Program on Justice and Peace

Students who are intending to complete a minor or certificate in the Program on Justice and Peace are required to complete a thesis. This year's topics range from nonviolent action in Appalachia to education for HIV/AIDS prevention to independence movements in sub-Saharan Africa. Here are short introductions to our seniors and their projects.

Isabel Aguirre-Kelly

My name is Isabel Aguirre-Kelly and I am an English major and JUPS and Government minor. I am a member of the women's rowing team and Grassroot Hoyas, a group that does HIV/AIDS education in underprivileged schools across DC. I am looking forward to spending senior year exploring those themes of education and HIV/AIDS prevention through my Justice and Peace thesis.

Emily Clark

I am a Government major with a commitment to social justice and human rights. I have a regional interest in Sub-Saharan Africa and will focus much of my efforts in the JUPS program this year investigating the issue of conflict minerals in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. When I am not at school, there's nothing better than being with my family in Connecticut, or watching a good movie. I have had a passion for animals for as long as I can remember, and have a special place in my heart for my miniature dachshund, Lucy!

Marisa Edmonds

Marisa Edmonds, Georgetown College 2012, is an American Studies major and a Justice and Peace minor. She hails from Short Beach, CT, and has enjoyed immersion in justice and peace issues beyond the classroom during her time at Georgetown through involvement with various organizations in DC and during a semester abroad in Turkey. On campus, Marisa is involved with the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and community service fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega, in addition to serving as a leader for the ESCAPE retreat program and Alternative Spring Break. Marisa’s main focuses are education and marginalized residents of DC, passions fueled by her work with the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor and the District of Columbia Public Schools.

Jan Gaetjens 

Jan Gaetjens is a sociology major from Washington, DC. He is a diehard area sports fan and hosts a weekly sports talk show, Offseason Champs, on Georgetown Radio in addition to co-captaining the university’s Mixed Martial Arts Club. Jan channeled this love of sports into a senior thesis about the positive transformative power of sports in post-colonial societies. Inspired especially by his Guyanese grandfather’s love of cricket, Jan will be dedicating his thesis to exploring the cooptation of cricket in the West Indies as a means of furthering regional self-determination.

Abigail Golledge

My name is Abigail (Abbi) Golledge and I am a senior in the College studying Government with a minor in Justice and Peace Studies. I found my passion for Justice and Peace Studies while living in Ghana and studying abroad in South Africa, and have been very thankful for how strong Georgetown University’s program has been. I am writing my senior thesis on human trafficking in Washington, DC and I hope to incorporate my studies in the field of Justice and Peace into a future career.

While in Ghana I started an organization called Crayons for Kids, which was a partnership with my hometown in Masachusetts. In this photo I am handing out the crayons and paper to children in northern Ghana.

Emi Koch

Emi Koch is in her last year at Georgetown University studying Psychology and Justice and Peace Studies. She is also the founder and director of Beyond the Surface International, a 501c3 charity which sponsors three nongovernmental organizations that promote surfing opportunities to disadvantaged or disenfranchised children and have had positive effects on communities by offering alternatives to negative coping mechanisms for these children that can lead to drug addiction, HIV/AIDS infection, criminal activity, and chronic illiteracy and poor education. Emi is on a mission to use surfing as her passion to be implemented into well-founded nonprofits in coastal regions worldwide as a highly effective tool to assimilate underprivileged, homeless, and orphaned children into society to strengthen and create communities, and promote social justice and peace.

Diana Kolar

Diana Kolar is a senior in the McDonough School of Business
(represent!) pursuing a Finance major with a double minor in Spanish and Justice and Peace Studies. Inspired by the financial volunteering that she did with the Little Friends for Peace Program at the Perry School in conjunction with the JUPS introductory course, Diana hopes to add community-based learning components to undergraduate business school courses at Georgetown. When not convincing people that finance majors really can care about justice and peace, Diana can be found singing with the Georgetown GraceNotes a cappella group, rocking out with the Cabaret student band and touring prospective students around campus with Blue & Gray.
 

Kalli Krumpos

I am majoring in psychology and English with a JUPS minor. My JUPS thesis will be an analysis of the effects of explanatory styles of the non-violent independence movements of Ghana, Nigeria and Zambia after World War II. My JUPS inspirations include Paolo Freire, Dave Eggers, Flavia Lake Okello, and Andria Wisler.

Meaghan LeMay

My name is Meaghan LeMay and I am a Psychology and Spanish major with a minor in Justice and Peace Studies. I spent an amazing summer abroad in Quito, Ecuador where I studied race, gender and ethnicity in Latin America. I hope to travel more in this region in the next few years. I am currently the president of Students Stopping the Trafficking of People, an anti-slavery group here on Georgetown campus and my thesis examines human trafficking evaluations such as the Trafficking in Persons report put forth by the USDS.

Hannah Lomax-Vogt

Hannah Lomax-Vogt (COL, '12) is originally from Ohio. Along with her JUPS minor, she is pursuing a Government major. She is an Alternative Spring Break in Appalachia trip leader, and in the summers she works for Appalachia Service Project, a non-profit, home repair organization in central Appalachia. She has also volunteered at LIFT-DC and been a member of the GU College Democrats elected board, a member of the Chapel Choir, and a member of the GU Pep Band. This year, she is writing a JUPS thesis about nonviolent action in Appalachia, particularly action against corporations. After she graduates, she plans to work for AmeriCorps or the Jesuit Volunteer Corps for a year or two before continuing her education.

Ianthe Metzger

A senior in the Georgetown College, Ianthe Metzger is pursuing a major in Anthropology with her Justice and Peace Studies Certificate. Her participation in the Worker Justice DC Alternative Spring Break Trip in 2010 and subsequent involvement with the Restaurant Opportunities Center in DC (a non-profit that advocates for workers' rights), peaked her interest in the intersection of outreach and worker justice. For her thesis Ianthe seeks to explore how different models of labour organizing impact workers sense of authority both in and outside of the work place. At Georgetown Ianthe is actively involved with the Senior Class Committee, Alternative Spring Break, DC Schools Project and the Women Advancing Gender Equality (WAGE) Fellows.

Arianna Pattek

I am a senior in the School of Foreign Service pursuing a major in Culture and Politics, with a thematic concentration in Genocide, Trauma, and Marginalization. I am particularly interested in the role of education in post-conflict reconciliation and reconstruction. For my JUPS thesis, I am examining the link between the distortion of historical narratives and the perpetuation of structural violence and marginalization for historically disenfranchised groups, focusing on two case studies: Holocaust denial and the neo-confederacy movement. At Georgetown, I am involved with the First Year Orientation to Community Involvement (FOCI) program, The Corp, Alternative Spring Break, and the DC Schools Project.

Lauren Reese

Lauren Reese is a senior majoring in Sociology with minors in Justice and Peace Studies and Spanish. Based on field research conducted during her semester abroad in Jaipur, India, Lauren will be writing her thesis on the impact of the Internet on nonviolent strategy and the future opportunities for web technologies being used for civil resistance. Her thesis will include a comparative examination of the recent regime-change movement in Egypt and the Otpor! movement in Serbia that ousted Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. Outside of the classroom, Lauren is involved in theater, diversity training, and facilitating dialogue through a lens of social justice and social change.

Lauren in Varanasi, India conducting a field study project and internship with the Kiran Center, an NGO dedicated to the education and rehabilitation of children with disabilities.

Thomas Scharff

A Government major in the College, Thomas loves how Justice and Peace Studies lets him integrate his passion for social justice with his academic studies. Inspired in part by travels to Latin America, he is writing a thesis on a vision for US immigration reform guided by principles of Catholic social teaching. Thomas served as a 2011 FOCI leader, serves as an ESCAPE Retreat leader, and is co leading an Alternative Spring Break trip to Immokalee, Florida, which explores issues of migrant worker justice in the US agricultural system. At other hours, he might also be spotted serving delicious slushies and snack essentials at Hoya Snaxa.

Carly Timm-Bijold

Carly Timm-Bijold is a senior in the College majoring in Government, with accompanying minors in history and, of course, justice and peace studies! A prospective law student with interests in corporate, tax and human rights law, she hopes to ultimately pursue a career as either a lobbyist or attorney in the DC area. Within the JUPS field, Carly’s interests include human rights, the intersection of gender and politics, and international development, evidenced by her choice of senior thesis topic: the impact of gender- based cultural violence on the spread of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.

Bryan Woll

Bryan, a senior in the College from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is majoring in Economics and minoring in Government and Justice and Peace Studies. He recently returned from a semester studying abroad in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Bryan's JUPS senior thesis is a study of the relationship between community development and the condition of poor, urban American neighborhoods. At Georgetown, he has been involved in the College Democrats and the 2011 Student Life Report Committee, in addition to spending two semesters interning in the US House of Representatives. Back home, Bryan’s experience working with community organizations on neighborhood policy while serving on the staff of a member of Pittsburgh City Council helped to inspire him to pursue a thesis that looked at the challenges and opportunities facing urban America. He has also served as a tutor with DC Reads, a client advocate for LIFT-DC, a Democratic Committeeman in Pittsburgh, and the Chair of the City of Pittsburgh Youth Commission. For fun, Bryan enjoys spending time with his parents and sisters, Lauren and Carolyn, and for self-punishment, he is proud to be one of the few remaining fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates.