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On March 8th, 2023 four students competed in the C. Henry Smith Oratorical Contest. This contest invites people from Mennonite and Brethren in Christ colleges and universities across Canada and the United States to compete. Here at the University of Waterloo, Peace and Conflict Students as well as Grebel Residents were invited to share their voices on topics of Christian peace position on contemporary concerns and were judged on topic, content, delivery, introduction, conclusion, and creativity.

My name is Victoria Lumax, and I am a fifth-year Honours Arts student, majoring in Peace and Conflict Studies and English. I had the incredible chance to go to the MCC United Nations Office 2022 Student Seminar in New York this past November. Here is what I learned about peace.

Nancy Williams is a fourth-year Peace and Conflict Studies major and is taking a minor in Philosophy. She studied at waterloo in 1988 but moved out of the province and put her formal education on pause. Nancy describes the return to education as changing her life and after taking PACS 101 -Peace is everybody’s business, she knew it had to be her major. Since then, Nancy has taken full advantage of programs at the University of Waterloo that focus on community learning and engagement.  

Ryan Bromley is a 3A Arts and Business student with a Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS) major. Ryan was a fall 2021 Enterprise Co-op pitch winner. Enterprise Co-op (E Co-op) is a co-op pathway that allows students to pursue an entrepreneurial co-op option in which students start their businesses while earning a co-op credit. Ryan’s original pitch was to create a “Peace to co-op” business that would teach university students critical personal and professional skills related to PACS. Throughout the work term, Ryan displayed incredible flexibility, drive, and vision in his journey through the term as he worked towards a dream that extends beyond the four months of the co-op.

With the worldview and perspective from Peace and Conflict Studies, combined with the understanding of systems and policy that Legal Studies provides, Anna is ready to take on the world. Anna is in her 4^th year, studying a double major in Legal Studies and Peace and Conflict Studies, as well as being in the co-op program. After taking PACS 202: Conflict Resolution, Anna Miedema realized the value in having Peace and Conflict Studies as part of her degree. Since then, she has been able to find new ways that PACS can apply to her everyday life as well as her co-op experience.

Entering her undergraduate program at the University of Waterloo, Stephanie Goertz had no idea how a Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS) minor would fit into her career or life. Looking back, she reflects that her PACS education is not something she can fit in a box or summarize easily but contributed to an overall perspective. This perspective and mindset have impacted her ongoing learning and how she can connect with others to make a change in her community.

Willow Carmount is an Arts and Business Student with a major in Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS) at the University of Waterloo in their 3A term. For her second co-op, Willow worked at Renison University College as the Marketing and Recruitment Assistant.

When Abbey began her co-op position last spring, she struggled to see how her Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS) education could be relevant to her work. Now that she has finished her co-op position, she can hardly fathom a position where PACS would not apply – at least in some capacity.