USIP Academy staff Linda Bishai and Jacqueline Wilson trained a group of youth visiting as part of the Banaa Scholarship program.
On August 10, 2012, USIP Academy staff members Linda Bishai and Jacqueline Wilson, offered a one-day training workshop on peacebuilding skills for Banaa Sudanese scholarship students and members of the George Washington University (GW) organization responsible for bringing them to the US to study.
The Banaa Scholarship program was started over five years ago by undergraduate students at GW who were concerned by the violence in Darfur and South Sudan and wanted to make a lasting contribution to peacebuilding efforts in the country. They raised funds and got institutional support to bring the first Banaa scholar, Makwei Mabior Deng, to GW for a four-year college degree. Deng graduated this spring and will return to South Sudan in September to contribute to the peaceful development of his new country. Two other scholars are studying at the University of Rochester, which is now a Banaa partner university. Bishai and Wilson provided skills training for Deng, the two other scholars, and Banaa program organizers in decision-making in a pluralistic society, communication skills, conflict styles, and identity and stereotyping.