SEEDS: Students for Education, Empowerment, & Direct Service

 

Davis Projects for Peace

Care about peace? Want to do something meaningful this summer? Would $10,000 help you make that happen? In its fourth year, Davis Projects for Peace, is an invitation for undergraduate students (including current seniors) to design grassroots projects that they will implement during the summer of 2012. The projects judged to be the most promising and do-able will be funded at $10,000 each. The objective is to encourage and support today’s motivated youth to create and tryout their own ideas for building peace.

To review successful proposals from past years and learn more about this award, visit: http://www.davisprojectsforpeace.org/. Watch a video by Career Services about the Davis Projects for Peace featuring one the 2009 recipients, Kirsten Mandala, here: 

Intentionally, no clear definition is offered so as not to limit the imagination. Students should define for themselves what a “project for peace” might be. The funding foundation hopes to encourage creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship. The overall program (all 100 projects) is to be worldwide in scope and impact, but specific projects may be undertaken anywhere and as grassroots as desired, including in the U.S. Groups of students from the same campus, as well as individual students, may submit proposals.

The Application Process

Reed is proud to participate in the Davis Projects for Peace by nominating at least one student proposal to the Davis foundation. For information about the application process, please visit the Reed Davis Projects for Peace Request for Proposals webpage.  

Applications are due Monday, January 23, 2012 by 12 p.m. online. NOTE: This is the first day of classes. Please give ample notice to your letter writer.

If you have questions or need help with the process please contact Career Services or SEEDS.

The McGill Lawrence Internship Award

Those students looking at the Davis Projects for Peace Award, may also want to consider the McGill Lawrence Internship Award, which is designed to offer Reed students the opportunity to complement their academic studies with a summer internship in the public or non-profit sectors. The McGill Lawrence fund awards $4,000 for a minimum of eight weeks of full time engagement to eight students. 

The 2011 Davis Projects for Peace Award

Suraj Pant '11 (Economics) established a computer lab at JanaKalyan Madhyamik Vidyalaya, the only high school in Hungi Village Development Committee (VDC) – a remote village in Western Nepal. Exactly fifty years ago, the school in Hungi – which is now a public institution - was founded in part by his grandfather, a local pioneer for education and the school’s first principal. Information-poverty looms large in developing countries and the digital divide in countries like Nepal is getting wider between the privileged, who are predominantly in urban areas, and the disadvantaged, who are mostly in rural areas. The lab is furnished with ten computers and Internet facilities for the students and teachers of the school. Outside of school hours, the lab generates income to cover maintenance costs and serve the wider community by offering computer literacy courses and renting time for Internet usage. The primary purpose of the lab is to equip students with computing skills and increase their access to learning resources and information through the Internet. By improving educational opportunities in Hungi, local students will be better prepared to help themselves and their community. By providing access to the Internet, students will be empowered to educate themselves and broaden their horizons to become global citizens.

The 2010 Davis Projects for Peace Award

Erin Wilkus '10 was awarded $10,000 to build and maintain a language Resource Center in partnership with Tshulu Trust in a Venda community of South Africa. Read more about Erin's experience on the Rosetta Stone blog.

For decades the Apartheid system of Bantustans restricted the education of the Venda people to their traditional language. Today, students are required to take a matriculation exam in English to receive their high-school diploma and have the option to continue their education or get jobs. However, the effects of a poor and intentionally marginalizing Bantustan education are seen today in the near universal failure rate of the matriculation exam.

Erin's project specifically includes building the physical space that is used as the Resource Center and installing electricity and computers in HaMakuya, a village in the province of Limpopo. Rosetta Stone, a language learning computer program, was installed on all the computers and additional multi-media learning materials like music and flash cards are also be housed in the center. While Erin is in HaMakuya she met with local community members who are interested in the project and established a Resource Center Advisory Committee. This committee establishes agendas for the center and ensures local investment and management of the project after she left. By overseeing construction of the center and dedicating two months' residency to developing a local support network, she hoped to provide the Venda community of HaMakuya with the tools needed to learn English, an invaluable skill which will open doors to education, employment, and socioeconomic mobility.

The 2009 Reed Davis Projects for Peace Award

In 2009, the Davis Projects for Peace initiative awarded Reed students Kirsten Mandala and Skye Macdonald $10,000 to teach peaceful conflict resolution to traumatized orphans in the Rwandan capital of Kigali. Read Kirsten's moving account about their preparations and experience in Rawanda.