On February 7, 2018, we received a visit from our good friend and soon-to-graduate Rotary Peace Scholar (in the joint Duke-UNC program in Peace and Conflict Resolution), Linda Lowe, seen below on the left:

Not busy enough with their demanding Masters’ program studies, Linda and several of her fellow Peace Scholars decided to build bridges across the Triangle and across universities (Duke, UNC, NC State and NC Central), in the wake of the divisive election of 2016.

With help from numerous organizations below, and advice and encouragement from several members of our club — special thanks to Bill Wicker for his hands-on assistance, and to Clegg’s Termite and Pest Control for their sponsorship of a training session — Linda and her colleagues recruited 40 graduate and undergraduate students across the four (4) universities, researched and developed a ground-breaking curriculum for building empathy and understanding across ideological divides, and convened the larger group for two days of bridge-building in early November of 2017.

Linda reviewed the results and feedback from that session, and the plans underway to make the Leaders for Political Dialogue a recurring event in the Triangle and in numerous other towns and cities who have inquired about conducting similar events in their own communities.

Well done, Linda and your LPD colleagues — we are proud and delighted to have played a small role in the debut of this terrific student-led program !