A
Cooley Law School professor is about to take her teaching skills to Bangkok, thanks to a $10,000 Peace Fellowship from
Rotary International.
Nancy Wonch specializes in teaching mediation—the act of solving
conflicts—to young adults and children. She will study mediation
programs in Thailand for three months and use those in her own
mediation program in Lansing. She is one of six Americans selected for
the program at
Chulalongkorn University and will earn a certificate in conflict resolution.
“Teaching mediation is important at any age, but particularly for
children because it provides them with a skill to solve problems in a
positive, socially responsible way,” Wonch writes in an e-mail.
For most youths, Wonch says their parents do most of their conflict
resolution until they are 18, so they get no real practice at it themselves. If they can develop these skills at a
young age, they will be much more adept
at solving bigger problems as they get older.
The fellowship will be Wonch’s first trip to Bangkok. She has been
teaching mediation to Lansing students since 1994, when she helped
develop the Cooley/Lansing Schools Peer Mediation Partnership, a
two-day conflict resolution program that serves about 70 Lansing
students annually.
Source: Nancy Wonch
Writer: Andy Balaskovitz
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