Slevin Award Recipients
The Slevin Award is presented to a senior student in the Program on Justice and Peace who displays “academic excellence and commitment to social justice.” It is named in honor of Professor James F. Slevin, who was Acting Director of the Program on Justice and Peace from 2000 to 2002. Professor Slevin began teaching at Georgetown University in 1975 and was a prominent figure in the creation of the University's Program on Justice and Peace and the Center for Social Justice, Teaching and Research.
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Class of 2012
Marisa Edmonds
As an American Studies major with a minor in Justice and Peace Studies, Marisa Edmonds enjoyed Georgetown’s multiple opportunities for academic engagement with the local DC community, particularly with regard to faith and education issues. As a student, Marisa sought to integrate a commitment to social justice into her college experience, from the classroom to extracurricular activities. Her involvements on campus included service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega, the ESCAPE Retreat Program, Alternative Spring Break, and the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. Beyond the hilltop, she has studied and traveled in a variety of locales from Beijing to Beirut. In the local community, Marisa’s work as a member of the DC Public Schools Human Capital Team solidified her commitment to addressing what she sees as the most challenging JUPS issue today, educational inequity. After graduation, Marisa will be teaching early childhood education in Memphis, Tennessee as a Teach For America corps member.
Marisa teaching an English lesson in Alanya, Turkey, while abroad in Fall 2010.
Class of 2011
Danielle LoVallo Vermeer
Danielle majored in International Politics and Law and received Certificates in Justice & Peace Studies and Russian, Eurasian, & East European Studies in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown. While at Georgetown, Danielle was active in many academic and extracurricular groups, such as Take Back the Night (TBtN), Students Stopping the Trafficking of People (SSTOP), The Vagina Monologues, and faith-based groups. After graduation, Danielle began working at a philanthropic consulting firm in Chicago, Illinois, conducting analysis and research for family, institutional, and corporate foundations on a variety of social justice issues such as environmental conservation, corporate social responsibility, and violence prevention.
In the picture below, Danielle is shown doing the most feminist thing she has ever done: get married. In June 2011, Danielle and her husband Mike were married in Chicago, Illinois. As part of this new union, the two decided to reject patriarchy ("Mr. and Mrs. Hisfirstname Hislastname"), discern last name options, and ultimately forge a new tradition as husband and wife: they chose a completely new name.
Mimi Ko
Mimi majored in Sociology and double minored in Chinese and Justice and Peace Studies in the College. In May 2011, she was the first in her family to graduate from college. As a 2011-2013 Teach for China (TFC) fellow, she is part of the first cohort of teachers to be deployed to teach in Guangdong. She completed six weeks of summer training in Yunnan. Since September, Mimi has been teaching 112 fifth graders English and music at Shenxi Elementary School in Shantou. Her interest in social justice work and youth in education began with her own life story of growing up in an underserved community and a first generation Chinese-American household. Throughout high school, she participated in Legal Outreach, Inc., a college bound program that highly emphasized the importance of higher education. Mimi’s dedicated time during her college years as a tutor for the DC Schools Project and was involved in various education-focused programs. When she completed her JUPS thesis and further realized the disparities of living conditions in different parts of the world, she was inspired to join TFC and its efforts to address educational inequality.
Class of 2010
Christy Darr
Christy studied Psychology and Justice and Peace in the College and graduated in May 2010. Through the JUPS service learning requirement, she began working with Little Friends for Peace (LFFP), teaching skills of peace to children. She studied abroad with Casa de la Solidaridad at the University of Central America in El Salvador, attending classes three days a week and working in an impoverished urban community two days a week. Between her work with LFFP and Casa, she was inspired to write a Peace Education Curriculum for Elementary School Children in El Salvador (which affectionately come to be known as "The Peace Train Class") for her JUPS thesis. After Christy graduated, she returned to El Salvador for a year and had the opportunity to further develop and teach her curriculum at Centro Arte para la Paz in Suchitoto. She is currently teaching Spanish in Connecticut and working with LFFP to publish the Peace Train Curriculum.
Brittany Schulman
Brittany graduated from the Walsh School of Foreign Service in May 2010. Currently, she is a second-year law school at the University of Pennsylvania. Brittany spent summer 2011 interning with HIAS Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where she engaged in a variety of legal aid work for immigrants. It was a wonderful experience and an outcome of her JUPS thesis, which first sparked her interest in immigration law. As of yet, Brittany is unsure what the future will hold, but she knows that her interest in Justice and Peace Studies will be reflected in whatever law career she pursues.
Brittany Shulman at the Justice and Peace Senior Lunch (May 2010) with her thesis advisor, Professor Lauve Steenhuisen.
