By EBELE ORAKPO

Students of the American University of Nigeria and Earlham College in Indiana,  USA, are participating in a joint course on Peace Journalism for the 2014 spring semester.

The course is a project of the Global Liberal Arts Alliance (GLAA), an organisation of 25 colleges and universities in 13 countries, dedicated to strengthening liberal arts and science education through the exchange of experience and the development of mutually beneficial programs.

A release made available to Vanguard Learning and signedby Mr. Daniel Okereke, AUN’s spokesperson, stated that the collaboration which is first of its kind for AUN, will see AUN’s writing for the Mass Media students working in collaboration with Peace Journalism students at Earlham College, to cover stories on minority rights and youth disenfranchisement in Nigeria and the US.

“The final written projects, which the students will jointly produce, will serve as their examinations for the semester and will be published online,” said the release, adding: “The stories, which are focused principally on youth disenfranchisement and insurgency, as well as on minority rights, will reflect elements of Peace Journalism from the Earlham end and news story-telling from the AUN students.”

“The goal of the project is to create international reporting groups to work on stories about  lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights or violence by young people,” said Dr. Judi Hetrick, professor of the Peace Journalism class at Earlham, expressing her excitement about the collaboration and noted that via Facebook, students can meet and share interests from their homes.

GLAA,  founded by The Great Lakes Colleges Association with funding from the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation seeks to, through this collaboration, to draw on the tools of social media to expand the classroom and enable international collaboration between students across borders.

The joint project, expected to pioneer several other joint projects between universities globally under the umbrella of the GLAA, has the backing of AUN’s President Margee Ensign, Academic Vice- President (Provost) Charles Reith, and Dean, Idorenyin Akpan.

For Dr. Jacob Udo-Udo Jacob, the professor in charge of the AUN class, AUN is a “light bearer in a region blighted by insecurity, underdevelopment, and a large unemployed and disenfranchised youth population.”
He said the collaboration will inspire students to think more broadly, and to see journalism as a tool for conflict transformation as well as development.

Describing the project as a “most creative work,” Senior Program Officer of the Great Lakes Colleges Association, Joyce Budai,  congratulated
Dr. Jacob, Dr. Hetrick and the participating students.