Considering all the many non-governmental organizations working in conflict zones overseas, there’s a great need to prepare students with the humanitarian and peacebuilding skills they will need for their future careers.  And, shouldn’t students get this training through their academic programs before they head out into the “real world”?

That’s what USIP seminar alums Paul Forage and Jeff Dykhuizen thought, and, as faculty at their community colleges, they set out to incorporate peace, international security and humanitarian education into their college courses to meet this growing need.

Paul Forage, director of the Center for Disaster Relief and Humanitarian Assistance at Indian River State College in Fort Pierce, Florida, attended USIP’s weeklong seminar on international peace and security in 2006.  Jeff Dykhuizen, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Delta College located in University Center, Michigan, attended USIP’s seminar in 2008.  Both benefited from meeting peers from other community colleges around the country, and exchanging ideas about how to improve their curricula.

Paul and Jeff returned to the Institute in June 2009 to speak to a new class of USIP seminar attendees about what they’ve learned.

In his presentation, Paul talked about developing his emergency management courses – and meeting his students’ need for a more vocational-oriented program.  It seemed a natural fit to include humanitarian affairs and an international dimension to the emergency management program at Indian River State College – and to make the courses less theoretical but more operational, he told the new USIP seminar students.  

In July 2008, he started the Consortium for Humanitarian Service and Education, and through his ongoing connection with USIP, he’s included more international, peacebuilding and conflict resolution components. 

So far, he’s discovered that local fire, police and rescue groups widely embraced his programming, and has received more support from the college to provide actual training to future generations of peacemakers.

“Let’s not just talk about bringing peace to the world, but let’s actually prepare people who go out in the world and actually prepare them, teach them, to make peace,” Paul said in his presentation at USIP.

Paul’s students don’t just talk about setting up an internally displacement camp, but they actually go out and do it. Of course, it’s not that simple. Because once you set up the camp, Paul said, you have to deal with all kinds of dilemmas and complications that inevitably crop up – such as overcrowding, feuding ethnic groups and sanitation. 

He currently runs these programs in Florida and Macedonia for his students to learn these skills and to “shift the thinking of students” out of the classroom and into the real world.

In his presentation to the USIP group, Jeff talked about the importance of incorporating conflict resolution and peace studies in college-level security courses, and his efforts to create the Global Peace Studies program at Delta College, which is set to start in the fall 2010. 

His courses will have simulations and practices where students face “real life” situations which they will soon find themselves having to deal with on the ground.  In addition to simulated situations, students work in the community – such as in soup kitchens – to develop their sense of “service learning,” Jeff said.

The Delta College program came about in part after Jeff recognized the complexity of global conflicts and the growing importance for people to learn skills to deal with these conflicts. 

Around the room, other USIP attendees nodded their heads in agreement and understanding.

When asked how his USIP seminar and ongoing contact with USIP influenced his program, Jeff responded that this has had a powerful impact on how Delta College is structuring the program.

“My attendance at the community college seminar at the United States Institute of Peace last year provided extremely valuable preparation for my role as co-chair of Delta College’s new Global Peace Studies program. The breadth and detail of ideas and situational examples, academic program models, and resources that I was exposed to during the seminar has impacted how our program at Delta is being structured,” Jeff said.

Even more valuable, Jeff emphasized, was how he expanded his group of contacts with community college colleagues around the U.S.  “[W]e continue to share ideas on how to locate specific resources, model peace studies programs, structure classes, attain institutional support, and make connections within our communities,” Jeff said.

“Most important things, the wealth of resources we were given on course development, and the interactions with my peers about what does and doesn’t work,” Jeff added.

After Paul, Jeff and other speakers wrapped up the June 2009 seminar, many attendees gathered to chat and share their own experiences – and swap tips and “lessons learned” for their classrooms back home.

David Smith, senior program officer at USIP who led the conference, concluded, "This opportunity for community colleges is vital as we continue to face the challenges of instability and conflict. Community colleges are experts at traditional liberal arts education, as well as vocational training. In most post-conflict environments, it is the occupational skills that community colleges teach that are necessary to promote global peacebuilding."