WASHINGTON, D.C. | From March 19 to 21, Seeds of Peace held its Annual Spring Seminar for American Seeds at Georgetown University. Thirty Seeds spent three days hearing from international experts and engaging in discussions of issues related to the conflicts in South and South-Central Asia.
The seminar produced thoughtful debate on important issues and allowed the Seeds to draw parallels between the Middle Eastern and South Asian conflicts.
On the first day of the Seminar, Joan Rohlfing from The Nuclear Threat Initiative and Lieutenant General Doug Lute, Assistant to the President and Deputy National Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan, joined the group.
Lieutenant General Lute was kind enough to advise the Seeds on what he perceived as the necessary skill sets they need in order to be successful citizen diplomats including a sense of humility, fluency in several international languages and a good historical analysis.
Day two included presentations from South Asian experts and began with a panel of alumni Seeds from Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Parnian Nazary and Shahrzad Zaidi spoke individually about their Seeds of Peace experience and the challenges facing their respective countries. Both women came together at the end to answer questions and give their opinions on issues facing South Asia and American foreign policy in the region.
Professor Mohamed Khalequzzaman from the Bangladeshi Energy Network followed the Seeds Panel with a PowerPoint presentation about the current and potential conflicts over water in South Asia.
The afternoon continued with speakers from the Department of Defense, The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and The German Marshall fund of the United States.
On the final day of the seminar facilitators from Ashoka’s Youth Venture Program lead the group in a discussion about entrepreneurialism and the power of the growing entrepreneurial movement to transform many of the countries in which Seeds of Peace operates. The Seeds were challenged to come up with their own entrepreneurial ideas for creating change to some of the issues that affect their communities within the United States.
Overall, the weekend was a huge success thanks to the determination of the seminar’s co-chairs, Nathan Korhman and Rachel Brown. Their example is just another way that Seeds are taking the chance to leading today rather than wait for tomorrow.