University for Peace

Date:   February 14, 2011

To:       1311 students

From:   Daniel Morales

RE:      University for Peace

Since the beginning of human history, we’ve seen, over and over again, wars and conflicts sprout among ourselves, but in the past few decades there has been an alarming rise of these situations that endanger the survival of humankind. The United Nations saw the great danger and threat to peace inside these situations and decided to take action against. However, member states realized that most of what they did only solved the conflicts already present, but it didn’t prevent them. They analyzed the situation and concluded that the disarmament of countries and closure of conflicts was necessary and must be continued, yet something was missing. That key factor to prevent war was education. They recognized that to maintain peace, they needed to seed the idea of peace in the human mind, and the way to do that was education. So, to completely prevent these situations they created the University for Peace.

The University for Peace is focused on teaching and promoting important values and qualities such as tolerance, equality, respect, love, understanding, and friendship, all in order to offer humankind an institution of higher education for peace that that will help people live in harmony among themselves and their environment. That is why its main campus is located in Costa Rica, a country that disarmed its army, has a female president, and is considered one of the greenest countries in the world. The University was founded there to honor the constant efforts of Costa Rica to achieve peace, democracy, equality and sustainability, and set it as an example to the world and its students that it can be done. The students who apply need to have a four-year undergraduate degree and be fluent in English, and if they have experience in related themes to those of the University is a plus. Candidates may apply from anywhere in the world; that’s why the University has such a diverse and rich alumni and faculty. Teachers from all around the world will come to the university to teach the students, face-to-face, all the tools they will need to achieve their goal of peace. That way, no matter where the graduate goes, he/she will be able to apply all that he/she learned to achieve peace where it is needed.

People all around the world can get insight on the University for Peace through its informative website. The website offers contact information on the main campus, for the general public, students and, donors; and links to its Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube accounts. Future students can find all the information they need to enroll in the school, on what their courses will be like, and on who will their resident teachers as well as their visiting teachers will be. Donors can access a special section that will tell them in detail how their donations will be used and where they will be thanked if they do donate. The webpage also offers a detailed library on peace-related issues and various links to different initiatives the University for Peace endorses.

The University for Peace has been opened for 30 years and according to its website, there are 192 students currently enrolled. There are more than 900 alumni. As we head on to our future, we hope to see an increase in the student number, showing a rise in the interest for peace from the world and getting closer to world peace.

Education is the way!

Education is the way!

Education is one, if not the one, of the greatest things a person can acquire during his lifetime. We can see from our history that education has always been a precious thing but a privilege that only persons in the past with money or power or influence had. We can see from this that education indeed was and is a coveted, important and powerful thing.

In our present time things have changed; now, education should be a free right to every human being and in most countries it is, but unfortunately for underdeveloped countries this is not the case. That’s why Greg Morrison decided that creating the Central Asian Institute, to help people from Central Asia earn a certain level of education for them to have a higher quality of life, was the best way to return the favor of them saving his life.

Citizens of countries like Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Pakistan will learn important lifelong skills such as basic hygiene, how to write and read, how to perform mathematical operations, and how to do crafts and make clothes. They will be able to apply this acquired knowledge to earn money and gain another income to their homes, protect their families, and to help them stay alive and healthy.

I personally like this project and totally agree with the idea of educating all the persons who want to be educated because since I was little my parents always taught me that education was indispensable for life and that with it we can change the world into a better place. This example clearly shows that one person can make the difference in the world, and if we all make a difference, we will surely make our home a better place to live.