November 28th, 2024 marked the first University of Prince Edward Island Pathways to Peace day hosted by the students of PSYC 4320 The Psychology of Good & Evil in beautiful Charlottetown, PEI, Canada. These 18 undergraduate students spent half of the semester learning about peace in partnership with the Mattie Stepanek Peace Foundation and chose to bring this powerful peace message to their campus with assistance from Mattie Stepanek Peace Foundation VP Stacey MacKinnon and Peace Ambassador Ireland MacKinnon.
Over 250 students, faculty, staff, administrators and toddlers from the campus daycare attended over three hours and engaged in four different peace stations:
The first station on our pathway to peace involved attendees exploring who we are individually and collectively at UPEI. Check out our brief “I Am” video on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DC5JFMpuXnM/utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
From here, we created a 4’x8’ mosaic built from attendees answer to the prompt “I am…” . This art piece which includes contributions from the campus daycare toddlers to UPEI VP Greg Naterer (pictured here with some of the PSYC 4320 students, Foundation VP Dr. Stacey MacKinnon, and Peace Ambassador Ireland MacKinnon) will be displayed on campus in early 2025.
The second step on our pathway to Peace involved remembering to play after every storm. In this Intergenerational area, we returned to the simple joys of childhood with arts and crafts, face painting, and story time for children of the campus daycare. We also had resources prepared by last year’s PSYC 4320 students which can be used to guide adults to play after every storm.
The third step on our pathway to peace reminded us of the importance of fulfilling the basic needs not only of ourselves, but of others as well. We served coffee and hot chocolate courtesy of the UPEI Fox and Crow restaurant, had UV lights to try out, curated playlists for relaxing music, website suggestions for meditation and relaxation, and lavender “seeds of peace” supplied by Red Island Floral Farm. We will collected donations of 200+lbs of food for the Campus Food Bank, seven winter parkas for the Student Union Coat Drive, and six bags of books for the Faculty of Nursing Mental Health book drive!
Our final step on the pathway to peace resonated with the message “Peace is a choice”. This station included a variety of resources created by this year’s students as well as those who created educational materials for the Foundation in last year’s PSYC 4320 class and a draw for a self-care bag. The students’ collection of peace quotes became a “Take What You Need” feature so people could remind themselves to choose peace. This interactive display will be finding a new permanent home on campus in early 2025.
Congratulations to the students of UPEI 4320 Psychology of Good and Evil and thank you to our sponsers and most especially the Mattie Stepanek Peace Foundation for their support of our first Peace Day in Canada!