Rotary International encompasses many more venues and efforts than you might be aware of. The Rotary Peace Center is one such example.

The master’s degree-level program, headquartered in Uppsala University in Uppsala, Sweden, recently graduated a class of nine young professionals who had completed the two-year course of training, study, and practice in peace building and conflict resolution.

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“Uppsala has prepared us to meet the headwinds of today’s winds of madness.”

— Krystal Renschler, a Peace Fellow from Canada

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The Rotary Peace Fellows joined 30 other students at a graduation ceremony in the town’s medieval cathedral attended by friends, relatives, host families, and members of the local Rotary clubs. The Peace Fellows’ studies were supported by The Rotary Foundation, and a lineup of Rotary clubs and individual members. A U.S. student, Kate Lonergan, was honored with the department’s Mats Hammarström Prize for “Outstanding Essay in Peace & Conflict Studies.”

Although the Uppsala class is the latest to graduate, it is not the only one. Each year, Rotary selects up to 100 individuals from around the world to receive fully-funded academic fellowships at one of its peace centers. The fellowships cover tuition and fees, room and board, round-trip transportation, and all internship and field study expenses.

In just over a decade, the Rotary Peace Centers have trained more than 900 fellows for careers in peace building. Many of them go on to serve as leaders in national governments, NGOs (non-government organizations), the military, law enforcement, and such international organizations as the United Nations and the World Bank.

It offers master’s degree fellowships at premier universities in fields related to peace and conflict prevention and resolution. Programs last 15 to 24 months and require a practical internship of two to three months during the academic break. The institutions involved (fact sheets, further information, and application information on each are available here):

• Duke University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• International Christian University, Japan
• University of Bradford, England
• University of Queensland, Australia
• Uppsala University, Sweden

If you know any young professionals interested in this field, you can point them to the Rotary Peace Centers’ Facebook page to get current activity information.

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