Davis and Earlham Peace Projects
Each year two Earlham students or groups are awarded a $10,000 prize to pursue a peace project during the summer months. Students have worked near and far on issues of structural inequalities, inclusion and areas of conflict, from Brazil to India to right here in Richmond, Indiana.
Any current Earlham student is eligible to apply for the Davis Projects for Peace or the Earlham Peace Prize. The application process begins in the fall semester of the academic year, and results are given in midway through the spring semester. The selection committee may choose to award prizes to one or two projects. Students will complete their projects during the summer months.
If you are interested in applying or want to learn more about the Davis and Earlham peace projects, please contact Mila Cooper.
Davis Projects for Peace
The Davis Projects for Peace program is an invitation to undergraduates at the American colleges and universities in the Davis UWC Scholars Program to design grassroots projects that they will implement during the summer. The projects judged to be the most promising and feasible are funded at $10,000 each.
Dosti Initiative
2019 recipients: Maida Raza ’22 and Summia Tora ’20
Dosti means “friendship” in Persian and Urdu, primary languages in both countries. The project, which was implemented from May 22 to June 18 at a local Kabul high school in Afghanistan and Mehrabpur Girls Primary School in Pakistan, had three objectives:
- Educate girls about menstruation and train them to make reusable sanitary napkins
- Connect the girls virtually to share and learn about their experiences of menses and promote an understanding of shared social and cultural history between Pakistan and Afghanistan
- Promote peace in communities through fairs that provide access to sanitary napkins and connect women across borders
The goal of the project was to develop a level of collaboration and cooperation between Afghanis and Pakistanis.
“It’s very important that we start talking about topics that are not discussed as much so at least there will be some conversation on these topics. It’s a challenge worth taking.”
Maida Raza ’22
Davis Projects for Peace recipient
Dosti initiative
“The amount of support we have gotten from faculty, even other students, has just been so positive and encouraging. Everyone at Earlham has been willing to help and support us.”
Summia Tora, ’20
Davis Projects for Peace recipient, Dosti initiative
Rhodes Scholar
Earlham Peace Prize
Healing Hearts and Building Bridges
2019 recipient: Aishat Sadiq ‘19
The project’s objectives were to host workshops for parents, raise awareness and educate through lectures, group discussions and reflection, provide access to free or reduced-price methods and services with local providers, and strengthen relationships between parents and their children through reducing parental stress and educating on effective methods of communication.
To help facilitate the project, which took place in New York, Sadiq partnered with Immigrant Families Together, an organization founded in New York with the mission of reuniting immigrant families.
Aishat Sadiq’s project added mental health education and referral services to existing immigration and refugee support work in New York’s immigrant communities. To help facilitate the project, Sadiq partnered with Immigrant Families Together, an organization founded in New York with the mission of reuniting immigrant families.
Past Recipients
Here are some past recipients of the Davis and Earlham Peace Projects:
Davis Prize recipients
Gyeongeun Lee ’20 and Hyeonji Kim ’21 undertook a project working with young adult North Korean refugees in South Korea. They identified a need for cultural exposure and integration and designed and implemented a series of workshops, outings, reflections, and discussions though a local university on issues of belonging.
Earlham Prize recipients
Megan Bennet ’20 and Anmol Lamichane ’18 developed a project called “Building Global Female STEM communities in Indiana and Nepal” to address some of the reasons why young girls and women are poorly represented in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields/classes in Richmond, IN and Nepal.
Davis Prize recipients
Peniel Ibe ’17 carried out her project “Young Mothers 4 Peace” in Monrovia Liberia, focusing on income generating skills development with a local partner.
Earlham Prize recipients
Daniel Kibet ’19 project builds a sanitary facility at a primary school in Kapng’etik village in rural western Kenya to promote peaceful coexistence between community members and the local school. He received a glowing letter updating him, and us, about the results of the project on the community this year!
Davis Prize recipients
Sonia Kabra ’16 developed a project, “Sisterhood Peace Project,” to address gender inequality in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education through grassroot initiative in Jalgaon, India.
Earlham Prize recipients
Ananda Mishra ’18 and Maniz Shrestha’s ’19 project entitled, “Wireless Education and Women’s Empowerment for Rebuilding Bhimtar” aimed to establish a Ceter for E-Learning (CEL) with computers, books, and an E-Library system at a local secondary school in Bhimtar, Nepal.
Questions?
For questions regarding the Davis Projects for Peace or Earlham Peace Prize, reach out to the director of the Center for Social Justice.