Photo: Boston University
In 2009, Carl Hobert and his Boston University class visited Harlem Renaissance High School to talk conflict resolution with the school’s teens. Recently, he says, he has been researching delivery systems for work in Rwanda.
These are unusual times. For example, when we started getting our groceries brought to the house, we had a surprising conversation with our first delivery man (at a safe six-foot distance, of course). He said he was on leave from Boston University (BU) and was researching delivery systems for his work in Rwanda. He gave us his card (also at a safe distance) and offered to pick up items if the market’s online ordering was overloaded.
I was interested about Rwanda because I know someone else who does work there, and I went online to read about him.
From a BU post about a Global Literacy Institute: “Carl Hobert is a clinical instructor at the Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development. He holds a BA cum laude in French and Political Science from Middlebury College, and an MA in Spanish from Middlebury College. He also holds a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Tufts University Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. His book, Raising Global IQ: Preparing Our Students for a Shrinking Planet (Beacon Press), came out in 2013.” More here.
There was also this from 2009: “Lively apprentices of what Hobert, a visiting scholar and School of Education lecturer, calls preventive diplomacy, [students] are combining a rigorous, nuanced understanding of current events with the guiding principles of conflict resolution. Like countless dogged young optimists, these students, most majoring in international relations or education, believe a peaceful future is within reach.
“Hobert is the founder and executive director of the nonprofit Axis of Hope Center for International Conflict Management and Prevention, and under its umbrella, the students’ focus to get to that future is not governments but children and teens. …
“Hobert’s homework assignments focus students outward, locally to globally. They need to know in scholarly detail what is happening right now in every conflict zone from Somalia to Honduras by close daily readings of the Boston Globe, the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, and Foreign Affairs. ..
“As students cultivate a global awareness, they engage in case studies that zoom in on conflicts, designed to illuminate the cornerstones of Hobert’s preventive diplomacy: the power of listening, mutual respect, negotiation, and compromise. …
“Most recently at the Harlem Renaissance High School in New York City, Hobert’s protégés [guided] school groups through the case study workshops refined in their BU class.” More.
And there was a MetroWest newspaper article from 2016: “A local resident says he is preparing to move to Rwanda where he hopes to attract high school students from around the world to an independent school in the African country.
“Carl Hobert, a Boston University professor who lives in Wayland, strives to raise students’ global awareness. He said he tries to teach them about conflict resolution through case studies that emphasize the importance of understanding different perspectives.
“Ultimately, students are ‘learning how to get along,’ said Hobert, who has been tapped to be assistant headmaster as well as director of the upper school at Rwanda’s Green Hills Academy.
“Hobert brings Rwandan experience, including taking youngsters to visit a Rwandan orphanage and bringing his conflict resolution expertise to the country. … The school currently includes Rwandan children and children whose families have moved there to take part in new investment in infrastructure and buildings, Hobert said. …
“His work at Green Hills Academy will include creating a high school boarding program for students from around the world, teaching international conflict resolution and overseeing the creation of a service learning program, according to a press release. …
“Hobert said students will come to a country that was once torn apart by genocide. They’ll see peace and stability and learn ‘that it can be done.’ ” More.
Oh, my, so many noble efforts on hold these days while we deal with the way things are!
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