The Student Interfaith Peace Project

In order to bridge the ever growing gap of cultural understanding, Deborah Schlueter began the Student Interfaith Peace Project at the University of Denver to educate students and future leaders about the religious diversity of the world. Listening, dialogue and understanding were the focal points of the program that aim to create internationally competent students.

Imagine a world where leaders have been brought up and educated to be religiously tolerant and understanding and have established relationships with people from a variety of religious faiths. The program allows participating students to learn about major religious-based conflicts such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well as how these conflicts can be prevented.

By creating two networks of students, one from the United States and the other from the Middle East, students are provided the opportunity to exchange ideas and values with each other and learn about each other's opinions and beliefs in an understanding and educational atmosphere. Three major religions are represented: Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

Read her story below and continue to send us your stories of citizen diplomacy.

Student Interfaith Peace Project at the University of Denver

In response to what we perceived to be growing and problematic gaps between individuals of different religions, cultures, and belief systems in our city of Denver, Colorado, we created a project that brought high school students of different cultures, faiths, and nationalities together to learn about one another for one academic year. In addition to lessons on Islam, Judaism, Christianity and other religions, we taught them how to listen to and dialogue with one another, to understand and employ conflict resolution skills, to understand each other's faiths (and/or faith cultures), and to better understand how failing to recognize or appreciate other's beliefs can create and/or exacerbate conflicts. To that end, we also taught them the historical and current situation surrounding the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, where so many of these identities play a role in contributing to the ongoing disputes.

One goal of the program is to help build inclusive, open-minded leaders who appreciate diversity at a deep and authentic level, who will know the value of striving to understand all viewpoints in a conflicted situation, and who will be able to lead others to do the same. We want them to have fun with it, to truly see the joy in working and learning with individuals with whom they may have significant political, religious, and world-view differences. It has worked beautifully. Each year we work with students from 25 local high schools who represent several countries, faiths, economic classes together in an extra-curricular program. They spend almost a year in class on a college campus for which they receive no credit of any kind- they are simply there to learn and experience. Often their parents drive them long distances to attend.

We had an additional goal to create a strong bond between these students that would last for years; one that would sustain a network of educated, inclusive leaders. However, we wanted that network to be broad, to include students in the Middle East as well. So at the beginning we reached out to our contacts in the region, and designed a trip that would allow these students to interact as a cohesive group with diverse students in Israel and the West Bank. They were eager to participate.

The first year 17 students made the journey. They met and interacted with students in Israel who were Bedouin, Arab, Jewish, and Druze. In the West Bank, they visited refugee camps and met Christian and Muslim students. They created friendships and formed new bonds.

We just returned from our third successful trip with a third group of students. Because we are housed in the Korbel Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver, our next goal is to expand the program into the college and graduate level. We have applied for grants to employ video conferencing equipment so we can meet on a regular basis and expand the student network.

We are not trying to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but we believe that American students can recognize the rich diversity of young people in both Israel and Palestine (the West Bank now, and hopefully Gaza in the near future), and act as friends and allies to both. It is our hope that our students will act as a bridge between the two sides, and create a network of peace-minded, inclusive leaders. The beauty is that the program is strong in what it accomplishes among youth here, and strong in what it has and will accomplish in the Middle East.

Watch the video of our first year program.

Please feel free to visit our website at www.sipproject.org. We are currently undergoing construction of a new and updated site, but this will help explain the original program.

Thanks for asking us to share our story!

~Deborah Schlueter

Posted Wednesday, July 28, 2010