Brandeis student Kira Levin, a 2012 graduate of Palmetto High School, has been awarded a coveted $10,000 Davis Projects for Peace grant for her initiative to promote world peace.
Levin’s initiative is entitled Empowering Maasai Women Through Computer Literacy and Education. Through her initiative, she will partner with Brandeis University and the International Collaborative for Science, Education and the Environment with the goal of empowering Maasai women in rural Tanzania through computer literacy and education.
Levin’s project was one of 127 student projects tapped for a Davis Projects for Peace grant. Each of them was awarded $10,000. Projects for Peace was established in 2007 by philanthropist Kathryn Davis on her 100th birthday. Until her death at 106 in 2013, Davis was intent on advancing the cause of peace and sought to motivate tomorrow’s promising leaders by challenging them to find ways to “prepare for peace.”
The Davis family decided to continue funding Projects for Peace and a spokesperson says the family is heartened by the quality and inventiveness of the projects to be undertaken in 2015. This year, motivated students submitted winning proposals that address conflict resolution and reconciliation, foster understanding, provide opportunity and help to build community.
Projects for Peace invites all undergraduates at the 91 American colleges and universities that are partners in the Davis United World College Scholars Program (see www.davisuwcscholars.org) to compete for these grants. Other participating institutions include International Houses Worldwide, the Graduate Institute in Geneva, Future Generations Graduate School, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and the University of Maine.
“Competition is keen and we congratulate those students whose projects have been selected for funding in 2015,” said Philip Geier, executive director of the Davis United World College Scholars Program that administers Projects for Peace. “We are pleased to once again help young people launch some initiatives that will bring new energy and ideas to improving the prospects for peace in the world.”
For more information, go to www.davisprojectsforpeace.org.
