Seeds of Peace Member To Discuss Community Building
Barbara Gottschalk, a board member with Seeds of Peace, an
organization that brings together young people from Israel, Palestine
and other troubled areas for experience in living together peacefully,
will discuss global community building during a public talk at Alma
College.
Gottschalk, Alma’s 2008-09 Woodrow Wilson Foundation Visiting Fellow,
will speak at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 10 in the Remick Heritage
Center. Admission is free and open to the public.
The talk is sponsored by the Alma College Center for Responsible
Leadership and is part of the College’s seventh annual Service Week
Sept. 8 through 13. In addition to speaking in College classes during
her visit, Gottschalk will visit Alma High School to talk with students.
Barbara Gottschalk
“The
Seeds of Peace organization empowers young people from areas of
conflict with the leadership skills required to break cultural
expectations of violence and advance reconciliation and coexistence,”
says John Leipzig, director of the Center for Responsible Leadership.
“As one of the founders of Seeds of Peace, Barbara Gottschalk has seen
firsthand the impact these students have had after they have returned
to their home communities. Their goal is create a peaceful world,” he
says.
Founded in 1993, Seeds of Peace sponsors a summer camp in the United
States and a Center for Coexistence in Jerusalem. More than 2,000
participants have graduated from the camp in Maine and then returned to
their regions for regular meetings and coexistence programs.
From 46 Israeli, Palestinian and Egyptian teenagers in 1993, the
organization still focuses on the Middle East but has expanded its
programming to include young leaders from South Asia, Cyprus and the
Balkans. Its leadership network now encompasses more than 3,500 young
people from several conflict regions.
A clinical and school social worker for 30 years, Gottschalk helped
create Seeds of Peace in 1993. She also is a board member and past
president of the Bethesda Academy of Performing Arts, former board
member of the United Jewish Appeal Federation, and a board member of
the Friends of Erevna International Peace Center.
Her awards include a medal of honor presented by King Hussein of the
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordon and the Peacemaker Award from Earlham
College. She has degrees from Earlham College, the University of
Chicago and Franklin Pierce University.
The Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellows program connects a liberal
education with the world beyond the campus by bringing thoughtful and
successful practitioners to colleges for a week of classes and informal
discussions with students and faculty.
The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation has developed and
conducted programs in higher education since 1945. More than 200
colleges have participated in the Visiting Fellows program since 1973.
Posted: Tue, August 26th, 2008 at 12:49PM
