Ohio Wesleyan’s Peace and Justice House Featured in National News Service Article
Annie Pappenhagen and Camille Mullins-Lemieux discuss immigration justice on the lawn of Ohio Wesleyan’s House of Peace and Justice, while Anna Cooper, Noah Manskar, Claire Hackett and Sophie Crispin plan a skit about the issue during a house retreat. (Photo by Andrea Kraus)
“In every story, there’s going to be a side that’s not heard,” Ohio Wesleyan University student Noah Manskar tells United Methodist News Service writer Natalie Bannon. “It’s imperative to look for the voice that needs to be heard by those in power and the public at-large.”
Bannon’s latest article, “Students join peace and justice communities,” includes comments from Manskar and 2013 OWU alumna Kami Goldin about living in the Peace and Justice House, one of the university’s unique small living units (SLUs.)
The SLUs provide opportunities for students to live with like-minded students and undertake education and service projects that benefit the entire campus. Members of the Peace and Justice House “are connected through a shared passion of achieving peace and justice in each person to inspire action globally, locally, and individually.”
Such learning communities, “are, in fact, engaging students’ heads, hearts and hands,” Bannon reports. They also are providing lessons that will last a lifetime.
“I’ve learned that you don’t have to be in a classroom to have a really enlightened discussion about important issues in the world,” Manskar tells Bannon.
And Goldin says she will “take away a critical world view, but I’ll also take away an appreciation for picking flowers, taking life slowly while thinking about the big picture.”
Founded in 1842, Ohio Wesleyan University is one of the nation’s premier small, private universities. Ohio Wesleyan offers more than 90 undergraduate majors, sequences, and courses of study, and 23 NCAA Division III varsity sports. OWU combines an internationally focused curriculum with off-campus learning and leadership opportunities that connect classroom theory with real-world practice. Located in Delaware, Ohio, OWU’s 1,850 students represent 41 states and 45 countries. The university is featured in the book “Colleges That Change Lives,” listed on the 2013 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction, and included on the “best colleges” lists of U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review. Learn more at www.owu.edu.