All this week, "In A Flash" will feature images from the Kent State group's trip to Rwanda.
Lambert Kanamugire (standing) community peace centers coordinator for Aegis Trust is working with a group of Kent State students and educators participating in the Kigali Summer Institute class in Kigali, Rwanda. Aegis Trust is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending global atrocities, which runs the Kigali Genocide Memorial and sponsors the educational programming there.
The group is learning about 鈥渢he continuum of violence,鈥 and examining the root causes of violence, how they can grow and how they can become out of control. Topics include issues like using one group to become the scapegoat for another group鈥檚 troubles or stereotyping different groups.
The education-abroad experience was created by Sarah Schmidt, Ph.D., an instructor in the School of Peace and Conflict Studies and assistant director for global education initiatives at 麻豆传媒 at Stark. The program includes the course, Rwanda After the Genocide Against the Tutsi, which focuses on the 1994 genocide in which nearly 1 million Rwandans were killed and how the country has rebuilt itself and promoted reconciliation in the 29 years since then.
This is the third cohort of students to take part in the three-week Kigali Summer Institute, which is expected to expand in future years to include students from the University of Rwanda.
While in Kigali, the students and Schmidt will take part in Peace Education in an Era of Crisis, a global peace conference being sponsored by the School of Peace and Conflict Studies, as well as Kent State's Read Center for International and Intercultural Education, the University of Rwanda and the Aegis Trust.
Also pictured are, from left clockwise: Emily Spencer, senior human development and family studies major from North Canton, Ohio; (Kanamugire), Dana Oleskiewicz, doctoral student in cultural foundations from Chagrin Falls, Ohio; Lilian Keister, graduate student in higher education administration/student affairs from Junction City, Ohio; Miles Listerman, a junior business management major from Hartville, Ohio; and Sonja Siler, a political science professor from Cuyahoga Community College, who is also taking part in the course.