Press Release

Contact:
Barbara Laskin
651-696-6203

Davis Projects for Peace program awards funding to students from
81 colleges and universities
$1 million to fund 100 projects

SAINT PAUL – April 21, 2008

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. ― The Davis Projects for Peace program has announced that students from 81 colleges and universities in the Davis United World College (UWC) Scholar Program will receive $1 million in funding to undertake their proposed projects. The program, in its second year, honors philanthropist Kathryn Wasserman Davis, who launched the initiative on the occasion of her 100th birthday in 2007. Designed to encourage and support motivated youth to create and implement their ideas for building peace throughout the world in the 21st century, each of the 100 projects will receive $10,000 in funding.

Davis Projects for Peace invited students from schools participating in the Davis United World College (UWC) Scholars Program to submit plans for grassroots projects for peace, to be implemented during the summer of 2008. A competition for the funding took place on 81 of the 88 campuses in the UWC Scholars Program, which provides grants to select American colleges and universities in support of students from all over the world who have completed their preuniversity studies at UWC schools. The 12 UWC schools are located on five continents and dedicated to promoting international understanding through education.

“We are grateful to the many students, faculty and staff who participated in this year’s competition,” said Executive Director of the Davis UWC Scholars Program Philip O. Geier.  “Kathryn Davis is a leader, and what she has set in motion with this important challenge is a growing number of young people committed to putting into place the building blocks for peace.”

The winning projects propose specific plans of action that will have lasting effects — from post conflict community building to youth empowerment and education programs to improved community water supplies worldwide to a multitude of agrarian enterprises in countries where famine is pervasive. Students will travel to more than 54 countries over the summer to work on their projects and report on their experiences once they return.

Two projects devised by Macalester students were selected for funding. Leah Roth-Howe '08 will begin her project in Chicago while working with the Cambodian Association of Illinois to organize and moderate intergenerational dialogue between survivors of the Kymer Rouge genocide and their descendents and other youth.  She aims to raise awareness of these histories so that their legacies can lead to future tolerance and peace.  To build trust between the adults and youth she will start with interactive art projects to build comfort with each other.  She will also travel to Cambodia to work with Youth for Peace to publish a reflective book on peace and genocide, with contributions from Cambodian teens and Cambodian-American teens. The books will be distributed through numerous institutions and incorporated into Macalester’s Political Geography website.

The second Macalester project funded will be led by Zainab Mansaray '09 and Arthur Sillah '10, who will work in their home country of Sierra Leone to rehabilitate the infrastructure of Sierra Leone Muslim Brotherhood Primary School which was severely damaged after 10 years of civil war in the country.  In addition to rebuilding the school, they will organize workshops and activities that introduce students to the value of community service as well as establishing a scholarship fund so more children can attend the school.  

Davis is an internationalist and philanthropist, and the mother of Shelby M.C. Davis, who funds the Davis UWC Scholars Program. “My many years have taught me that there will always be conflict,” said Davis. “It’s part of human nature. But love, kindness, and support are also part of human nature, and my challenge to these young people is to bring about a mindset of preparing for peace instead of preparing for war.”

A complete list of the participating schools and projects, as well as a summary of the 2007 projects and a video interview with Davis from 2006, is available on the program’s Web site at www.davisprojectsforpeace.org.