March 20, 2008
Davis Projects for Peace program awards funding to Clark students
Three seniors selected to receive $10,000 grant for Opportunities Center
Three Clark seniors together received $10,000 from the Davis United World College (UWC) Projects for Peace program, which provided $1 million in funding to select colleges and universities to encourage and support motivated youth to create and implement ideas for building peace throughout the world in the 21st century.
Davis Projects for Peace invited students from 81 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.
Emily Negrin, Amy McPheeters, and Kesem Rozenblat received funding for their proposal to establish the Opportunities Center in Namibia. The project seeks to assist Namibian women in breaking the cycle of violence in a country where violence is the norm by providing the education, resources and community collaboration necessary to make a lasting difference in the lives of individuals, social groups and country as a whole. In conjunction with the organization Women's Solidarity Namibia, the three Clark seniors plan to firmly establish the Opportunities Center as a facility in which local women can make and sell crafts and take business and computer courses, thus allowing them and their children the economic independence they are unable to afford in their current environment.
Negrin and Rozenblat studied in Namibia through Clark's Study Abroad program in spring 2007, where they developed extensive social networks among local activists, policy makers and families. Negrin developed the idea for the Opportunities Center while studying under Rosa Namises, founder of Women’s Solidarity Namibia. At Clark, Negrin majors in Communication and Culture with a minor in International Development and Social Change. Negrin, Rozenblat, a Sociology and International Development and Social Change double major, and McPheeters, a Psychology major with a minor in Ethics and Public Policy, presented their proposal to Davis Projects for Peace after working together on the Student Global AIDS campaign.
Together they plan to use the grant to fund their May-July stay in Windhoek, Namibia, where they will continue work on the crafts center; employing local women to help run the center, developing community business partnerships, establishing a microfinance project, and networking with local professionals in order to establish a working relationship with the center.
In the event that the winning Clark team is unable to use the Davis Projects for Peace grant, Rachel Kenemore '08 and Avi Nagel '09 were selected as alternate recipients, for their project proposal, "Empowering Voices of Peace: Building Youth Capacity in El Sito." The Davis United World College (UWC) Projects for Peace program, in its second year, honors philanthropist Kathryn Wasserman Davis, who launched the initiative on the occasion of her 100th birthday in 2007. "We are grateful to the many students, faculty and staff who participated in this year's competition," says executive director of the Davis UWC Scholars Program Philip O. Geier.
The winning projects propose specific plans of action that will have lasting effects — from postconflict 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.
A complete list of the participating schools and projects, as well as a summary of the 2008 projects and a video interview with Davis from 2006, is available on the program's Web site at www.davisprojectsforpeace.org.