AFRICA DAY EVENTS- “Unity in Diversity”
By Bassey Archibong
African students and their friends in UPEACE organized on Friday November 17th an Africa Day of events. Africa day is one of the many initiatives by UPEACE to encourage cultural dialogue and interaction among students and staff of the University for Peace. This year’s celebration with the theme “building bridges across cultures for peace”, was the second time that students from Africa graced such occasion on-campus, with their presence, dance, songs, food and many others. The event convened members of the UPEACE community, host families in Ciudad Colon, friends from other Universities and representatives of the Afro-Caribbean community in Costa Rica.
The celebration which had the Mayor of Mora as the guest of honor, witnessed a series of activities, among them, presentation of papers on Africa, cultural dances, poems, songs and a wide diversity of dressing styles from Africa and other cultures.
As part of the event the University, with support from the Africa Programme, organized a day’s visit to the Afro-Caribbean city of Limon. This visit, which was more of a cultural exchange, cooperation and learning opportunity, helped to broaden the understanding of those who went on the trip about the people of Costa Rica.
This particularly insightful learning experience for the participants, went a long way to emphasize UPEACE’s mission "to provide humanity with an international institution of higher education for peace and with the aim of promoting among all human beings the spirit of understanding, tolerance and peaceful coexistence, to stimulate cooperation among peoples and to help lessen obstacles and threats to world peace and progress, in keeping with the noble aspirations proclaimed in the Charter of the United Nations".
Building bridges across cultures for peace showed truly that there could be unity in diversity.
The Chairperson, on behalf of African students, extends his gratitude to all UPEACE staff, the Africa Programme, all guests, students and well-wishers for making the day a success.
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UPEACE Launches new Centre for Executive
and Professional Education
By April Stanley
The Centre for Executive and Professional Education will offer its first course, “Nonprofit Leadership: Maximizing Impact” from January 8-26.
UPEACE recently launched the Centre for Executive and Professional Education to provide seminars and workshops to a variety of professional audiences who do not need to be enrolled as UPEACE students. The UPEACE Community is proud to announce this new and exciting endeavour.
The Centre aims to work with leaders from around the world to offer the knowledge, perspectives and skills to prepare them to be more effective in their professional environments, with a new spirit of understanding, cooperation and sensitivity to our global interconnectedness.
In striving to fulfill this mission, the Centre offers the following interactive seminars:
Nonprofit Leadership – Maximizing Impact
Social Entrepreneurship in Latin America
Educating for the 21st Century
Corporate Social Responsibility – Walking the Talk
The Language and Culture of Doing Business in Latin America
The approach to all courses is innovative, interactive, and participant-centered, using case-studies and field trips when appropriate. Each offering from the Centre aims to develop leadership skills by incorporating themes such as Intercultural Communication, Negotiation and Conflict Resolution and Teambuilding.
For more information, please visit the Centre’s website: http://www.centre.upeace.org
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Food Drive for Christo Rey
Following the successful Week Against Poverty Campaign, the Human Rights at UPEACE (HRUP) organized a food drive from October 23 to October 27, 2006. Clothes, food, toys and household supplies were collected for the community in need, Barrio Christo Rey. Our goal was to collect 100 items. By the final day of the food drive, Friday afternoon, the amount of collected items had risen to 176!
All goods were given to the Associación Obras del Espíritu Santo, a charity organization working in Christo Rey, on the 1st of November. In the name of the association and HRUP, we thank all contributors among students, staff and faculty for their support!
If you have any questions about the food drive or Human Rights at UPEACE, please contact Paula Peraza (pperaza@student.upeace.org), Kimberly Rafuse (krafuse@student.upeace.org), or Katharina Felgenhauer
( kfelgenhauer@student.upeace.org).
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UPEACE Article in the Asahi Shimbun Newspaper
As result of a recent visit to Japan by the Executive Vice Rector, Georges Tsaï and Tatiana Benavides to promote the Dual Campus Master’s Degree Programme in International Peace Studies that will be offered from April 2007, an article was published in the Asahi Shimbun Newspaper of Japan.
This Masters Degree Programme is being organized in collaboration with the Ateneo de Manila University in The Philippines and with the support of the Nippon Foundation. It has been designed especially for Asian students with some innovative components such as a content based language instruction module.
The article, published on 4 November 2006 by this distinguished newspaper, focuses on the objectives and gives a general description of the programme.
For a translation of the complete article please click here. (PDF file)
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Thelvia Marin visits UPEACE Campus
Thelvia Marin, prestigious Cuban sculptor, is the author of the UPEACE Monument for Disarmament, Labour and Peace, the most visited feature of the University for Peace. It is considered the largest sculpture in Central America and pays homage to Costa Ricans who have made outstanding contributions to peace. Thelvia Marin designed the monument in 1987 to symbolize the infinite quest for peace.
On Tuesday 21 November, Former President of Costa Rica, Dr. Rodrigo Carazo, UPEACE Rector, Julia Marton-Lefèvre, the Director of the Department for Gender and Peace Education, Ms. Dina Rodriguez, among others, visited her sculptures located in the UPEACE recreational park and in the UPEACE Campus, where she widely explained the process of making the sculptures and their meaning.
In the afternoon, she addressed UPEACE staff on her art work at UPEACE and elsewhere and other related issues.
UPEACE Community expressed Ms. Marin its appreciation for the importance she has given to spreading the significance of peace through her art work.
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UPEACE Professor gives lectures at American University of Beirut.
Victoria Fontan, Assistant Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies, was invited to Beirut last week by the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud Center for American Studies and Research, and the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs, at the American University of Beirut. Her lecture focused on US responses to the international terrorism since 9-11. The rest of her trip was spent interviewing several key players to the latest crisis between Lebanon and Israel, among which UNIFIL, the Hezbollah, and various local politicians. Dr Fontan will return to the Middle Eastern region within the next three weeks to engage in further research as well as fundraising for UPEACE.
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Orientation Meeting for Host Families
On Saturday, 11 November 2006, the Department of Academic Administration (DAA) held an orientation meeting with the landlords/ladies of Ciudad Colón, who host UPEACE students while they study at UPEACE.
The main purpose of this event was to strengthen the bonds between UPEACE and the host families, explain the methodology the DAA applies to match student needs with available housing options and to receive feedback on how to improve DAA services.
The Department of Academic Administration would like to thank Christiana Ngozi Idika and Carlos Andrés Pérez Gallegos from the MA International Peace Studies programme and the MA International Law and Human Rights programme, respectively, for their cooperation in the writing and presentation of a skit that illustrated multicultural barriers faced by families and students living together.
Students April Stantely and Karissa Cuthbertson from the MA Natural Resources and Sustainable Development programme and Mohit Mukherjee, Director of the Centre for Executive and Professional Development, also collaborated in designing “Beyond Cultural Differences”, a workshop to be presented to the landlords/ladies in the subsequent meeting.
Forty home owners attended the meeting and expressed the importance of the discussed topics. They also reiterated their willingness to cooperate in organizing cultural activities and expressing themselves artistically to promote the culture of Ciudad Colón among the students and staff at UPEACE.
The meeting was sponsored by Banco Nacional de Costa Rica, who provided a coffee break, prepared by one of the landladies.
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UPEACE 2007 students & faculty Official picture to be taken on 30 November.
The official picture of UPEACE students and faculty will be taken next Thursday Nov 30, at 9 am behind the cafeteria (near the flags area).
We kindly request all students and faculty to assist, so we can have a great picture of this nice group of students and professors!
If you need more details please write to amolina@upeace.org
Hope to see you there!
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