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Facilitating engaging classes is just one of the ways that Lowell Ewert cares for and supports students in achieving their goals. Lowell is Associate Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS) at Conrad Grebel University College and the University of Waterloo. Originally a lawyer, he researches the ways that peace interacts with human rights, law, and civil society. His teaching and in-class discussions empower students to apply what they are learning in whatever vocation they find themselves.

Photo by Seyran Mammadov

Lukas Wormald of the Waterloo Warriors swim team has called Conrad Grebel University College home for the last two years. Lukas is in his second year of mechatronics engineering at the University of Waterloo and appreciates how living at Grebel suits his busy schedule.

Grebel Students have supported the Homework Help initiative at Chandler Mowat Community Centre for more than five years. Currently about six Grebel students travel to Kitchener each week to tutor children in a variety of subjects at the community centre’s homework club. Ananya Xavier has been volunteering with Homework Help since her first year at university.

The 2020 Bechtel Lectures in Anabaptist-Mennonite Studies at Conrad Grebel University College will examine Mennonite agriculture around the world and how this vocation directly impacts the lives of farmers. The Bechtel Lectures provide an opportunity to gain understanding of Mennonite history, identity, faith and culture across disciplines. “Food & Faith: Mennonites Farming Locally and Globally” will explore these themes in a film screening and a breakfast panel.

Music and Mathematics have been connected disciplines in the minds of psychologists and neuroscientists for years. An increasing number of studies have been carried out to link the effects of music on mathematical skills and vice versa. Many of these studies have found correlations between above-average musical abilities and above-average math performance.

The newest course offered by the Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS) program at Grebel may seem more like a math course, but in fact, it is open to students from all faculties regardless of a student’s comfort (or discomfort) with math.

Every year, on September 21, the world celebrates the International Day of Peace. Established by the United Nations in 1981, Peace Day provides a globally shared date for all humanity to commit to peace above all differences and to build a culture of peace. Inspired by this initiative, the Kindred Credit Union Centre for Peace Advancement at Conrad Grebel University College invites students, staff, and faculty at the University of Waterloo to attend peace events from September 16 to 22.

Earlier this year, the Canadian Parliament declared the second week of September to be Mennonite Heritage Week – a time to “recognize the contributions that Canadian Mennonites have made to building Canadian society, their history of hope and perseverance, the richness of the Mennonite culture, their role in promoting peace and justice both at home and abroad.”

A new exhibit at the Mennonite Archives of Ontario showcases painted family trees, hand-drawn charts, and other ways Mennonites have visually remembered family. The exhibit is called Growing Family: Design & Desire in Mennonite Genealogy. 

The Grebel Gallery, located in the heart of the Kindred Credit Union Centre for Peace Advancement at Conrad Grebel University College, is pleased to showcase “New Fraktur,” an art exhibit by Grebel alumnus Meg Harder. Visitors will be treated to works that draw on fraktur folk art, an imaginative and densely detailed illuminated calligraphy, historically produced by early Mennonite settlers to Ontario.