Matthew Rubin: During peace week in middle school, Lama Tenzin visited and made a sand mandala. The mandala signified a perfect universe that was peaceful. Lama Tenzin preached his beliefs about peace in the Dolan Center. He has a way with words that kept me very intrigued by him. I learned that peace meant being undisturbed which is a value I try to maintain in my life. Another important aspect of peace week is community. I remember we had a school vigil during the week. Although I don’t necessarily remember the content of the vigil, I do recall enjoying the school being a true community and coming together as one. Furthermore, prompts regarding peace were offered during Meeting for Worship and advisory. Overall, peace week is an enjoyable week where we observe our main school values more rigorously and apply them.

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Anika Bhatia: With Peace Week just around the corner, I have been reflecting on how this is my last one at Friends Academy, and after being given the opportunity to reflect on a past experience connected to Peace Week, the first thing that springs to my mind is the Student Leadership Training program in January 2019. I, along with other students in grades 5-12, was invited to participate in a three-day leadership training program, held for one hour at school. I excitedly jumped at this opportunity and was pleasantly surprised by what we accomplished. The program focused on many aspects of the Quaker testimonies, but the one that stood out to me the most was peace, specifically in terms of settling conflict in a peaceful manner. We students were all sorted into random groups and were given a prompt of creating a conflict, and modeling how to properly handle it. I appreciated the program; the randomized groups gave me a chance to get to know students in multiple other grades, bringing us together and establishing a real community. Working on how to settle conflicts was also very interesting, and I learned more about my fellow students and myself about what peace truly means.  

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