Photo by Ashley Kelley
On Sept. 19, UNF held its third annual International Day of Peace celebration at the Student Union. The main goal through this event was to raise awareness for the need for world peace.
The Osprey Women’s and Men’s Chorus performed first. They were followed by students of the English Language Program (ELP), who sang “Imagine” by John Lennon.
As the ELP performed, other students held up signs and represented a total of 24 nations.
After the performances, Dr. David Fenner, professor of philosophy and Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences, gave a brief speech. He spoke about the importance of peace and how we can achieve it.
Photo by Ashley Kelley
“It was very gratifying that the audience was mostly students. That was wonderful,” Fenner said in an interview after his speech.
Oupa Seane, Director of the Intercultural Center for Peace (ICP), said he enjoyed an analogy Fenner used during his speech.
“Can you imagine if our world only had one kind of flower? It would be a boring world,” Seane said. He compared this to being culturally diverse and said that it is beautiful.
“It’s like pretending that we can survive without food, water or air. We have to have peace as a context to survival,” Fenner said.
Stephanie Armstrong, psychology junior and PR Chairperson of the African American Student Union, said her favorite part of the celebration was when students from the ELP sang. She said she didn’t realize that so many different nationalities were represented.
“As a people, we should all definitely put all of our disagreements aside and come together. Life is short and bad things happen all the time. We should enjoy our time together while we still have it,” Armstrong said.
The original date for the International Day of Peace was Sept. 21, but the ICP wanted to do it on a weekday so more students would have the opportunity to attend.
This event was sponsored by the ICP, LGBT Resource Center, Women’s Center, Club Alliance, English Language Program, Interfaith Center and Equal Opportunity and Diversity.
Email Rebecca Rodriguez at reporter33@unfspinnaker.com
