UCHS students to attend week-long training institute at The King Center in Atlanta
Four students from University City High School (UCHS) will travel to Atlanta the week of July 25 to participate in The Kingian Nonviolent Teaching and Education Certification for Youth and Adults. The training institute, co-presented by The King Center and Emory University, includes guest speakers and trainers such as Dr. Christine King Farris, sister of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Martin Luther King, III, President and CEO of The King Center.
UCHS will be the only high school from the St. Louis metropolitan area to attend the training with 120 other students and 30 college students and adults who were invited to attend, according to event organizers at The King Center. The four UCHS students attending are senior Breasia Thomas, juniors Lynden Peoples and Jeneé Chisholm and sophomore Monét Grant. All four are members of the UCHS Peace Committee, a group formed in the fall of 2009 with the goal of improving their school and community through education and leadership on nonviolent conflict resolution.
The students say the trip and their involvement in the Peace Committee provides an opportunity to be inspired and make a difference.
“I’m looking forward to hearing Martin Luther King Jr.’s children speak, and possibly even meeting them,” said Peoples. “We will also bring back new ways of talking to other students about violence and how it doesn’t have to escalate.”
Last school year the Peace Committee hosted several student assemblies to present statistics on teen violence and offer alternative methods for resolving conflict. In the spring, members of the Peace Committee attended peer mediation training as a first step toward being certified as peer mediators. The King Center training will better equip the students to implement a peer mediation program at the high school.
“The goal is to start an official peer mediation program by coming back and training more students and staff, as well as developing and implementing the program,” said Trish Fontana, learning support liaison, who advises the Peace Committee and will also attend the training.
Peoples and Thomas have been members of the Peace Committee since it began, while Grant and Chisolm joined last year following the committee’s presentations to the students.
“I feel like I’m a part of something really good and positive, and it’s going to make a difference,” said Grant. “This is something I can do throughout my high school career and something I’m able to grow with. Imagine what the Peace Committee will look like when I’m a senior.”
