter got to spend a month on a church-college campus in Ethiopia,” says Gumm. “I couldn’t have even imagined that as an 11-year-old.”

“But the global awareness didn’t turn me into a tourist. It turned me into a pilgrim.”

Flexibility

Both of Gumm’s degree programs have multiple concentrations or tracks, so the combinations for study are vast if one combines the two.

“My track in the MDiv was academic, and my concentration in the MA in conflict transformation program was ,” he says. “But you could follow the pastoral-care track in the MDiv and a trauma-healing concentration in the conflict transformation program and come out with a focus that is completely different from mine.”

Integration

Gumm, a licensed minister in the Church of the Brethren, discovered EMU’s dual-degree possibilities via the Internet while he was living in Iowa. Once enrolled in both master’s programs, he ‘”was always trying to make connections between the two.”

“For example, I wrote a paper for a restorative justice class that was also trying to do some Anabaptist theological and historical work showing why Mennonites in Canada in the 1970s gave birth to the modern restorative justice movement.

“I never got tired of the intellectual inquiry. There were always more paths to follow and more connections to make.”

Family Investment in EMU

Gumm was not the only one in his family wearing in a graduation robe on April 28, 2012. Brian’s wife Erin concurrently completed an MA in counseling. Not wishing to part from EMU immediately after graduation, Gumm drew upon another gift he has—computer technology—and became the distance-learning technology analyst at EMU, helping EMU’s graduate programs evaluate and adopt distance-learning software.

Now the program development manager for the Iraqi Al-Amal Association, a development, human rights and peacebuilding organization, Ali recently completed a consultancy examining Iraqi women’s roles in for the United Nations Development Programme. She has worked on similar projects for a variety of other international organizations.

As her experience has grown, so has Ali’s reputation as a leader in Iraq in the field of conflict transformation. Accordingly, Ali has been receiving an increasing number of invitations to work with various conflict transformation projects, prompting her to return to ��ݮ���� to augment her practical experience with further study.

“I feel that I need to have [more] academic expertise,” she says. In Harrisonburg to take several classes at SPI, Ali is working toward a from the university. She hopes to finish the degree by attending SPI for two more years.

Since coming to SPI in 2004, Ali has also managed programs in Iraq for the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, the Olof Palme International Center, the International Research & Exchanges Board and the Institute of International Education. During that time, she has frequently used curriculum materials, manuals and other resources she brought back from SPI.

Ali said her admiration for her SPI instructors and university’s values and commitment to spreading a “peace culture” were major reasons why she decided to return for further study. “This is the best place for me to come.”

By earning a graduate degree, Ali hopes she can help herself and fellow Iraqis play larger leadership roles in peacebuilding work in their country.

When she attended SPI eight years ago, Ali says few foreign or Iraqi organizations were working directly on conflict transformation (an early leader in this area, she says, was the Iraq office of , which sponsored her to attend SPI that year). In the years since, peacebuilding has become an increasingly common focus of non-government organizations (NGOs) in Iraq, though they have largely relied on foreign experts for leadership.

While these organizations devote more and more energy to peace work in Iraq, Ali says that a lack of coordination and communication among them has become a challenge. If these different actors were more aware of others’ work, of unmet needs within their communities, and of how specific projects complement – or hinder – others, everyone would be able to work more effectively toward a more peaceful future.

With that in mind, one of Ali’s major goals for the future is to establish a conflict transformation center to provide various NGOs with networking opportunities, conflict transformation resources, training and, eventually, partnerships with academic peacebuilding programs at Iraqi universities.

Another challenge confronting Ali’s peacebuilding work is the large number of colleagues who end up leaving their homes in Iraq for Europe or North America, often with the encouragement and assistance of international NGO partners. By remaining committed to working for peace in the place she knows and loves best, Ali hopes to stand as a counterexample to those considering leaving.

“B�ܾ����� your country,” says Ali. “Change the reality of your ���dzܲԳٰ���.”

Gbowee, who earned a from ��ݮ����’s in 2007, shared her story on working for women’s rights and “unlocking the passion, intelligence and greatness of girls.”

is a nonprofit devoted to “Ideas Worth Spreading.” The conference is designed to bring together people from three worlds: Technology, entertainment and design.

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’s journey to becoming a Nobel Peace laureate began, ironically enough, because she was angry.

Angry about the way women’s roles were reduced to little more than cooking, cleaning and taking care of the children. Angry about rampant rape and domestic abuse throughout her native Liberia. And angry about the country’s “senseless” civil war.

At James Madison University Saturday, Gbowee, a joint recipient of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, told those gathered for the 2012 International Student Leadership Conference how important that anger was — and even more significantly, how she channeled it into a constructive plan of action.

“You must be angry,” said Gbowee, who mobilized women into an influential peacebuilding movement in Liberia. “[But] when you’re angry, there should be no talks of revenge.”

Gbowee’s anger, instead, led her to create the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace movement. The non-violent organization — some 2,500 women strong — helped bring the second Liberian civil war to an end in 2003 after four years of conflict.

“The need for people to answer ‘yes’ to lead change is so great,” said Gbowee, who has been in the United States since Feb. 26 speaking on average at two events per day. “In order to see the change you want to see, you cannot [contribute to a movement]. You have to lead.”

Gbowee was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October along with Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Yemeni women’s rights activist Tawakkul Karman.

Local Ties

The weekend-long leadership conference, sponsored annually by JMU and ��ݮ����, brought together about 200 international students and advisers from higher education institutions across the nation. Gbowee gave the event’s keynote address at JMU’s Festival Conference and Student Center Saturday morning, marking the second time she has visited the area since winning the Nobel. Even before her recent visits, Gbowee was no stranger to the central Valley. The 39-year-old earned a from EMU’s in 2007. And Gbowee’s son, Joshua Mensa, is currently an EMU sophomore.

Gbowee is also the co-founder of the and supported the creation of the . Her movements helped get Sirleaf elected the first female president of an African nation. Her work also was influential in creating a lawful definition for rape in Liberia, which previously did not have one. The west African country now has one of the strongest rape laws in the world, said Gbowee.

“I describe the world as upside down,” she said. “Good is seen as evil, evil is seen as good. People like yourself and myself [are] trying to tilt it upright through the tiny actions we do.”

Giving advice to college-aged leaders, Gbowee told them to be persistent, bold and selfless and to have focused goals.

“There is no way you can lead a change if it is all about you,” said Gbowee. “You cannot lead a change if you are not passionate about your issues because it is that passion that will wake you up when your knees are aching… when there’s no money in the bank account… [it will] keep your adrenaline pumping when you think about your work.”

As Gbowee regaled the audience with personal stories and advice, some audience members had barely noticed that 90 minutes had flown by.

“I didn’t feel time,” Lynchburg College freshman Karen Figueroa said with a look of awe on her face. “It’s the most inspiring thing I’ve ever heard in my life.”

As the event drew to a close, host Salorne McDonald asked students to “remember the words emblazoned on the back of your shirts.”

The words were a quote from Gbowee advising: “Don’t wait for a Gandhi, don’t wait for a King, don’t wait for a Mandela,” referring to a trio who are arguably best known peace activists of the 20th century.  “You are your own Mandela, you are your own Gandhi, you are your own King.”

Gbowee, the leader of a women’s movement that helped end 14 years of warfare in Liberia in 2003, earned a from the (EMU) in 2007.

“In many societies where women used to be the silent victims and objects of men’s powers, women are throwing down the walls of repressive traditions with the invincible power of non-violence,” Gbowee told listeners at the Nobel Peace award ceremony in Oslo, Norway, including in row 27.

“Women are using their broken bodies from hunger, poverty, desperation and destitution to stare down the barrel of the gun. This prize has come at a time when ordinary mothers are no longer begging for peace, but demanding peace, justice, equality and inclusion in political decision-making.”

Swartzendruber said he found Gbowee’s speech to be “inspiring and passionate.” His host in Norway, international peace scholar Peter Wallensteen of Sweden, felt similarly, calling it “powerful.” Gbowee asked for a moment of silence for women who have recently died while working for peace, including of Kenya.

Gbowee and Abdi last met when they joined 18 other women peacebuilders from nine countries in June 2011 to discuss whether EMU should host an educational program tailored to women working for justice and peace around the world. As a Kenyan-Muslim woman of Somali ethnic origin, Abdi was known for her peace skills and interventions throughout East Africa. She was a former student and instructor at under its Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP).

“In collaboration with CJP graduates and partners, we have determined that women peacebuilders will indeed benefit from a program focused on the distinctive needs, skills and strengths of women,” said CJP executive director Lynn Roth. “We will be launching this program in our .”

Also attending the ceremony from EMU was Joshua Mensah, a sophomore, who is Gbowee’s first-born child.

“Hope for Peace Day,” a day-long event aimed at providing firsthand exposure to the multi-pronged (CJP) program – especially its – will be held Saturday, May 19 on the EMU campus.

“The Summer Peacebuilding Institute is such an enriching experience for the international practitioners who come here that we want to share that experience with others,” said Phoebe Kilby, associate director of development at EMU with a focus on CJP support. “Participants in Hope for Peace Day will meet SPI students who come from more than 50 countries, ask them about issues in their home countries and discuss ways to prevent and transform conflict and achieve social justice without violence.”

Following an opening ceremony at 9:30 a.m., concurrent workshops will be offered on a variety of topics that relate to the overall thrust of CJP – from “forgiveness and reconciliation across religious divides” and “understanding conflict dynamics in congregations” to “Aikido – a martial art of peace” to “interactive peacebuilding for kids.”

Additional workshops led by CJP/SPI faculty will run in the afternoon.

Other activities include an evening dinner meeting, a concert of peace and justice music with Tony Brown, artist-in-residence at Hesston (Kan.) College and an international dance.

Most activities will be held in the seminary building at EMU. Continuing education unit credits are available on request. Activities will be provided for children age 5 and older.

CJP, a graduate program at EMU now in its 12th year, was founded to further the personal and professional development of individuals as peacebuilders and to strengthen the peacebuilding capacities of the institutions they serve.

Today, CJP encompasses the degree, the and the Summer Peacebuilding Institute. The Practice Institute includes the program and Come to the Table, a project that works at racial understanding through examining the historical roots of slavery and possibilities for reconciliation.

Some 2,6000 persons from around the world have taken part in CJP educational and training programs since its inception.

For more information on “Hope for Peace Day,” contact Phoebe Kilby at 540-432-4581 or visit .