Blog

Northern Ireland’s Maureen Hetherington meets with CGO

jerilynn

Screen Shot 2015-03-25 at 10.56.47 AMMaureen Hetherington , founder and director of the Northern Ireland’s peace building program, The Junction: Towards Understanding and Healing, visited the CGO in Winter Quarter 2015.

“Peace building is an activity that is both deeply personal and which requires a commitment to work for the highest good. Our traditional value and belief systems thus need to be challenged if we are to become truly compassionate and respectful to all peoples, all living things and our planet”

– Maureen Hetherington

Ms. Hetherington spent her time at the University of Oregon speaking to classes, lecturing, and meeting with faculty and students. She sat down with the students of the CGO for an hour before dinner and discussed her lifelong efforts towards peace building in Northern Ireland through story. CGO students asked her many questions, ranging from the ethics of storytelling to asking what life was like in Northern Ireland.

Over dinner with the CGO students at the Carson Dining Hall, Ms. Hetherington led an activity that encouraged the students to tell each other three stories– stories that were part of who they were as individuals today. She asked them to consider what would happen if someone took one, tow, or three of those stories away. What is left if you cannot tell your own story?

Screen Shot 2015-03-25 at 10.57.56 AM

Telling stories is exactly what Ms. Hetherington encourages. She developed a successful methodology of ‘storytelling and positive encounter dialogue’ to catalyze healing and transformation in post-conflict societies. As the Junction website observes,  Ms. Hetherington’s
“work includes Ethical and Shared Remembering, creating a framework and guiding principles for new and innovative practice to deal with old problems.” The key to peace building through Ms. Hetherington’s eyes is the creation of spaces for the sharing of our unique stories.

In this Youtube video, Maureen Hetherington explores what remembering means ethically in terms of individual and community stories and walking through history together at the grassroots:

To learn more about Northern Ireland and Ms. Hetherington’s organization, visit the Junction:  http://www.thejunction-ni.org

 

Dr. Jason Younker of the Coquille Nation shares a meal with the CGO

jerilynn

Screen Shot 2015-03-24 at 10.39.59 AMDuring Winter Quarter 2015, Dr. Jason Younker, Assistant Vice President and Advisor to the President on Sovereignty and Government to Government Relations, spoke with the CGO and shared a meal in the Carson Dining Hall. Dr. Younker is a member the Coquille Nation, the president of the Association of Indigenous Anthropologists, has a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Oregon, and came previously from the department of sociology and anthropology at Rochester Institute of Technology where he served as a tenured associate professor and chair of the department.

Dr. Younker spoke passionately about his own youth, the various places he worked (including playing baseball for the Toronto Blue Jays!), lived, and built community before coming to the University of Oregon, and the future he dreams of for the Coquille Nation. Dr. Younker is very proud to be part of the University of Oregon community, and discussed how UO is one of very few universities in the country—and the only one in the PAC 12—to permanently fly the nine flags representing all nine Oregon tribal nations on campus. The nine flagpoles are placed in a circle at the heart of campus, reminding students of the significance of Oregon’s tribes.

Screen Shot 2015-03-24 at 10.44.20 AMChloe B., a CGO student, wrote after Dr. Younker’s visit: “I enjoyed the change up and was happy our guest had many interesting things to share. Sometimes it is important for our group to just listen and take in the experiences of different communities that surround us. In order to grow our own ethical code, we need to be educated, and I think our guest did a great job on giving us a general background on the Coquille tribe. I was very interested in learning more about the Coquille tribe.”

 

Screen Shot 2015-03-24 at 10.44.48 AMDr. Younker stressed that he would like to see ALL CGO members and students from the University of Oregon at the annual University of Oregon Mother’s Day Powwow at the Many Nations Longhouse.

More information about Dr. Younker’s tribe can be found at: http://www.coquilletribe.org/

 

Senior CGO students gather to share food and discuss future

jerilynn

CGO Senoritas

 

Photo by Jan Blackman Raether‎

On Sunday, November 23, 2014, CGO senior members gathered together to share food and discuss what life after college might look like. Members discussed a wide range of options, from Peace Corps and graduate school to working on fishing boats in Alaska. Members offered several excellent resources, including:

http://www.idealist.org

http://reliefweb.int

http://www.opportunityknocks.org

http://www.devnetjobs.org

http://philanthropynewsdigest.org/jobs

http://givetogetjobs.com/index.php

http://nextbillion.net/jobsfeed.aspx

A New Cohort Joins the Community

Jan

The beginning of the new academic year at the University of Oregon means a new beginning for the Carnegie Global Oregon Learning Community. This year the CGO welcomes 22 new students to the community. The so-called “17s” have been interacting and getting to know one another over the course of the summer, but their arrival to the University of Oregon campus marks the official beginning of their first year in the program.

Students moved in over the course of the day, setting up their rooms, meeting one another in person, and hugging family and friends goodbye before coming together in the evening to share a special meal. Before the meal, however, students took part in several activities meant to acclimate students to one another, the staff, and the program. Students were given the opportunity to share a bit about themselves and their expectations of college. This year’s cohort, more so than in years past, comes from a wide range of places across the continental United States. The 17s have added the first Coloradans, Virginians, and Texans to the cohort, all welcome additions.

In the days following the first activity and meal, students have spent a lot of time with one another and with the Global Oregon staff. While many of the meetings are academic in nature, others are more about fostering community and relaxing. The traditional cake decorating contest gave 17s an opportunity to meet students from previous years and different cohorts. Students were split in to five groups, were given a cake and copious amounts of icing and food coloring. The goal was to create a themed cake to be shared with the rest of the community, to be eaten later. Community was a common thread in several of the cakes, a testament to the rapid development of friendships within the Carnegie Global Oregon Community.

Saturday marked the last meeting before the fall term launched. Students from all cohorts, friends, and staff met with Whitey Lueck, a local instructor with a passion for trees, sustainability, and the outdoors. Whitey gave a tour of the University of Oregon campus and spent time talking about various trees, but also about the history of the campus. At the close of the tour Whitey shared his inspiring personal story of ethics and morals, an eye opening story and lifestyle which the majority of students had not been aware of.

As the week comes to a close we could not be more thrilled about the fantastic beginning we have had and we look forward to furthering our discussions, and deepening our connections as a learning community.

Mark Hackett CEO Operation Broken Silence

ccarolan

by Erin Willahan

This past Fall term, CGO students Christine Mathew and Erin Willahan became involved with the University of Oregon initiative: Genocide and Mass Atrocities Responsibility to Prevent. They were appointed to the steering committee charged with the task of bringing speakers and activists to campus to inspire and inform students and the community about human rights issues globally. In January, the committee invited founder and CEO of Operation Broken Silence (OBS), Mark Hackett to come to the UO. OBS is a human rights organization that seeks to utilize multimedia in combating mass atrocities. It is currently focused on ending the genocide occurring in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan.

As part of his visit to Eugene, Mark Hackett spent an evening with the CGO discussing his work in the Nuba Mountains, his organization, and his documentary “Across the Frontlines” Ending the Nuba Genocide.” After interacting with Mr. Hackett, Christine and Erin drafted a proposal to the initiative steering committee seeking support in attending the Sudan Emergency Action Summit in Washington D.C. in March in order to more actively engage in the issue. The committee unanimously approved their proposal and they were accompanied by genocide scholar Dr. Paul Slovic as representatives of the UO at the summit. While there, they learned more about the conflict and possible resolutions and heard from a diverse array of perspectives including that of countless Sudanese refugees. They also participated in lobbying Congress to support more U.S. involvement in ending the genocide and mass atrocities occurring in Sudan.

 

 

Brian Dougherty M.B.E.

ccarolan

On Wednesday February 20th the CGO welcomed Brian Dougherty to our weekly class. Brian is the Director of St. Columb’s Park House in Derry / Londonderry Northern Ireland . St. Columb’s Park House seeks to contribute to peace-building and social inclusion in Northern Ireland through a range of programs that promote civic participation, human rights, and democratic pluralism. Brian was visiting the United States on a Winston Churchill Traveling fellowship to learn about community organizations in the United States.

Brian discussed his work with young people in Northern Ireland,  including young members of political parties. As a result of this work Brian received a Master of the British Empire award from Queen Elizabeth II of England, who he met in person. He shared with us some stories about his day at Buckingham Palace and his time with the Queen.

Ira R. Byock, MD: Mortality, Morality, and the Meaning of Life. Negina Pirzad CGO 16

ccarolan

 Dr. Ira Byock visited the University of Oregon on January 24th to talk about understanding and dealing with the human condition. His lecture contributed to CGO’s talks on ethics considering how physicians are regularly faced with dilemmas when treating their patients. One major topic of concern is assisted suicide and whether it is ethical for doctors and nurses to perform it.

Ira focused on palliative care and how it is not the same as assisted suicide. As a doctor himself, Byock explained that for him, “Preserving life is the ultimate goal.” When faced with a patient who wants to end his or her life as quickly and as painless as possible, should a doctor help make that a reality? Should euthanasia be legal in the United States?

Byock went into how a common Western mechanism is to deny the obvious and suppress the idea of death. Patients who have this sort of mindset have countless opportunities when at the end of life. Ira listed off items that people should do at this time including resolving relationships, reviewing life and exploring its meaning, and going into the spiritual realm of life. He believes that people should “Live in the light of death.”

Lecturing to a city that has proven to stand very liberal with the topic of assisted suicide, Ira was the minority that evening in Eugene. The question still floats around in our heads: is it ethical for a doctor to end one’s life, instead of allowing for nature to take its course?