Peace Studies Graduates


Yvonne Dilling Working with former refugees in rural El Salvador
Formerly director of Latin American programs, COB
Kelli Yaussy  Social work with disturbed teens, southwest side, Chicago
Rob Curry Community organizer, Cleveland
Dale Largent Community mediation center director, Bend, OR
Rebecca Kreps Social Worker, Peabody Retirement Home, N. Manchester, IN
Barry Henry CROP staff, Missouri
Perri Graham CROP staff, Minneapolis
Dennis Metzger Church World Service, Springfield, Illinois
Natalie Schmidt Brethren Volunteer Service, Catholic Worker House, Oakland, CA
Angela Yoder International Rescue Committee, Sierra Leone
 

Academic
William Faw Prof. Psychology, Vidalia, GA
Dena Pence Frantz Prof., Bethany Seminary Faculty, Richmond, IN
Celia Cook-Huffman Assoc. Prof., Conflict Resolution & Peace St., Juniata College, PA
Dan Cook-Huffman Assoc. Dean of Students, Juniata College, PA
Janie Leatherman Assoc. Prof. Pol Sci, Illinois University, Normal, IL
Shawn Kirchner Composer and Choral Dir., Professional Tenor, LaVerne (CA)
Ken Yohn Assistant Prof., Political Science, McPherson, KS
Robert McFadden Prof. of Religion, Chaplain (Rtr) Bridgewater College, VA
Al Deeter Director, Brethren Colleges Abroad (Rtr) Manchester College, IN
Robert Johansen Prof., Director Graduate P.S., Kroc Institute, U. Notre Dame, IN
Tim McElwee Plowshares Professor of Peace Studies & Director of the Peace Studies Institute, Manchester College, IN
David McFadden Vice-President Admissions and Financial Aid, Manchester C. IN
Gerald Peters Prof., Philosophy, Marana Community College, Marana, AZ
Katy Brown  Asst. Prof., Philosophy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 
Anna Snyder Assoc. Prof., Conflict Resolution, U. of Winnipeg, Canada
Grady Snyder Dean, Prof., (Rtr) Bethany Seminary, UCC, Chicago
Melanie May Academic Life, Dean of the Faculty, Colgate-Rochester Seminary 
Nevin Domer Fulbright Teaching Scholarship, South Korea
Phil West Director, Mansfield Institute for Pacific Rim Studies, U. Montana
 

Church
Wilbur Mullen Brethren Service, Greenville Home Admin. (Rtr)
Matt Guynn Nonviolence Training, On Earth Peace, New Windsor, MD
Don Flory Pastor, Paris, IL
Kristin Flory Brethren Volunteer Service Director: Europe, Geneva
Ken Rieman Pastor, Huntington, IN
Stan Rodabaugh Pastor, Dixon, IL
Deb Silver Pastoral Counselor and Episcopal Priest, Decatur, GA
Wayne Zunkel Pastor, Editor. Brethren Peace Fellowship Newsletter (Rtr)


Alumni Profiles:

Ken Yohn:

Assistant Professor of History and Politics
McPherson College

My Peace Studies major prepared me for further academic work , to become a professor. I now teach a Global Peace Studies course as a political Science offering at McPherson college. The Peace Studies degree was viewed as a major plus by the college.

Bert Schuster:

Information about career: Served 13 years as the Executive Director of an organization that provided job training and job placement services to displaced workers and low-income individuals in California. Relocated to North Carolina. Took a position as Interim Executive Director, directed grantmaking activities of intermediary organization making sub-awards for US Department of Health and Human Services to nonprofit organizations in North Carolina and Virginia. Looking for another job.

Words of wisdom for prospective students:A Peace Studies major is good for those planning to do social service-type work but won't give them much traction in some other fields. I had planned to become a minister, and it's a good preparation for that. (But I decided against the ministry. In my experience, it was important to have a B.A. to get into graduate school, but the fact that the degree was in Peace Studies was irrelevant, and in my subsequent career in government, industry, and the nonprofit sector it was neither a help nor a hindrance.)

Shawn Kirchner:








Tom Wagner

plastics molder,
GMI Composites, Inc.
Muskegon, MI

After graduating from Manchester I held a variety of jobs including construction worker, archival intern, farm hand, pastor, bookbinder and plastics molder. I've always struggled with maintaining a balance in my life between physical labor and intellectual stimulation. That ongoing issue may have been raised as much by discussions of Gandhi as it was from my own working class background. The internship at Brethren Historical Library & Archives and later the pastorate at Muskegon Church of the Brethren perhaps related most directly to my peace studies education. Five years as a pastor especially gave me oppertunities raise issues of peace, justice and social concern in Sunday school classes, sermons, church camp and one on one conversations with local youth. The pastorate also helped me hone my writing and speaking skills.

My status as a pastor brought me in contact with the larger ecumenical and civic life of the Muskegon area. It's been 10 years since I pastored a congregation. During much of that time my peace and faith activities have become more broadly vocational than gainful employment usually indicates. I also have a much larger network of folks with whom to share thoughts. I often think of my 3rd shift factory job much like artists and actors speak of a "day job". It pays the bills. Yet it also keeps me in touch with what blue collar folks are thinking and feeling.

I am serving my 3rd term on the board of directors of Muskegon County Cooperating Churches; most of that time serving as clerk and archivist. For a number of years I represented that group on the board of Westshore Dispute Resolution Center and the Muskegon Community Forum.

Since 1993 my essay series "Gleanings" has been a regular feature in MCCC's bimonthly newsletter BRANCHES. Many of these one page essays have covered issues of peace, justice, community and sustainability, among other topics of spiritual interest. Sometimes they get reprinted in other publications, like the Peace Studies Bulletin. Occasionally friends from the ecumenical community ask me to come speak to their congregations. A friend and I currently host a half hour cable TV program at Muskegon Community College titled "Global Citizen" in which we often bring on local activists to discuss global issues. Some of the topics we have covered include fair trade goods, organic foods, the media, the School of the Americas, and the Freedom of Information Act. Perhaps what I do most is make people think.

One thing about a Peace Studies major is that when people ask about my undergraduate degree I usually have the floor for a while, since many of them ask for further explaination about the discipline and Manchester's program. Maybe we'll have to do a TV program on it sometime.


Melanie A. May

Dean of Faculty and Professor of Theology
Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School

So what can you do with a peace studies degree? I think my double major in religion and peace studies raised so many profound questions that I went on to get my doctorate in religious studies, specializing in Christian theology. I now teach theology in a divinity school setting. In every course I teach I raise issues about the role of religion relative to social justice, global realities, violence/nonviolence. Most particularly, I teach a course "Religion: Making War, Making Peace." Indeed, as the years pass I find myself pulling the threads of my peace studies through more and more of what I do. I am at present at work on rethinking the classic Christian responses to war, i.e., just war, pacifism, holy war, relative to current events and shifts in the world around us, beginning with a collection of essays written in the last two years. The opportunities are endless!!


Amie Fletcher

I am moving to Auburn, Al. to attend Auburn University Ph.D program in English, where I will be a Graduate Teaching Assistant I was a double major in English and Peace Studies, and I have pretty much pursued English. However, my Peace Studies major has definitely informed my work in English. I am currently writing a thesis that examines how British and American authors imagined America and its Native American inhabitants. For each piece I write, I attempt, and hopefully succeed, at offering something to the world that is aware issues of peace and justice. I also do think that being a Peace Studies major has helped me get to where I am; I am able to offer something to programs that others may not be able to. Also, I have often tried to engage the topics I was introduced to in Peace Studies in my classes.


Dean Johnson

Assistant Dean,
Director of Plowshares
& Assistant Professor of Peace, Justice and Conflict Studies
Goshen College, Goshen, IN

I tell my students that everything in life has to do with peace studies, so no matter their career choice it will help them to have a PS degree. I have talked with most about doing non-profit, NGO-type work as well as careers in academia.*Peace Studies is a large part of my life and my calling as an educator and peacemaker are central to that. I have worked for several nonprofits, sit on several boards and committees, and have been a professor and facilitator for several years.*My degree work and experience has been very good with employers, even while I was still a student at MC. I spent one summer working for the AFSC and really got a feel for what peace work looked like.


Rachel Gross

Coordinator, Death Row Support Project
Ministry of Availability, home

Peace Studies is an excellent preparation for life in general. It hasn't helped me make any money, but if we are to achieve peace in this world, we all need to learn to live with less money.


Don Michaelson

Driver Education Instructor

Having a Peace Studies major has helped little to secure employment. Prospective employers notice only the fact that I have a B.A. degree. Having this unique degree enables me to view the world from an alternative perspective: using my volunteer time and energy, I read lots of political journals, newsletters, etc to use the information to be a citizen lobbyist for social issues such as truth in politics, environment/wildlife preservation, military spending, war/peace issues, civil liberties, economic justice, separation of church & state, etc.

Having this degree enables me to occasionally challenge a pro-military perspective and introduce the conscience-raising perspective. Having this degree demands that I be honest, have integrity and keep informed about the developments each day beyond the mass media and then take appropriate citizen action to bring peace, justice and harmony in human relationships and in communities.

This degree has prepared me for living life responsibly as a true steward of all creation and resources given me as well as treating my physical body responsibly rather than pursuing a life career. It is rare perspective in this military/consumer/worship technology American culture.


Shel Eller

As for what prospective students could do with a peace studies degree…anything. I've spent most of my career working in food service, so perhaps I've been lucky in that the specifics of my degree have never mattered to my employers. Truthfully, I think the notion that a college degree should have a direct impact on your career ideas is somewhat overrated - unless you're thinking of a career in teaching or accounting, where you need a specific type of degree. For the rest of us, it's important o get an education (which proves to employers that we can learn), study fields that interest us for our won personal enrichment, and not worry about a job. Most employers will train you for what they want - if you demonstrate qualities such as dependability, good work ethics, and willingness to learn. Most of us will change jobs several times in our lives and many people end up working in fields unrelated to what they did in college. And since a peace studies degree teaches you a lot about many different fields, it vies you an adaptability and a flexibility of thought that can only be beneficial for whatever you end up doing.

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Last Updated September 19, 2005.
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