NURTURING UPEACE’S ALUMNI NETWORK
Julia Marton-Lefèvre

I have been devoted to building and nurturing the network of UPEACE alumni since I arrived to UPEACE.  The alumni Network greatly helps UPEACE make the case to our donors that the education offered by us is relevant and is being put to good use by our alumni, and keeping the members of the Network connected will strengthen their capacity to accomplish their peace-related goals, wherever they are.  Several instruments have been put in place to accomplish this.  A member of our Academic Administration staff (Laura Arroyo, Alumni and Students Officer)  has been designated to keep this Network alive and up-to-date, and several IT mechanisms have been designed to help us do this, including a much improved part of our website describing our students and alumni and providing brief bios and statistics about them (http://network.upeace.org/).  We also have an Intranet site for students and alumni, providing them with a forum for discussions, and with announcements of jobs and other professional opportunities.  We regularly receive testimonials from our students telling us about the impact of the UPEACE experience on their lives and careers.  In addition to the pleasure of reading such messages, we use them for fundraising purposes demonstrating to donors the impact of our work.

We need to continue to build on this new UPEACE network of alumni and students, and ensure that all our present and former Council members, faculty, staff, and visiting professors are also included.

After the graduation of the Class of 2006, our alumni consisted of 262 persons from 69 countries and once they will all complete their bios, we will have an easy to use and key-word searchable database to help identify where our alumni (and students)  are, what they are doing and what their expertise is.

During my recent trip in North America I was pleased to meet with numerous UPEACE alumni:

At the High Level Expert Forum on Capacity Building for Peace and Development: the Role of Diaspora in Peacebuilding, organized by UPEACE in Toronto on 19-20 October, UPEACE alumni attending included: form the class of 2004: Hovig Etyemezian, Stephanie Gliege and Rafael Velasquez; from the Class of 2005:, Pierre Terver, Assong Undah, and from the Class of 2006:  Julie Hyde and Geoff West.  

At a social gathering in the home of Nick Martin (PE Class of 2006) in Washington DC, immediately after the meeting of the UPEACE/US Board, a group of 14 alumni met with the Rector and other UPEACE friends.  This group consisted of:

Natural Resources and Sustainable Development Programme

Ben Goldstein             
Nicole Hillis                 
Brian Lynch                 
Jessica Morey              
Ursula Kazarian           
Rachna Toshniwal      

International Peace Studies Programme:
Rebecca Harned        
Benjamin Hess               

Peace Education Programme:

Sabrina Sideris               
Nick Martin                 
Cara MacAdam         

International Law Programmes:

Stephanie Gliege
Rochelle Swan              
Constantin Schoehl von Norman      

Hopefully these alumni will be updating their bios as many of them have already found very exciting jobs, with  organizations such as the US Environmental Protection Agency, the Pew Centre on Climate Change, Teaching for Change, the Fulbright Fellowship Program, and others have taken some time off  before embarking on a career.

My last stop on this trip was in New York to attend the UN Global Youth Leadership Summit and meetings at the UN.  Hovig Etyemezian (Lebanon, Gender and Peacebuilding, Class of 2004) and Yuko Shiomi (Japan, International Peace Studies, Class of 2006) were also at the Summit.  I also met with three International Law and Settlement of Disputes graduates (Class of 2006) who are completing internships in the Department of Political Affairs at the UN, working on research related to their thesis:

Craig Brannigan on post-conflict institution building; Ajit Singh on ceasefire agreements and their role in the peace process; and Erik Steinecker on border delimitation disputes. 

These research projects will be published by the UN as a part of the new Peacemaker website: http://peacemaker.unlb.org/role.php which will be a useful tool for all those interested in these burning issues.

Yuko Shimio has also completed an internship in New York with the NGO Religions for Peace.  She was very active also in the preparation of the UN Youth Summit and with the Global Peace Initiative of Women.

Jeff Senne (IPS, Class of 2004) has an excellent position at the UN Global Compact Office (obtained after an initial internship) and he is helping UPEACE be linked to this important part of the UN. (www.unglobalcompact.org)

I look forward to meeting with many more alumni as I travel the world, finding these meetings interesting and uplifting and extremely helpful for our work on nurturing and up-dating the Network of UPEACE Alumni.

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UPEACE Staff

Elizabeth Griffin
Ms. Griffin holds a LLM (with Distinction) in International Human Rights Law.   Her last appointment was as Lecturer in International Human Rights Law at the University of Essex where she also served as Deputy Director of the Human Rights Centre. Liz has extensive experience as a human rights practitioner. She commenced her career working for NGOs during the war in Bosnia and then held posts with the UN in Kosovo and at the War Crimes Tribunal. She has also worked as Researcher for Amnesty International investigating and reporting on human rights violations in Kosovo, Bosnia and Afghanistan. Liz is also an Adjunct Professor at George Washington University.

Natalia Riveros-Mariño
Ms. Riveros holds an MA in International Law and Settlement of Disputes from UPEACE and a MA in International Relations (Asia-Pacific Programme) from the International University of Japan. Her last appointment was Professor in International Law and Human Rights at the Espiritu Santo University, Ecuador, and Regional Correspondent of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants for the World Refugee Survey 2006. She also worked as Law Clerk at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

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Kennesaw State University group visits UPEACE

At the invitation of the University for Peace, twenty-four graduate students and five faculty and staff from Kennesaw State University’s Master’s of Science in Conflict Management program traveled to San Jose, Costa Rica, in October, 2006.  During their one-week long visit, the MSCM students had the opportunity to sit in on regular classes on Peace Education, Natural Resources, and Environmental Security Studies; attend special seminars on the state of the conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq, the progress of the Earth Charter Agreement, the crisis in North Korea, Natural Resources, and Peace-building; take part in research methods training on both qualitative and quantitative methodologies; and tour the campus and surrounding area.  Since the MSCM graduate students were very near the end of their studies, this provided a unique opportunity for them to make international contacts in the field, talk with other students who shared their goals and aspirations, and hear perspectives from an international faculty.  

The students from both Universities shared a pizza party provided by Kennesaw State on their last evening there.  The friendships formed during those few short days were already evident. 

Officials from both Universities are discussing possibilities for collaboration in the future. 

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UN Resolution on UPEACE

Please click here to access UN Resolution A/C.4/61/L.8 on University for Peace. This resolution was part of the agenda of the sixty-first session of the Special Political and Decolonization Committee.

The Resolution recognizes the significant progress made by UPEACE and calls on the Secretary General, governments and others to utilize the services of the University as part of his conflict resolution and peacebuilding efforts.  It also calls for additional financial  support to UPEACE.

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Summer Sessions in Costa Rica at the University
for Peace
Bring your students to a wonderful intercultural experience
in this unique country

The United Nations mandated University for Peace (UPEACE) is located in Costa Rica, on a beautiful campus of 300 hectares near the town of Ciudad Colón, some 25 km southwest of the capital city of San José. The UPEACE campus has all the necessary facilities to provide students with a gratifying intellectual and intercultural experience.

Who could benefit from the Summer Sessions in Costa Rica? UPEACE welcomes groups of undergraduate or graduate from Universities that are seeking to offer their students courses abroad.

When are the facilities available? 22 May through 22 August each year

What does UPEACE provide? UPEACE offers classrooms for up to 25 students; computer facilities; wireless Internet connection throughout the campus; a specialized library; audiovisual equipment and cafeteria services. Our experienced housing service will find living quarters with Costa Rican families or in apartments in Ciudad Colón. The UPEACE buses provide transport several times a day between the campus and the town. All groups are offered a two-hour lecture, "Introduction to Costa Rica", which includes history, culture and the environment, as well as practical information and advice.

What else can UPEACE offer? Resident faculty offer courses based on UPEACE’s areas of expertise for academic credit. For a course list, click here >> UPEACE can also offer guided fieldtrips and provide advice on tourist visits in Costa Rica.

For more information, please contact Gabriela Hernandez at ghernandez@upeace.org

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News from our Alumni

Washington DC- Area Alumni Dinner
By Nick Martin

The first-ever UPEACE alumni potluck dinner took place on October 24, 2006.  About fifteen members of the UPEACE alumni community gathered at my house in Bethesda Maryland. We were also fortunate to have with us the UPEACE Rector, Julia Marton-Lefevre, and Dennis Dubin, a member of the UPEACE/US board of directors who was accompanied by his wife, Bunny. The UPEACE spirit was re-ignited through our re-connecting and sharing old stories about UPEACE and new stories about life in Washington.  We also discussed ways that UPEACE alums can help to develop the newly created organization, the US Association for the University for Peace (UPEACE/US), and how we can raise the profile of UPEACE in the United States.

The next of event will take place on Thursday, January 11, 2007; anyone living in or visiting  the Washington area is encouraged to attend.  Time, location and directions will be posted on the UPEACE website and sent by email, so stayed tuned and start planning your road trips! You can also contact me at nmartin@upeace.org if you would like to be added to the Washington area alumni email list. Thank you to Sabrina, Cara, Rebecca, Jamie, Karina, Rachna, Stephanie, Constantin, Ben, Nicole, Brian, Jess, Rochelle, Ursula, Julia, Dennis, and Bunny for coming and we look forward to seeing you on January 11th, if not before.

UPEACE/US Board Meeting
The US Association for the University for Peace (UPEACE/US) held its third Board of Directors meeting in Washington D.C. on October 24th with the primary aim of discussing our fundraising strategy. Rector Julia Marton-Lefèvre, UPEACE/US board members Dennis Dubin, Alex Wolfington, Ted Rouse were in attendance along with Executive Director, Stephanie Gliege and the newly appointed Deputy Executive Director, Nick Martin. The UPEACE/US board of Directors is growing, with the welcomed additions of new members Ted Rouse and Sarah DuPont. UPEACE/US continues to expand the number of board members as well as its breadth of activities to raise support for UPEACE.

The first major UPEACE/US fundraising event will be a dinner scheduled for the evening December 4th in Washington D.C.  Over the course of the next six months similar funds and awareness raising events will likely take place in Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City. Also discussed at the meeting were various approaches to fundraising in the United States and the underlying institutional frameworks that are needed to support the effort.  Finally, UPEACE/US is also hoping to launch several education initiatives in the coming year which will help raise the profile and support the work of UPEACE in the United States.

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Film Fest!!
Environmental Film Fest

Get ready for the Environmental Film Festival - this week only, Nov. 8th-10th, sponsored by UPEACE's very own Environmental Club.

Click here to for the tentative film schedule (which should not change much, if at all) -check it out to see when and where you can view each of the 10 excellent films represented at this festival. Free popcorn will be provided at each film showing! 

Please show your support and take time to watch at least one film - hope to see you there!

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