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The Global Peace Exchange was started in August of 2006 as a student organization at Florida State University to coordinate and expand the service-based exchange opportunities for students throughout the world.
The mission was simple enough—to create sustainable, grassroots development projects through student exchanges. The effect would be two-fold: Not only would local communities receive benefit at the grassroots level, but students would also be exposed to opportunities in the humanitarian field. GPE functions to foster the construction of a new civilization founded on mutual cooperation and understanding to support development and peace in the world.
Building upon a network of linked universities and partners, students travel and work on projects with partners in the various regions of the world. They also participate in activities to provide them with a knowledge of global issues and development ideology. The hope is that students achieve a shared understanding of the common human struggle to survive, a moral and ethical education about the issues affecting a particular area or culture, and the hope to aid in the building of a new “civilization” of humanity. The best way to achieve these goals among the youth of today lies in service, as actions will always speak louder than words.
GPE strives for sustainability in our development projects. We partner with local organizations and institutions and work with them directly to meet the needs that they describe. We are here to help our partners with their needs–not vice versa. GPE will therefore only engage in a project where our partner asks us to meet specific and actively wants to work with us. In order to achieve our standards of quality, a project must be sustainable, actively address a need, incorporate direct and constant communication with partners, utilize students as agents of change, and maintain accountability throughout its duration. Our projects generally incorporate long-term planning through the establishment of permanent resources, promotion of social enterprise, and the provision of student services, when appropriate.
We hope to provide university students with a wider range of international service opportunities than their respective universities previously offered. That is, students engage seriously in the design and execution of projects in order to provide them with hands-on service learning experiences. However, as students, we must recognize the areas in which we can be most useful and the skills we are most capable of providing to each project. Part of being responsible is acknowledging when a project surpasses our ability to contribute. Although perhaps limiting in some aspects, this does in fact maximize our ability to make a difference in the projects we do undertake and encourage students to understand themselves as well as their areas of strength and weakness.
GPE hopes to act as an avenue through which our members and volunteers can learn more about being responsible citizens of our global society. Through globalization, we recognize that the people of the world are becoming increasingly interconnected, our lives and hopes becoming further interwoven. As students are our future, it is vital that they recognize this connection. We thus hope through our local and international engagement to foster open-mindedness, critical thinking, understanding, and compassion in our members.
