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Dialogue Academy launches online, with potential to reach the masses

Oct 20, 2022 / No Comments

Prior to this summer, the word “dialogue” meant quotes and movie scripts to Ibrahim and Soha. Seeds of Peace’s new virtual program, Dialogue Academy, changed that.

“Every time my mind was blown,” laughed Ibrahim, a 14-year-old student from India who participated in the program’s pilot phase this summer. Soha, a 16-year-old student from Pakistan, nodded along with him: “It didn’t actually feel like we were taking a class.”

Dialogue Academy is one of Seeds of Peace’s newest initiatives to foster compassionate and critical conversations across divides. Inspired by the separation caused by COVID-19, Qasim Aslam, a 2001 Pakistani Seed and Director of Pakistani Programs, said the online program was designed to further expand the impact of Seeds of Peace in a time of isolation: no need to obtain visas, no worrying about contracting or spreading COVID, no travel fees.

With Dialogue Academy, all that is required is a laptop and an internet connection.

“The program has the potential to ramp up our outreach to 100,000 students a year in about five years, if we have the right resources,” Qasim said.

With the support of a U.S. State Department grant, the Academy offered its first course, Essentials of Dialogue, on Zoom to approximately 70 Indian and Pakistani students over the summer.

The daily lessons varied, from learning about the power of groups of people through a video on mobs, to students taking an organizing role establishing school dress-code policy. Each activity worked to explore different perspectives, understand the importance of listening and dialogue, and learn their different types and applications.

“The most important thing is that everything starts with you,” Shweta Patole, the project’s director, said describing the program’s first steps. “The deeper you understand yourself, the better you’ll be able to understand everybody else.”

While the course gave students skills to begin immediately navigating conflict within their homes, schools, and communities, for many, it also provided their first opportunity to meet someone from the “other side.” Ibrahim was one of many Indian participants who had never met someone from Pakistan.

“But here diversity was a positive thing because we came to know about each other, they were informative, and we really connected to each other,” he said.

In a short amount of time, Shweta said that the course transformed from a class where students were shy to turn on their cameras, to a space where they could be vulnerable, listen with respect to the stories of their peers from across the border, and share their own as well.

“I learnt how important it is to respect others’ cultural beliefs and religion,” said Haleema Sadia, one of the participants. “They also taught me how to create safe spaces in the environment for other people to be comfortable around me.”

Future plans for Dialogue Academy include offering both live and self-paced options, as well as courses on mediation and facilitation. Focusing for now in India and Pakistan, the hope is to expand Dialogue Academy both within the two countries, and then, internationally.

“Imagine if this program is available to every school, to every student, regardless of whether Seeds of Peace is already on the ground in their community,” said Seeds of Peace Associate Director Renee Atkinson. “For some students, it will really spark something, and they’ll apply for more in-depth programs with a foundation for deeper and more meaningful conversations and action. And for others, at least they will have the tools to apply within their homes, schools, and communities. It’s a powerful thing to imagine.”

To be clear: The program is not designed to take the place of, or to be compared to, an in-depth dialogue experience like the Seeds of Peace Camp. But by eliminating physical and financial barriers to basics of the tried-and-true Seeds of Peace curriculum, it could drastically increase the number of young people equipped to navigate conflict—and to change its course across societies.

“What I realized is that, through dialogue, you can actually figure out and break down misunderstandings and conflicts instead of just acting upon your first thought,” Soha said. “I feel that if people were to learn to communicate through dialogue, we may have less violence in the world.”

Learn more about Dialogue Academy at thedialogue.academy.

What We’re Reading: Opening minds on mental health

May 24, 2019 / No Comments

Odds are that each of us knows someone living with a mental illness, or live with one ourselves. But unfortunately, because of stigma, lack of resources, or awareness, we often go through these struggles alone, sometimes never receiving critical support, or even knowing that what we are experiencing can be helped.

While the severity varies greatly from person to person, mental illness affects one in five people, including the teenagers that come to Camp each summer. Researchers estimate that as many as 50 percent of youth ages 13-18 will deal with some sort of mental health issue, and half of all serious mental illnesses set in by age 14.

This May marks the 70th anniversary of Mental Health Month, an initiative started to reduce stigma and raise awareness of mental health issues. So we’re focusing on books and articles that include courageous personal stories that put us in the shoes of people dealing with mental illness and trauma, as well as decades of research to help us better understand the pathways to healing. The more we know about mental health and what it feels like to be depressed or anxious, to carry trauma, or have a chemical makeup that prohibits you from thriving, the more empathetic, supportive, and successful we’ll be when it comes to helping others, and ourselves.

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel van der Kolk
What does trauma do to our mind? What does trauma do to our brain (i.e. the physical organ that contains the mind)? What does trauma do to our bodies, and how do we heal? Based on work experience, lived experiences, and decades of studies, Dr. van der Kolk, a leading expert of trauma who has worked with clients ranging from veterans to sexual assault victims, explores how trauma imprints on our bodies, and how we can better understand and treat its detrimental effects. This book will be immediately useful and interesting to anyone who has experienced trauma, knows people who have experienced trauma, or works with people who have experienced trauma (hint: that means all of us). — Greg Barker, Manager of Facilitation Programs

Educated, by Tara Westover
This harrowing memoir gives readers a strikingly intimate and firsthand look into the toll that mental illness can take on individuals and families. Raised in rural Idaho by an ultra-religious, survivalist family, Westover describes in detail years of neglect and abuse at the hands of a mentally ill father and sibling. Despite having never stepped in a classroom until she was 17, she eventually finds freedom through education. From Brigham Young University—where she hears about the Holocaust for the first time—to the elite halls of Harvard and Cambridge, she struggles to reckon with the world she was told about, and the one she’s discovering for herself. Westover’s story is a uniquely moving, complicated, and eye-opening that is at times uncomfortable to read, but utterly impossible to forget. — Dindy Weinstein, Director of Individual Philanthropy

Bee Season, by Myla Goldberg
Myla Goldberg tells the story of a family of four growing distant from one another as they fight to find themselves and find connection with each other. The 9-year-old daughter, Eliza, strives to be seen as intelligent and accomplished as the rest of her family. Her brother Aaron rejects the family’s traditions in search of a higher spiritual understanding and sense of belonging. And while their father pressures them to fulfill his own dreams, their mother is struggling with a hidden life unknown to the family. Goldberg lyrically depicts the pain and pressure felt by each family member, exploring their deep inner selves and taking the reader along through layers of mental states and identity. Heart wrenching and beautifully written, Bee Season reveals how disparate our inner lives can be from our outward appearance, and the importance of human connection to care for and support each other. —Emily Umansky, Development Association

We’ve Got Issues, by Judith Warner
Journalist Judith Warner set out to write a book exploring the overmedication of American children. What she discovered in the course of her research, by spending time with families whose kids are dealing with a variety of mental and behavioral health issues and hearing their stories, is that, in fact, far too many children were not receiving the treatment they and their families so desperately needed. What they received instead was stigmatization and recrimination. Through listening to others’ stories and experiences, the author’s preconceived narrative was challenged, which fits very much in line with the work of Seeds of Peace! This book supported me at a time in my parenting journey when I needed empathy and understanding, not judgment. — Deb Levy, Director of Communications

Also don’t miss

The Anxiety Chronicles, The Lily (The Washington Post)
Women are nearly twice as likely as men to develop an anxiety disorder, a serious medical condition that, as 15-year-old Ella Gross wrote recently, “is so much more than just being scared of public speaking.” For nearly a year this series has put a spotlight each week on a different woman’s journey with anxiety. They vary from teenagers to grandmothers and experience a wide range of symptoms and effects, though a common thread is that many began experiencing symptoms years—sometimes decades—before receiving help. By sharing their stories, these women are helping shine a light on one of the most commonly ignored, and commonly experienced, forms of mental health disorders in the United States.

Primal Fear: Can Monkeys Help Unlock the Secrets of Trauma? Luke Dittrich, New York Times Magazine
In the weeks after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in 2017, a researcher began noticing unexpected patterns among one of its island’s monkeys: One, the monkeys seemed to be expanding their social networks, increasing the number of individuals that they had meaningful relationships with. Two, the monkeys appeared to become more tolerant of one another, despite living with radically diminished resources. “It was as if the hurricane had bonded even former foes against a common enemy and made the monkeys much more tolerant of life’s everyday frustrations, at least in the early days,” Dittrich wrote. Sound familiar? This fascinating article explores how researchers are seeing a rare opportunity in our genetic cousins to gain answers to long unanswered questions about the psychological effects that a disaster like Hurricane Maria has on humans.

Have any suggestions we should check out? Add them in the comments! And if you or someone you know needs information about mental health services, visit mentalhealth.gov or the World Health Organization.

Banner photo credit: Ella Gross/Lily/Washington Post

Seed Stories: A matter of perspective

Nov 6, 2018 / No Comments

One day, after a soccer game, my best friend Tareq and I plopped ourselves down in the field’s overgrown grass.

In any other situation, he and I would be an unlikely duo. At Seeds of Peace, however, the sight of a Muslim Palestinian boy and a Jewish American girl together is nothing unusual.

Once seated, I immediately noticed a sour, putrid smell in the air. Searching for the culprit, I realized that Tareq had removed his sneakers. I winced and yelled, “Tareq! Your feet smell like ass!” Without missing a beat, he smirked and responded, “Nah, Lex, it’s the inside of your nose that smells like ass.”

What an absurd answer, I thought. As I instinctively began to formulate a zinger to fire back at him, I paused for a moment to consider the logic of his response. Never would I have considered that the source of the bad smell could be the inside of my nose.

Tareq and I simultaneously burst into laughter. We had spent the summer connecting over shared experiences as intensely personal as coping with the death of a best friend and as seemingly insignificant as a mutual love of pickles on our turkey sandwiches.

Through Tareq’s stinky feet, I began to understand the power of perspective. It was not always easy to see the world and its conflicts through a new pair of eyes. With time, though, I recognized that Tareq and I could have passionate debates without having to prove the other’s core belief wrong. I had simply learned to take his view, lay it next to mine, and see that his belief was as valuable to him as mine was to me. Ultimately, I realized that I could remain deeply tied to my Jewish faith and still find meaning and truth in the way Tareq looks at the world.

When I think of Tareq, I think of the words Seeds of Peace was founded upon. Thirteenth century poet, Rumi, wrote, “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.” I reached that field with Tareq.

Our friendship, and my Seeds experience more generally, has inspired me to surround myself with people who will challenge and broaden my worldview, shown me the importance of listening with an open mind, and led me to believe governments do not make peace. People do.

Post Camp, my greatest identity is that I am Seed. As an American Seed, I seek opportunities that push me to think a little differently. When debates regarding the conflict—or any conflict—arise, I challenge myself to stand up for the Palestinians—or the “other” side.

I studied Arabic—not Hebrew—at Washington University, and in high school decided to take classes about Jewish History and Ethics offered by my synagogue, Washington Hebrew Congregation. I was selected as one of three Americans to return to Seeds of Peace after my first summer at Camp, and subsequently spent two summers working there.

Yes, that makes four years in a row—I can’t get enough. I hope you are beginning to understand why.

#DialogueIRL: Two reformed extremists find their “why”

Apr 19, 2019 / No Comments

One was once a white supremacist. The other, a former Taliban recruiter. On Wednesday, they joined Seeds of Peace Director of Global Programs Kiran Thadhani at Brooklyn Law School for the Tanenbaum Center’s Courageous Conversations series.

The duo discussed their journeys to radicalization, their paths out, and how we can use dialogue to confront extremism in a divided society.

“A huge pull for white supremacy,” Arno Michaelis explained to the crowd, “is that it’s forbidden. That it’s frowned on by civil society. If things aren’t going well in your life, if you’re not comfortable with who you are and you have a poor self-image, one real easy way to bolster it … is to think you know things that everyone else doesn’t know and to feel like you’re pissing off the status quo.”

Arno became an active member of the white power movement starting at age 16, and eventually co-founded what became the largest racist skinhead organization in the world. But over time, the cognitive dissonance of his worldview became too great to ignore.

“I was telling this story that the world was supposed to revolve around, when real life was contradicting everything I was saying on a regular basis. And that hypocrisy was driven home by the kindness of others.”

Arno recalled a moment where that came to a head. “I remember going to McDonald’s on my first payday, and behind the counter was this elderly black woman who has a smile on her face that is so authentic. Like everything that is good about being a human being was embodied in this woman’s smile … And it made me so uncomfortable, because I was trying so hard to hate her.”

When she saw the swastika tattoo on his finger, Arno said, it was the beginning of the end. “I’m 6’3”, but in that moment I felt six inches high. And when I finally looked back up at her, she just calmly told me, ‘I know that’s not who you really are. You’re better than that.’ I felt destroyed.”

While teenage Arno thought himself an outcast, Mubin Shaikh was popular at his high school. But after his uncle caught him hosting a raucous house party with his classmates, Mubin developed an identity crisis over his relationship to his religion that drove him to extremism.

“[The uncle] was like, ‘Oh my God, what have you done, you’ve defiled the home, people pray here,’” Mubin told the audience. “And immediately this shame and guilt took over me. I decided that in order to fix myself and salvage my reputation, I had to get really religious.”

He travelled to India and Pakistan, where a chance encounter with the Taliban led to him spending years as a recruiter for the organization. But after the September 11th attacks, he began to reconsider his views. In 2002, he sold his possessions and moved to Syria to study Islam.

“I met with a Sufi priest twice a week,” Mubin told the audience. “He reminded us that when we read the Quran, we always say, ‘In the name of God, who is full of grace and full of mercy.’ And he asked us, ‘Before you do anything, do you do it with grace and mercy? If not, you’re not following the religion.’ He systematically debunked every idea I had. By the end, I became an adversary of my old self.”

After hearing their stories, Kiran remarked, “In both of your experiences there was this question that everyone, and especially teenagers, have. And that is, ‘Who am I? Who am I as I exist in my community, in this body, in this larger system and structure that I’m a part of?’ And that is where dialogue enters.”

After the panelists spoke, audience members broke into pairs to discuss subjects they have difficulty talking about with others, followed by a Q&A with the panelists. One person who identified as liberal and who has a gay child asked for advice on how to talk to her parents about their support of Trump.

“Something that has been very helpful to me personally,” Kiran responded, “is rather than framing the conversation around, ‘How could you be a Trump supporter, knowing what you know about me and about your grandchild?’ is instead taking a couple steps back and taking time to understand the why.”

“Maybe they’ll say, ‘I’m a Trump supporter because he’s a businessman, and I’m concerned about the economy.’ And so you can ask, ‘So why is that? Why do you care so deeply about the economy?’ and really try to peel back the onion, if you will. Because what makes dialogue so different from debate or a discussion is that you start to understand there are values, there are narratives, there are stories behind why people are making the decisions that they’re making.”

“Entering a conversation with that framing of stepping back,” she continued, “also causes them to step back. And then what they’re doing is having to ask themselves, ‘Why is that something I value? Is that something I’ve just been told to value? Is there a story that informs that?’”

Another useful tip Kiran told her was to name the discomfort in the room when having difficult conversations. “Pointing out that it feels weird, that it’s uncomfortable for you to tell your parents these things, and hearing that discomfort from your parents, is important. Because it’s about building trust, and it takes a lot of trust to do this work.”

“This may sound silly, but being true will find what’s true. If you’re being honest and uncomfortable, you’ll find that there will probably be that on the other side. There’s discomfort in conflict, so it’s okay if there’s discomfort in dialogue.”

Greg Barker, Seeds of Peace Manager of Facilitation Programs who attended the event, shared how talking with a stranger can make it easier to practice just that.

“There is this safety in anonymity with a stranger,” he said. “I can be vulnerable about what scares me so much because I don’t know you, and if you don’t like it, I can walk away. As I’m doing this, I’m building up my own resilience and my own courage so when I have a difficult conversation with, say, my family or friends, I’m more prepared and more able to deal with the things they say that hurt me.”

An “inspowered” kick-off to the 2019 GATHER Fellowship

Apr 16, 2019 / 1 Comment

What happens when Egyptians, Israelis, Pakistanis, Palestinians, Americans (two by way of Romania and Rwanda), a Turk, a Tunisian, a Jordanian, and a Canadian (now living in Mexico) meet up in Sweden?

They coin a new phrase.

The term “inspowered” may have arisen by accident through the kind of exhaustion that comes after a week of intense project and community building, but the Fellows immediately adopted it as their own. Because inspowered (a combination of inspired and empowered) is exactly what they were feeling by the end of their time together.

The 2019 GATHER Fellowship incubator began in Sigtuna, a small, lakeside village an hour’s drive from Stockholm. It was there that the Fellows met and began to learn about each other’s lives and life’s work. Through a needs mapping exercise and a candlelit personal storytelling session, the 16 social innovators began to realize that while leading change can be lonely work, they are not in it alone.

They participated in a storytelling and marketing workshop that prepared them for a speed-dating style pitch session with graduate students from Uppsala University, the Nordic region’s oldest university and one of the finest in the world. The students, who are studying conflict transformation, posed many questions to the Fellows, and were grateful to see real-world manifestations of their studies.

After two days, the Fellows departed Sigtuna for Stockholm, and spent the next morning at Parliament, learning the nuances of Swedish government and meeting with four members of Parliament who graciously answered questions for an hour and a half.

After lunch, they spent time in a co-working space called Norrsken House and discovered that social entrepreneurs are treated like rock-stars in Sweden. At Norssken, the Fellows explored new frameworks for utilizing the engine of business to power social change.

Fellows met in small groups to workshop their projects and support each other, and they also met one-on-one with Seeds of Peace and SE Forum staff who could advise them on specific issues. On the final night, they demonstrated both thoughtfulness and thought leadership as participants in a series of panels: changing societies through storytelling and the arts, creating platforms for systemic change, bridging differences through education and dialogue, and empowering marginalized communities through enterprise.

Saying goodbye was not easy. But the Fellows will meet again—every week in fact—on video check in calls. They will continue to “inspower” each other, and over the course of the fellowship, we will shine a spotlight on each of them and their projects. So stay tuned … you just might become inspowered yourself!

Israeli and Palestinian kids plant the Seeds of Peace
Kids Copy

Nov 30, 1993 / No Comments

BY ANDREA FINE | Israelis and Palestinians are still uncertain whether the new peace agreement between them will really work. Although the majority of people seem hopeful, it’s hard for enemies to trust each other after years of bitter fighting.

Building trust isn’t impossible, though—especially if it is taken one step at a time. Coming together is the first and, in many ways, the hardest step.

That’s what 46 boys from rival groups in the troubled Mideast region learned for themselves last summer when they came together in a camp program in the United States called Seeds of Peace.

Now back in their own countries, they’re telling their friends and neighbors about their experience and asking everyone to give peace a chance.

Fadi, a Palestinian boy from East Jerusalem, told a reporter, “I hope from my heart that peace will take place in all of the world. And I think that justice and the stopping of killing between the two sides is the only road to peace.”

Discouraged by fighting

The boys were among thousands of people who gathered in Washington, D.C. on September 13 to witness a ceremony during which the leaders of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization signed a peace agreement and shook hands.

For two weeks before the ceremony, the 46 boys had been living together in the woods of Maine at a Seeds of Peace summer camp.

John Wallach, a newspaper reporter and the author of three books about the Mideast, came up with the idea for a peace camp after the World Trade Center in New York was bombed last February.

Wallach was discouraged by all the fighting in the world. He decided that if he could get young “enemies” to become friends, they might choose to live in peace when they got older. A camp, he thought, would be the perfect place to bring kids together.

The boys were chosen because of their leadership qualities and their ability to speak English. Fifteen were Egyptian, 20 were Israeli and 11 were from the Palestinian West Bank. They ranged in age from 11 to 13.

Kids can get along

Camp Director Joel Bloom said the boys were immediately suspicious of each other.

“One boy said he had been brought up to believe all Israelis are assassins and killers,” Bloom told Kids Copy.
They were encouraged to talk to each other about their suspicions, which helped, Bloom said. More importantly, they shared cabins and were teammates in games of baseball, soccer and basketball.

Uri, a 14-year-old Israeli, said in a television interview that while he was at camp, he learned that friendship is more important than politics.

“You can have an argument, but then you can go back to being friends and playing baseball or softball or something,” Uri said.

Camp Director Bloom believes the camp proved “that children who are given the opportunity can get along without conflict.”

Seeds of Peace has plans for another camp next summer and hopes to start a similar program for girls.

Think about it

Is there a group of people you consider an enemy—people who live in a certain country, practice a certain religion, or belong to a certain political party? Have you ever approached a member of that group as a potential friend and gotten to know him or her as an individual person? Do you think your feelings about the “enemy” group would change if you did that?

Ivanka Trump to host 2009 Peace Market at Cipriani Wall Street, New York

Feb 10, 2009 / No Comments

Celebrities, community leaders to come together to support Seeds of Peace

NEW YORK | Seeds of Peace, a nonprofit aimed at promoting peace through youth leadership programs, will hold the ‘Peace Market’ on February 19th at Cipriani Wall Street. Business leader and philanthropist Ivanka Trump will attend and serve as Honorary Chairperson.

The event is hosted by the Young Leadership Committee, a volunteer group of young professionals whose mission is to promote Seeds of Peace across a variety of industries in New York City, and other major cities across America.

In the wake of horrific attacks in Mumbai, India, as well as the recent crisis in Gaza and southern Israel, it is more important than ever to promote dialogue among young people and between supposed “enemies.”

Seeds of Peace operates in the Middle East (Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv, Ramallah, Gaza, Cairo, Amman) and South Asia (Kabul, Mumbai, Lahore) to bring young people together from opposite sides of conflict for face-to-face coexistence programs. Young leaders from the Middle East and South Asia, called ‘Seeds,’ will be in attendance and participate as featured speakers. Over 1,000 young professionals from New York are expected.

Celebrity Host Committee members include:

Mamma Mia!

Gossip Girl

Entourage

Arrested Development

Gossip Girl

Ivanka M. Trump is one of the most recognized and influential young business women today. As Executive Vice President of Development & Acquisitions, Ms. Trump is charged with the expansion of The Trump Organization globally along with her siblings, Donald Jr. and Eric.

Currently, Ms. Trump works on over 70 projects throughout the world. She actively participates in all aspects of real estate development on Trump projects, from deal evaluation, pre-development planning and construction, to sales and marketing.

One of Ms. Trump’s main focuses has been to bring the Trump Hotel Collection brand to the global market. The Hotel Collection has already seen great success with its flagship, Trump International Hotel & Tower New York, and its recently opened sister hotels in Chicago and Las Vegas have received rave reviews.

In tandem with her work with The Trump Organization’s real estate interests, Ivanka Trump is a principal in Ivanka Trump Jewelry, a newly launched luxury diamond jewelry line.

In addition to her responsibilities at the Trump Organization, Ms. Trump is also a world famous media personality. She has been featured in hundreds of outlets worldwide including The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, and Vogue.

Ms. Trump is currently one of the stars of NBC’s widely successful Celebrity Apprentice. Ivanka Trump is involved in several charity organizations, including the Eric Trump Foundation and the New York City Police Foundation.

VIDEO: A New Generation of Leadership ‘In Practice, In the Present, Like Right Now’

Mar 15, 2015 / No Comments

In February of 2015, over 200 changemakers from 20 countries around the world met in Jordan for GATHER+962 to take practical steps towards transforming conflict in and between their communities.

GATHER, a Seeds of Peace initiative, marked a new milestone in Seeds of Peace’s journey as a leadership development organization. Matt Courey, Vice President of the Seeds of Peace Board of Directors, shared why this matters at the opening of the inaugural event.

“The world has changed since Seeds of Peace was founded in 1993. In some ways the paths to change seemed clearer then. We said things like, “Treaties are signed by governments, Peace is made by people.” We didn’t spend much time thinking about if treaties are NOT signed by governments. Well—now we have to. For better and for worse, non-state actors are taking the initiative all over the world to affect the change they want to see. Now it’s our turn to thoughtfully and strategically create the change that we want to see.

“Drawing on lessons from conflict transformation in places like Northern Ireland, South Africa or even going back to the Civil Rights Movement in the US, we are building the infrastructure for change out of a much broader array of career choices—journalists and businessmen, artists and educators, women leaders and entrepreneurs—equipping all relevant actors to accelerate the social, political and economic change necessary for peace to take root.

“Seeds of Peace was founded with the goal of empowering new generations of leadership. Well guess what? Here we are, one generation later, demonstrating a belief in professional aged changemakers to be that new generation of leadership—in practice, in the present, like right now.”

Watch video of Matt’s opening remarks.

GATHER+962 opening Remarks delivered by Matt Courey

My name is Matt Courey. I am a Managing Director at Credit Suisse, a Swiss bank, where I run a bond trading desk. In 2002, I met Bobbie Gottschalk, co-founder of Seeds, and I asked the question you are all thinking: What in the world could a bond trader possibly do with an organization like Seeds? The answer would follow. I started with the Young Leadership Committee in New York. I helped found Seeds of Peace UK in London. I quit my job to work as a Camp counselor. And I traveled to the region to see our programs and visit our amazing graduates.

My Story

So here’s my story: I’m the grandson of immigrants from Syria and Lebanon. I grew up in the US during the awful Lebanese Civil War, and struggled to create a life and a career that had meaning for me as a Lebanese American. In my travels to over 90 countries, in my day-to-day work with colleagues and clients, and of course with my circle of family and friends, Seeds of Peace has shaped how I engage other people, how I listen and value what people share with me as a gift to be absorbed and processed, slowly but surely building my own sense of purpose.

Over the last five years, I’ve served on the Seeds of Peace board, which has grown dramatically and diversified. I have personally experienced the incredible evolution of our organization and our community—bottom to top—culminating here with our flagship graduate program, GATHER.

Seeds of Peace GATHER Initiative

I want to acknowledge the difficult choice that many of us made to come here today. It was likely unpopular. And the logistics of physically moving yourself from your homes to get here was probably difficult and even dangerous. So take a look around: from Palestine and Israel, from Egypt and Jordan, from Cyprus and the Balkans, from Pakistan and India, from the US to Afghanistan—all of us are coming from realities that are violent and oppressive in one way or another.

So with a solemn appreciation of the realities that we all overcame to get here and a reiteration of our common conviction that we refuse to accept those realities, I want to warmly welcome each and every one of you to GATHER.

From the beginning, Seeds has meant a lot of things: bringing people together, communicating to break down barriers, reflecting on and affirming identity, building and sharing dreams.

The world has changed since our founding in 1993. Back then, there seemed to be clearer paths to creating change—we would hope for a couple of our graduates to end up as president or prime minister of their country. We said things like “Treaties are signed by governments, Peace is made by people.” We didn’t spend much time thinking about if treaties are NOT signed by governments. Well—now we have to. For better and for worse, non-state actors are taking the initiative all over the world to affect the change they want to see. Now it’s our turn to thoughtfully and strategically create the change that we want to see.

So while we re-worked our language and broadened our goals, at our core we are still the same Seeds of Peace: bring people together, talking and respecting, sharing a vision of a world where we don’t have to accept what is, when we know what can be.

Drawing on lessons from conflict transformation in places like Northern Ireland, South Africa, and even going back to the Civil Rights Movement in the US, we are building the infrastructure for change out of a much broader array of career choices—businessmen and journalists, artists and educators, women leaders and entrepreneurs—equipping all relevant actors to accelerate the social, political, and economic change that is necessary for peace to take root.

So while we’ve re-worked our language and broadened our goals, at the core we are still the same Seeds of Peace: bring people together, talking and respecting, sharing a vision of a world where we don’t have to accept what is, when we know what can be.

Let’s be Tough on Ideas and Gentle on People

So let’s use these next few days to connect people, ideas, and resources. We want to balance the need for rigorously-researched ideas with our fundamental value of respect. So let’s be tough on ideas and gentle on people.

Speaking of people, let’s talk about who’s here. So the community we’ve assembled includes Seeds of Peace graduates, other emerging leaders from the Middle East and South Asia, and established leaders in philanthropy and finance, diplomacy and technology, and media.

Thanks to the recent growth of our board, thanks to the creation of the Global Leadership Council, thanks to our record as the oldest and largest program of our kind, and thank to our hard-earned reputation for political neutrality, we are uniquely set up to attract this caliber of human capital to support our growing community of changemakers.

Let’s Disrupt the Status Quo

Part of our mission is to disrupt the status quo, and that is a concept and a task that exists on lots of different levels, but I want you to reflect on three. First, at the basic level of individual choice: disrupting your own status quo. Learning and unlearning, allocating your time and resources to your initiative, even your choice to be here today.

Second, at the opposite end of the spectrum, disrupting the status quo in broadest sense. Re-imagining a better world—what does that mean for you? Equal opportunity for economic empowerment, gender equality, care for the environment, an end to violence in all its forms, a media which educates and empowers as much as it entertains—whatever your vision is for your initiative, embrace as a key part of the process: imagination as disrupting the status quo. JK Rowling (the author of my favorite books, the Harry Potter series) once said: “We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.”

Re-imagining a better world—what does that mean for you?

Third—somewhere between the individual commitment to change on a small scale, and imagining a better society on a large scale, disrupting the status quo means something in the middle: coming together in groups, small and large, to leverage and learn from each other’s ideas and experiences, each other’s careers and talents, each other’s resources and time. That is why we are here. Individual and collective action, inspiration and impact.

A New Strategic Direction

Seeds of Peace was founded with the goal of empowering new generations of leadership. Well guess what? Here we are, one generation later, demonstrating a belief in professional aged changemakers to be that new generation of leadership—in practice, in the present, like right now.

This is not a one off initiative but part of a new strategic direction, in line with the age of our graduates and the evolving social and political terrain in the regions in which we operate. In June of this year, for example, we’ll be running a Gather Leadership Incubator in London, to support some of the initiatives that develop here this weekend.

Here we are, one generation later, demonstrating a belief in professional aged changemakers to be that new generation of leadership—in practice, in the present, like right now.

As with all things Seeds of Peace, much of the potential of Gather rests in the days afterwards, in the ways you take it home—leveraging this network to improving on an idea, working with someone you meet here to turn an idea into action, or simply participating in the larger support system of the Gather community by helping others in function or in morale. It all counts. And it starts with you.

A Turning Point

As a final thought, 50 years ago this month, US president Lyndon B Johnson finally took the offensive in the fight for civil rights for African Americans with an unprecedented speech to congress demanding the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Thanks to a mosaic of coordinated efforts from the likes of Martin Luther King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference, to Rosa Parks and the Women’s Political Council, to the Freedom Riders and unnamed white and black business owners who worked together to minimize violence, it was a ten year acceleration of individual and collective action, inspiration and impact that led to Johnson’s momentous speech. He opened by saying this: “At times, history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in man’s unending search.”

For him it was the search for equal rights for African-Americans. For you it could be the search for many different things. The hashtags you submitted when you applied to Gather included: #OneLaptopPerChild #responsiblerefugeereporting #EnoughWithBiasedHistory #Educategirls

When I think about the 22 years of growth at Seeds of Peace, when I think of the thankless job our staff has done in managing the logistics of this conference, when I think of the choices all 200 of you have made to be here, I get pumped for the new few days. History and fate have indeed brought us here because we refuse to accept what is, when we know what can be.

I want to warmly welcome each and every one of you to GATHER.

Learn more about GATHER ››
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Seeds of Peace announces Commitment to Action at 2015 Clinton Global Initiative

May 7, 2015 / No Comments

Fellows program invests in emerging changemakers and their projects

NEW YORK | Seeds of Peace has made a Commitment to Action at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) to accelerate local social change endeavors that have the potential to positively impact the dynamics of conflict in and between communities in the Middle East.

The $1.5 million three-year commitment was presented by Seeds of Peace Executive Director Leslie Lewin at the 2015 CGI Middle East & Africa Meeting held May 5-7 in Marrakech.

“This is big step forward for the organization and its ability to accelerate the impact of changemakers in conflict areas,” said Lewin. “We are honored to be sharing the commitment at the Clinton Global Initiative, and for the continuing support of President Clinton for our work with emerging leaders.”

Under the commitment, Seeds of Peace will launch two fellowship programs that offer technical and financial assistance to 60 select civic leaders, artists, and educators who demonstrate the greatest potential to make positive differences in their home communities.

The first program, the New Visions for Peace Fellowship, will be awarded to educators and artists of proven accomplishment or unusual promise who are putting forward fresh and practical ideas that contribute to advancing change in regions of conflict.

The Fellowship will further projects that use education and the arts to encourage critical thinking, cross-cultural understanding, civic engagement, and conflict transformation.

The 2015 Fellowship will launch in June and will include a week-long program in Cyprus over the summer. It is made possible by The Germanacos Foundation and by Jim and Nora Orphanides.

The second program, the GATHER Fellowship, builds on the success of GATHER+962, a Seeds of Peace summit that convened over 200 changemakers from more than 20 countries in Jordan earlier this year.

The 2015 GATHER Fellowship also starts in June and includes a program in London in the fall that offers learning opportunities on topics such as effective team-building, design thinking, leveraging technology in startups, pitching, fund-raising, storytelling, and public speaking, and provides Fellows with access to London’s world-class network of investors, businesses, and social change organizations.

The GATHER Fellowship is open to alumni of Seeds of Peace and other emerging leaders and entrepreneurs with compelling local social change projects. It is made possible by support from the Pershing Square Foundation, the Blackstone Charitable Foundation, the Moses Feldman Family Foundation, and Red Sea Ventures.

About the Clinton Global Initiative
Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), an initiative of the Clinton Foundation, convenes global leaders to create and implement solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges.

CGI Annual Meetings have brought together more than 190 heads of state, 20 Nobel Prize laureates, and hundreds of leading CEOs, heads of foundations and NGOs, major philanthropists, and members of the media. To date, members of the CGI community have made nearly 3,200 Commitments to Action, which have improved the lives of over 430 million people in more than 180 countries.

About Seeds of Peace
Seeds of Peace is an international leadership organization committed to identifying, inspiring, and cultivating new generations of leaders. We equip them with the skills and relationships they need to accelerate the social, economic, and political changes essential for peace.

Since 1993, Seeds of Peace has provided exceptional young people and educators from regions of conflict with an otherwise impossible opportunity to meet their historic enemies face-to-face at our Camp in Maine. There are now over 5,000 Seeds and Educators from 27 countries who prove that solutions exist, peace is possible, and there is reason to have hope for a better future.

Seeds in UK take part in dialogue facilitation workshop

Apr 11, 2016 / No Comments

LONDON | Seeds in the United Kingdom took part in a two-day dialogue facilitation workshop led by Middle East Program Director Maayan Poleg.

“The workshop gave the participants a foundation in facilitation,” said Seeds of Peace Programs and Events Associate Clarke Reeves. “It included the presentation of facilitation tools, how to set up a facilitated space, and the chance to practice facilitation in the group.”

The April 9-10 program was hosted at the American School of London.

The group chose socio-economic status as the subject of their own dialogue session, delving into an honest and thoughtful discussion of privilege and feelings of obligation associated with it.

At the end of the workshop, the participants were challenged to create their own facilitation projects in their schools and communities.

“Their ideas were thoughtful, varied, and feasible,” said Reeves. “They included open-invite dialogue sessions with pre-chosen or group-chosen topics, dialogue on sexism at all-boys schools, and dialogue within school residences.”

The Seeds attended a reunion dinner to kick off the workshop hosted by Seed Parents Aenne and Claude Chene. At the dinner, Greek Seed Markella spoke about her Seeds experience and how it changed her life and influenced career path in becoming a migrant and minority rights lawyer and anti-human-trafficking specialist.

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