Sarah Hartzell travels for Global Service Learning Consortium
Earlier this summer, one of our graduate students, Sarah Hartzell, participated Social Work 693—Peace and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland. The course was offered through the Social Work Department and Amizade Global Service-Learning Consortium and was open to both graduate and undergraduate students from a variety of academic areas. Sarah and her classmates spent two weeks in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland after a brief introduction to how the “Troubles” in Northern Ireland began. The real learning began once the students arrived to the island. The class visited Dublin, Belfast, Derry/Londonderry, Glencree Center for Peace and Reconciliation and the Corrymeela Community Centre of Reconciliation. At Glencree and Corrymeela, the students met local citizens and people from Germany, Sweden, Hong Kong, and Palestine who are studying peace and reconciliation in the context of the “Troubles” of Northern Ireland.
In addition to meeting with government officials and political party representatives at Stormont and at local levels, the class visited various research institutions; schools, colleges and universities; conferences, victims/survivors support groups; community activist groups; libraries and cultural institutions. They took a tour of the ‘peace lines’ and murals in Belfast, visited the police forces of both Derry/Londonderry and Belfast, and was taken on a tour of the site of Bloody Sunday by a former member of the IRA who is now active in the peace process in Northern Ireland.
The class also had time for some fun!!! Sarah and her classmates had the chance to explore the Newgrange Neolithic Site, enjoy some traditional Irish music at local pubs, visit historical castles and gardens, and relax on the gorgeous beaches of Donegal.
Sarah was able to participate in the course thanks to the generous scholarships awarded to her from the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, the Division of Sociology and Anthropology, and the Division of Social Work at West Virginia University. Because of their invaluable support, Sarah was able to learn skills in facilitating community dialogue for the purposes of enabling peace and improving relations between communities in conflict in the context of the “Troubles” in Northern Ireland. She and her classmates practiced their new skills after their return home by helping to facilitate a dialogue between members of the Jewish and Islamic communities in Morgantown.