Williams Students Awarded Davis Projects for Peace Grants
WILLIAMSTOWN — Williams College students Anouk Dey, a senior from Toronto, and Katherine Krieg, a junior from Milwaukee, have received a Davis Projects for Peace award. The award will support their work with Iraqi refugee children in Jordan this summer.Since the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003, one in eight Iraqis has been displaced. Of the 2 million Iraqis who have fled abroad, about 750,000 of them have relocated to Jordan.
Dey, a political science and international relations major, and Krieg, an economics and psychology major, will spend seven weeks in Jordan, establishing safe play areas for children and holding a series of four one-week sports camps for Iraqi girls.
"We want to help Iraqi children living in Jordan reclaim their childhoods," Dey said.
"We are guided by U.N .Special Advisor on Sport and Peace Adolf Ogi, who said, 'For refugee children and youth there are few things more important than education and sport. They can make the difference between despair and hope,'" she said.
Dey and Krieg will be working with volunteers from the King's Academy, a preparatory school in Jordan headed by Williams alumnus Eric Widmer, class of 1961, to create "safe to play" spaces.
At Williams, Dey writes for the student newspaper, The Williams Record, and co-heads ABC Tutoring. She teaches sports and nutrition to Grade 5 students as part of WISHES. She is a member of bike polo and a crew teams and is an alpine skier. Dey spent the spring semester studying in the Williams in New York program with a field placement at ABC News Special Events.
Krieg, who studied in the Williams in New York program in 2007, has held a number of leadership and service roles at the college. This year, she was coordinator for Disability Support Services through Academic Resources and a member of the student liaison committee for the psychology department.
Their project is one of 100 grassroots projects for peace from 81 colleges and universities selected to receive a $10,000 grant by the Davis Projects for Peace program in 2008. The program was established in 2007 by philanthropist Kathryn Wasserman Davis on her 100th birthday.
"My many years have taught me that there will always be conflict," said Davis. "It's part of human nature. But love, kindness, and support are also part of human nature, and my challenge to these young people is to bring about a mindset of preparing for peace instead of preparing for war."
The program encourages motivated youth to create and implement their ideas for building peace. It is open to students from schools participating in the Davis United World College Scholars Program, which provides scholarship support for UWC graduates who are accepted into participating institutions.
