SAN FRANCISCO | An American Seed organized a day-long conference on March 25 about conflict resolution and peace for her high school classmates.
“The Field Conference, named after Rumi’s poem, was my way of bringing Seeds of Peace back home,” said Rhea, a 2011 camper from San Francisco. The conference included four 90-minute workshops, speakers and a Skype discussion with Seeds in the Middle East.
“My journalism teacher, Carla Pugliese, who specializes in Middle East history, taught a course through multimedia tools and a presentation,” said Rhea about the first workshop. A second workshop, led by another teacher, Tim James, covered the history of the South Asia conflict.
Tomer, an Israeli Seed and Stanford Ph.D. student, conducted a facilitation workshop during which students discussed the role of dialogue and what it is like to facilitate conflict.
Noosheen Hashemi, President of the HAND Foundation, led the final workshop on peace building; students talked about personal identity and visual cues.
Gisel Kordestani, Director of New Business Development at Google, also spoke to the students. Gisel has spent time in the West Bank and Gaza working on new business start-ups and is making a documentary about Gaza.
“Gisel spoke about making a difference, really hitting home the point that you should do what you know to change the world,” said Rhea.
Two Seeds, George (Palestinian) and Ron (Israeli), Skyped in to talk about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“George and Ron were great: relatable, interesting, and fun to talk to,” said Rhea. “There were some uncomfortable moments, but in the best possible way. Everyone seemed to gain a lot by listening to them and it brought the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to life.”
Rhea says she hopes to make The Field Conference a tradition.
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