Thoughts From a Peacebuilder and Educator

The following was written by Anna Edling, EMU at Lancaster’s first graduate of the peacebuilding and conflict transformation in educational settings graduate certificate program

I am currently beginning my third year as a special education consultant for the Lancaster-Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13. I graduated from Eastern Mennonite University in April 2006 with a master’s degree in high school curriculum and instruction practitioner and a certificate in peacebuilding and conflict transformation in educational settings.

While attending EMU for the master’s program, I stumbled across the course descriptions for the certificate program. I was interested in the program because I work with students with emotional disturbances. These students tend to be in conflict on a continual basis and I was looking for strategies to deal with the behavior.

The program appeared to provide those ideas and strategies, so I chose to look into some of these classes. As part of my master’s program, I was required to take three of the classes needed for the certificate program. I took the other two classes as electives, which also counted toward my degree.

In the end, I was able to complete both the masters program and the certificate program within the 36 credit hours required for the degree.

The certificate program was rewarding in that it provided me with various ideas of how to deal with the behavioral issues I was experiencing in my classroom. I was able to look at different ways to handle the conflicts that occur without degrading the students.

The professors provided me with a wealth of knowledge that is now beneficial when I meet with teachers to brainstorm ideas about student behavior.

-Anna Edling