Adey Gebrehiwot: Supporting Local and Global Change
Adey Gebrehiwot is a final year Arts and Business student majoring in Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS), whose passion for social and environmental justice is palpable. Although Adey always envisioned attending law school, she realized her career interests involved promoting community well-being and systemic change. A few weeks after enrolling in PACS 201: Roots of Conflict, Violence, and Peace, Adey was intrigued and found herself declaring a PACS major and Legal Studies minor.
As a 4th year PACS student, Adey’s experience taking courses in both PACS and Legal Studies provided her with a broader perspective on the world. While the programs differ, she found the blend of the two to be critical in her understanding of national and international order. She noted that the Legal Studies minor supported her understanding of the systems and institutional frameworks involved in peace and conflict, while PACS focused on relationship management and repair.
Looking for ways to put PACS skills into action, she started volunteering with The Ripple Effect Education (TREE) as a workshop facilitator. In this role, she worked with children in grades five and six to teach them about conflict resolution, communication, cooperation, and empathy. Adey explained how course knowledge from the PACS program, specifically courses like PACS 202: Conflict Resolution, aided in her success teaching children everyday skills and complex, abstract ideas.
“I think it's really important to instill that while they're still young. It’s both theoretical and practical. We learn the concepts, and then we help them apply those skills within themselves,” she stated.
Similarly, Adey’s education overlapped with her volunteer role at Impact Alliance. “We advocate for and educate people regarding the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), and we do that primarily through our events. Our most important event happens during the SDG week in March, and it's a sustainability focused hackathon,” she mentioned. The hackathon allows students the space to solve real-world problems through collaboration, using policy, technology, and other tools as a starting point. Adey recalled how PACS courses are often centered around several sustainable development goals, and how her volunteer and classroom experiences go hand in hand.
She is also fascinated by PACS’ emphasis on theory to practice, and the program’s relevance to community building and support. In PACS 325: Refugees and Forced Migration, Adey joined her class as they acted as Route Marshals, guiding participants who walked and cycled for Ride for Refuge, a local fundraising event held by COMPASS. She found the experience fulfilling. “Being able to serve the community while learning about global displacement and human rights made the course incredibly meaningful,” she noted.
“What I love about PACS is that we’re not just learning theory; we are constantly connected to what’s happening in the world. It keeps both global and local issues in focus, so nothing ever feels ‘out of sight, out of mind.’ It's relevant, it's real, and it pushes you to care and want to make a difference,” Adey noted.
While Adey applies her interdisciplinary knowledge to her extracurriculars, she also seeks to apply it through research. Taking PACS 401: Senior Research Seminar, her current project focuses on decolonizing restorative justice in the context of gender-based violence. “I am examining how colonial legal structures shape current restorative justice practices, and how Indigenous frameworks can offer more culturally grounded pathways for addressing harm,” Adey described.
In the future, Adey hopes to complete a master’s in sustainable international development and work within the United Nations. As a student completing a diploma in Sustainability, she finds sustainability to be relevant in peace and conflict, specifically in the context of grassroots sustainability approaches, which aim for social and environmental justice.
As Adey looks forward to graduating this year, she cites the PACS community, professors, and friendships made along the way as integral parts of her time at Conrad Grebel University College and the University of Waterloo.
By: Samira Abdillahi