Projects for Peace Alumni Award (graduates)
Campus Deadline: 12:00 pm (noon) EST on January 23, 2025
The Projects for Peace Alumni Award recognizes and celebrates the achievements of a past Projects for Peace grantee, with a focus on individuals who have demonstrated innovation and commitment in building peace and transforming conflict throughout their career. As opposed to a grant for a project, this award recognizes past achievements and supports the future endeavors of the recipient.
Projects for Peace is a global program that partners with educational institutions to identify and support young peacebuilders and changemakers. The program encourages young adults to develop innovative, community-centered, and scalable responses to the world’s most pressing issues. Along the way, these student leaders increase their knowledge, improve skills, and begin to see themselves as agents of change. Since 2007, Projects for Peace has worked with approximately 115 colleges and universities to support more than 2000 projects.
Each year, the Projects for Peace Alumni Award awards $50,000 to support the continuing peacebuilding efforts of a past Projects for Peace grantee. The Award is made possible through the Kathryn Wasserman Davis Collaborative in Conflict Transformation at Middlebury. Read here about the inaugural recipient of the Alumni Award, Joseph Kaifala, who was one of the first recipients of the summer Projects for Peace award as a UWC Scholar at Skidmore!
Award benefits:
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The awardee receives $50,000.
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The awardee is expected to attend a multi-day convening on the topic of conflict transformation convening at Middlebury College, with an opportunity to discuss their work with the Conflict Transformation community at Middlebury by delivering a keynote address, leading classroom discussions, and participating in meetings with stakeholders in Middlebury.
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The Kathryn Wasserman Davis Collaborative in Conflict Transformation at Middlebury expects to fund at least one award each year through 2028.
How might the award be spent?
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Candidates should convey in their application materials the impact that the award would have on their ongoing peacebuilding or conflict transformation efforts.
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The award is not a grant intended to support a specific project, though winners are welcome to use the award funds for new or ongoing activities.
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Developing a financial plan that outlines the estimated costs of items, activities, continuing education, and/or programming they anticipate funding through the award helps the Projects for Peace Alumni Award review committee to understand candidates' ambitions and future plans. Among other things, award funds could be used towards professional development in a relevant field (including graduate studies, research, or training in conflict resolution, peace/conflict studies, etc.), charitable donations, funding for new or existing nonprofit organizations, or a combination of uses. We hope that each applicant’s submission will propose uses that contribute to peacebuilding and/or conflict transformation.
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The merit of any activities proposed to be funded by the award is a secondary consideration for the Projects for Peace Alumni Award review committee.
Expectations - In the first year, the awardee will be asked to:
- Write brief 6-month and 1-year reports reflecting on implementation, impact, and lessons learned. Receipts/full financial accounting is not required in these reports. Instead, a general update on major expenditures is requested, with commentary on notable challenges, successes, and/or deviations from the original financial plan.
- Attend a multiday conflict transformation convening at Middlebury College, deliver a keynote address, and engage with the conflict transformation community at Middlebury.
- Participate in a reflection session with Projects for Peace and the Conflict Transformation Collaborative at the end of the first year (virtual or in-person).
After the first year:
- Invitation to consult with Projects for Peace and the CT Collaborative about their experiences, via annual/biannual discussions
- Invitations to Projects for Peace events and convenings
Additional Opportunities: Projects for Peace Alumni awardees, finalists, nominees and their nominating institutions may be publicly recognized through print and social media. Finalists and their nominators may be invited to participate in annual events or participate in special opportunities supported by the Conflict Transformation Collaborative at Middlebury.
Eligibility
Who is eligible?
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Applicants must have implemented a Project for Peace any time in the history of the program. The applicant’s name must appear on the approved final report submitted at the conclusion of their Projects for Peace grant. If the applicant was part of a team-led project, only one individual from that project can be nominated.
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Applicants must be nominated by the educational institution which supported their Project for Peace (i.e., Wellesley College). No direct-apply or “at-large” applications will be accepted.
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Past nominees may re-apply if they wish!
What makes a strong application for this fellowship?
The award is intended to celebrate and enhance the achievements of past Projects for Peace grantees. The ideal nominee is an individual who has demonstrated a passionate commitment in building peace and transforming conflict throughout their career and is someone whose future work would be significantly impacted by the award. Projects for Peace expects the nominees, as a group, will represent a range of disciplines and approaches to peacebuilding and conflict transformation; they do not expect that an individual’s current interest area is necessarily related to the focus of their original Project for Peace.
The official Projects for Peace Alumni Award review committee seeks to recognize an individual who has demonstrated sustained contributions to the field of peacebuilding and conflict transformation and who has charted a clear path forward for future impact. General selection criteria include:
- Evidence of an enduring commitment, over time, to peacebuilding and conflict transformation. Applicants need not be working on the same issues or using the same approaches as their original Project for Peace.
- Evidence of an enduring commitment, over time, to community engagement as well as public sharing of their actions and impact.
- Evidence of an enduring commitment, over time, to innovation and creativity in approaches to peacebuilding and conflict transformation in their field.
- The clarity with which the applicant articulates how conflict transformation integrates with their peacebuilding approach.
- Evidence of productive engagement with conflicts that may underlie targeted issues. Conflict transformation moves from destructive “us versus them” dynamics to patterns of constructive engagement, understanding and problem-solving.
- Evidence of critical reflection on progress to date, and consideration of how their work could be expanded and/or revised in the future.
- Potential impact of the award funds to accelerate or expand the awardee’s vision.
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Regardless of their citizenship, at Wellesley applicants must adhere to Wellesley's travel policy for students and graduates. (Questions may be referred to fellowships@wellesley.edu.)
How do I apply?
- All Wellesley College candidates for the Projects for Peace program must undergo the Wellesley College campus review and nomination process. Wellesley may nominate up to two candidates each year to go forward to the national competition.
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Regardless of their citizenship, applicants must adhere to Wellesley's travel policy for students and graduates. (Questions may be referred to fellowships@wellesley.edu. We're glad to talk over any concerns you may have.)
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See the application checklist and timeline for details of application materials.
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Interested applicants are warmly encouraged to book a Fellowships advising appointment through Handshake, to talk with a member of the Fellowships team. (Cannot find an available appointment? Drop by Fellowships Pop-Up Advising: no appointment required; see our Events listings for details.)
Application checklist
Please submit these materials via this form (or email to fellowships@wellesley.edu):
☐ Completed application in accordance with the official instructions here, being sure to adhere to the official Projects for Peace formatting and other instructions.
☐ Completed numerical budget as an Excel sheet (see official instructions, above).
☐ Resume/CV as a PDF.
☐ Your original Projects for Peace Proposal and Final Report.
☐ Candidate Release & Signature (see official instructions, above).
☐ Wellesley Fellowships office signature document (please print, sign & date this form, then submit a scanned pdf or other image of the signed document along with your application materials)
☐ Please also request that 2 people write letters of reference: both of them should be willing and able to speak to your peacebuilding efforts. For example, they may be project collaborators, course instructors, workplace supervisors, etc. Please give your recommenders this link to support their letters; should they encounter any difficulty, they may email letters to fellowships@wellesley.edu.
Application timeline
fall
Application information shared with partner institutions.
Campus Deadline: 12:00 pm (noon) EST on January 23, 2025
Applications should be submitted for Wellesley’s nomination. Wellesley may nominate no more than at most two candidates each year.
Beginning of March
Nominee(s) materials forwarded to the official Projects for Peace Alumni Award selection committee.
April
Finalists will be interviewed, and may be asked to submit additional information.
June
The one Awardee will be announced. (Unlike the Summer Projects for Peace, there is not one awardee per institution, but a single overall awardee.)
Questions?
Email fellowships@wellesley.edu or call Caitlin Roberts-Donovan at 781.283.2347.
