Celebration of Blessings Archives - �� News

Celebration of Blessings sends off CJP graduates with joy and love

Ryan Cornell — Thu, 07 May 2026 22:32:38 +0000

In his welcome remarks at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding’s annual Celebration of Blessings, Kory Schaeffer MA ’24 had one final request, not of the 17 CJP graduates, but of the families, friends, and loved ones seated with them.

“When you see them pouring themselves into the work of justice and peace, and you see them giving and giving, remind them to pause, please,” Schaeffer, director of programs at CJP, said. “Remind them to rest. Remind them to seek out something joyful because this work needs them, but it needs them whole.”

The ceremony honored graduates of CJP’s master’s degree and graduate certificate programs and was held Sunday afternoon in Martin Chapel following ��’s 108th annual Commencement.

This year marks the 30th anniversary celebration of the CJP, which was co-founded and led by John Paul Lederach. His daughter, Dr. Angela Lederach, delivered the Commencement address earlier Sunday.

Graduates from ��’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding are embraced and recognized by CJP faculty and staff during the annual Celebration of Blessings in Martin Chapel on Sunday.

In the heartfelt ceremony, CJP faculty and staff members Dr. Gloria Rhodes, Amy Knorr, Dr. Paula Ditzel Facci, and Dr. Joe Cole provided words of tribute for each graduate. The following CJP graduates were recognized:

Master of Arts in Conflict Transformation

Diego Crespo Guido of Mexico City, Mexico

Jamila Gaskins of Los Angeles

Hannah Gilman of Salt Lake City

Chelsea Griffin of Flagstaff, Arizona

Leslie Meja of Nairobi, Kenya

Jacob Sankara of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

CatiAdele Slater of Upperville, Virginia

Tamera Vaughan-Drozd of Vienna, Virginia

Graduate Certificate in Conflict Transformation

Spike Coleman of Charleston, South Carolina

Devin Withrow of Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Master of Arts in Restorative Justice

Maria Arias of Viedma, Argentina

LaToya Fernandez of West Hartford, Connecticut

Sofía Garcia Pini of Buenos Aires, Argentina

Graduate Certificate in Restorative Justice

Réka Bordás-Simon of Nyíregyháza, Hungary

Mallery McShine of Fredericksburg, Virginia

Master of Arts in Transformational Leadership

Josiah Ludwick of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Tyler Stanley of Harrisonburg, Virginia

Dr. Gloria Rhodes ’88 (left) and Kory Schaeffer MA ’24 (right), co-directors of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, offer their welcome remarks.

As the graduates go out to create a more just and peaceful world, they also weave a web of connections and build an extended community of learning, Professor Dr. Gloria Rhodes ’88, academic director of CJP, said in her remarks.

“We’re a small community, and �� is a very small university,” Rhodes said. “But together, we are enormous.”

She said there are more than 23,000 �� graduates around the world, including more than 800 who have earned degrees from CJP’s master’s programs.

As a CJP alumnus, Schaeffer said he shared the graduates’ joy and quiet solidarity, as well as their sense of how much they had cared, questioned, and transformed throughout their time at CJP.

“This work was never just the books you read or the papers you wrote,” he said. “It was also the gray hairs, the tears, the tightness in your body, and the moments you questioned everything. It was the weight, literal or metaphorical, that comes with doing work that is both deeply personal and profoundly collective.”

LaToya Fernandez, an MA in restorative justice graduate, shares the journey that led her to CJP.

Conflict transformation graduates Hannah Gilman (left) and Jamila Gaskins (right) reflect on their experiences in the program.

Graduates LaToya Fernandez, Jamila Gaskins, Hannah Gilman, and Jacob Sankara shared their perspectives.

Fernandez recalled visiting Ghana a couple of years ago and experiencing something there that changed her life. “I grieved there, I left my burdens there, I cried for my ancestors,” she said. “I learned things about myself that I didn’t know.”

She left Africa with a mission to bring that sense of healing to her communities and to the United States. She had applied to another school’s restorative justice program, which offered her a full scholarship, when a friend encouraged her to learn more about CJP. “You want to go to a place that’s going to value you and all your decolonizing institution ways,” Fernandez recalled her friend telling her. “That’s exactly what happened. I came to �� and I fell in love.”

Gaskins, who spoke at ��’s Lavender Graduation two days prior, asked the crowd when they last breathed. “Not a shallow breath, the kind most of us live on, tight chest, shoulders up near our ears, but a full breath. One that goes all the way down, opens up the belly, and reminds you that you are here, present, alive.”

“So many of us are chest breathers, and I say this with love and a little humor, because chest breathing is a perfectly functional way to stay alive, but it cuts us off,” she said. “It blocks access to the richness of our emotional experience, the very experience this work demands we stay connected to. We cannot feel our way into someone else’s suffering if we are numb to our own.”

Gilman said their past two years in the program have involved real sacrifice, balancing work, family, stressful logistics, and a dream. There have been many hard moments and even some tears, but also triumphs, laughter, and joy. There were moments of fear, and they showed up anyway.

“What a unique experience it has been to do this in a place like CJP,” she said. “With faculty and staff who knew us, challenged us, believed in us, and who, bless them, gave us extensions. I’m so grateful to share this era of growth with you, this particular season of becoming, of stretching, of learning what we are made of and made for.”

Mukarabe Inandava-Makinto (right), a CJP student, her husband, Makinto GC ’26 (left), and their son, Joël Friebe-Makinto, perform the musical prelude

CJP students Virginia Maina and Kensly Cassy offer student blessings (left). Amy Knorr (right), CJP’s peacebuilding practice director, provides the graduate sending. “This is actually my favorite day of the entire year, even more than Christmas,” Knorr said. “And it’s not because summer break begins tomorrow, but because we are sending forth so many graduates who will go on to change and transform the world.”

Sankara shared that he felt two emotions when he received his acceptance to the CJP program: excitement and intimidation. “Some of my colleagues at [Mennonite Central Committee], when I was working there, had gone through the program, and they spoke about it with a kind of reverence,” he said.

Along with those emotions came real anxiety. How would Sankara, an international student from Burkina Faso, find the money to fund his studies? He said his family’s visa situation was also uncertain. “I had to make a decision to trust God and move forward, even without having all the answers, and slowly things began to unfold,” he said.

He received a helpful scholarship from CJP and support from friends and family. Eventually, his family was able to come to the United States and was there to celebrate with him on Sunday. Sankara described CJP as more than a program, calling it a community.

“When I say community, I don’t mean a group of people who simply agree with each other,” Sankara said. “I mean a space where we celebrate, laugh together, and step on each other’s feet, not once but repeatedly. But the difference is that we acknowledge it, address it, and grow through it.”

Celebration of Blessings features reflections from CJP grads

Ryan Cornell with photos by Caleb Schlabach '16 — Thu, 08 May 2025 16:28:21 +0000

The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP) at �� sent 13 graduates off into the world with words of affirmation and reflection at its annual Celebration of Blessings on Sunday, May 4, in Martin Chapel.

In the heartfelt ceremony, CJP faculty and staff members Dr. Gloria Rhodes, Amy Knorr, Dr. Joe Cole, and Dr. Catherine Barnes provided words of tribute for each graduate, expressing their feelings of love, pride, and honor. The following CJP Class of 2025 graduates were recognized:

Master of Arts in Conflict Transformation

Réka Bordás-Simon, Nyíregyháza, Hungary

Jess Cochran, Charlottesville, Virginia

Susan Hochstedler, Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania

Dorothy Maru, Eldoret, Kenya

Maybree Spilsbury, Mesa, Arizona

Getachew Temare, Harrisonburg, Virginia

Graduate Certificate in Conflict Transformation

Megan Carnice, Quantico, Virginia

Karen Chamblee, Weyers Cave, Virginia

Master of Arts in Restorative Justice

Ann Dye, Blacksburg, Virginia

Graduate Certificate in Restorative Justice

Sydney Butler, Baltimore

Jim Cole, Lebanon, Ohio

Abigail Stockman, Craftsbury Common, Vermont

Master of Arts in Transformational Leadership

Tyler Carnahan, Broadway, Virginia

Three graduates shared how their time and experiences at CJP transformed them.

Ann Dye ’25 said that being at CJP has been a life-changing experience. She recounted joining a conflict transformation course—her first college class in nearly 30 years—and feeling fear, anxiety, and discomfort. “But all throughout that first semester, I was held in patient kindness by professors who taught in a way I had never experienced before,” she said. “They engaged with curiosity, compassion, and presence, sitting with my own—and maybe a few others’—fear and confusion. They actually demonstrated the peacebuilding skills they were teaching, engaging all of us with dignity, creativity, and adaptability.”

When she began to explore the field of restorative justice, based on a professor’s recommendation, she said “it felt like finding the half of my life that had been missing.”

Susan Hochstedler ’25 began taking electives at CJP for her seminary degree program. At the time, she said, she was exhausted. She had been leading a church community through the COVID-19 pandemic and also felt weighed down by family issues and the increasing division in society. “I came to CJP because I wasn’t sure what else to do,” she said. “But I stayed because of the knowledge and the passion, the brokenness and the authenticity, and the exquisite beauty of this peacebuilding community.”

When Dorothy Maru ’25 lost her grandmother three months after arriving at ��, her entire world crumbled and she spent several months trying to make sense of it all. It wasn’t until she took a class with CJP Professor Dr. Paula Ditzel Facci that she began to see that, in the midst of her grief, there was tremendous growth. Her grandmother was “a woman of delusional faith,” Maru said, who believed in things that didn’t make much sense, “but because of how she believed in me, I had no choice but to believe in myself, too.”

“To the Class of 2025, let us go out into the world with a conviction that we are capable of creating a better world,” Maru said. “Let us apply what John Paul Lederach calls The Moral Imagination, to imagine that which doesn’t yet exist, to be delusional enough to believe that it is possible. It’s possible to demand justice, to choose peace, to create space for every voice.”

The ceremony featured a graduate slideshow created by CJP student Hannah Gilman. Katie Mansfield, CJP affiliate faculty member, opened the event with drumming. Maybree Spilsbury ’25 performed “The Swan” on cello, accompanied by Julie Spilsbury on piano. Kory Schaeffer, director of programs at CJP, delivered welcome remarks. CJP students Tabitha Roberts and Josiah Ludwick delivered the student blessings, and CJP affiliate faculty member Dr. Catherine Barnes concluded the celebration with a graduate sending.

Photos, remarks from 2024 CJP Graduation

Ryan Cornell, photos by Macson McGuigan/�� — Thu, 09 May 2024 18:32:11 +0000

The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP) at �� sent its graduates off into the world with words of praise and encouragement at its annual Celebration of Blessings on Sunday, May 5, 2024.

Scroll through the photo gallery.

Family members, friends, faculty and guests gathered at Martin Chapel to recognize the 33 graduates of CJP programs — many of whom crossed continents to attend �� — and celebrate their achievements.

The 2024 grads represent six countries — Japan, Mozambique, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, South Sudan, Ethiopia — and 14 states.

Mission and vision
The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding prepares, transforms and sustains a global community of peacebuilders through mutual learning and the integration of practice, theory and research. It envisions a just and peaceful world devoid of systemic violence and oppression.

David Brubaker, dean of the school of social sciences and professions.

Kory Schaeffer, an MA in conflict transformation graduate.

Wima Ranasinghe, an MA in conflict transformation graduate.

David Brubaker, dean of the school of social sciences and professions, who is retiring this year, opened the ceremony by sharing the three core principles of CJP culture he’s learned in his decades with the program. Those principles are that “relationships matter,” that “our students are colleagues masquerading as students,” and the importance of developing theories of change.

Three CJP 2024 graduates shared reflections of their time in the program.

Sharon McKenna, an MA in transformational leadership graduate.

Kory Schaeffer, an MA in conflict transformation graduate, who also spoke at Lavender Graduation, invited the crowd gathered at Martin Chapel to imagine the world as a tangle of threads. Imagine each person leaving a trail of thread behind them with each step and each breath, he instructed, that intersects with everyone and everything they encounter.

“Our earth is a tightly woven ball of yarn with layers 7,000 miles deep,” he said. “Amongst this giant ball of thread are bright streaks of color, the threads of peacebuilders, lovers, dreamers and healers. Weaving bright and bold and beautiful light into our threads of connection, we are remarkably beautiful people.”

Wima Ranasinghe, who traveled from Sri Lanka to earn an MA in conflict transformation, recounted meeting her classmates — her “fellow travelers” — in August 2022 for the first time. Since that first meeting, she said, they’ve enjoyed parties, sunset walks, clothing swaps, bounce house fun, hikes, coffee hours, movie nights, ping pong tournaments and basketball games together.

“Over the last 21 months, we all have become each other’s study buddies, walking buddies, weeping buddies and, sometimes, drinking buddies,” Ranasinghe said.

She expressed gratitude for her friends and to the many teachers, practitioners and supporters in CJP.

“We’ve undergone a process of learning, unlearning, and relearning, which has allowed us to see perspectives from multiple dimensions, and still, I feel it’s only a start,” she said.

Sharon McKenna, an MA in transformational leadership graduate, spoke about the difference between transformational and transactional leadership. Transactional leadership is about cost benefit, she explained, while transformational leadership is about motivation and inspiration.

“I got a bunch of prior degrees, and every one of them was transactional,” she said. “I paid for a class, I got a class. That’s not what I’ve experienced here at CJP. CJP has been truly transformational for me.”

CJP Class of 2024 Graduates

Master of Arts in Conflict Transformation
Moe Arakawa, Tochigi, Japan
Jessica Chisholm, Collinsville, Mississippi
Zua Companhia, Beira, Mozambique
Katie Corbit, Harrisonburg, Virginia
Shashi De Silva, Ambalangoda, Sri Lanka
Anna Dovbyk, Kyiv, Ukraine
Yolanda Emedi, Des Moines, Iowa
Olivia Hazelton, Philomath, Oregon
Mahboube Hosseinzadeh, Harrisonburg, Virginia
Stella Kayenga, Harrisonburg, Virginia
Felix Kayiranga, Epworth, Iowa
Ishtiaq Khan, Rockingham, Virginia
Philip Krabill, Elkhart, Indiana
David Kuany, Juba, South Sudan
Onyx Myanda, Harrisonburg, Virginia
Wima Ranasinghe, Narammala, Sri Lanka
Kory Schaeffer, Harrisonburg, Virginia
Selena Sherzad, Harrisonburg, Virginia

Graduate Certificate in Conflict Transformation
Cameron Carter, Ashland, Virginia

Master of Arts in Restorative Justice
Erin Bruemmer, Cincinnati, Ohio
Elham Khairi, Richmond, Virginia
Tibby Miller, Laramie, Wyoming
Mary Moll, White Salmon, Washington

Graduate Certificate in Restorative Justice
Debra Budiani-Saberi, Cabin John, Maryland
Eyerusalem Korra, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Master of Arts in Transformational Leadership
Cindy Angela, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Becky Gochnauer, Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Saskia Keeley, New York, New York
Luke Litwiller, Harrisonburg, Virginia
Sharon McKenna, Atlanta, Georgia
Amber Oda, Fort Wayne, Indiana
Joshua Sperry, Berkeley, California
DeMointé Wesley, Houston, Texas

CJP faculty and staff members Gloria Rhodes, Paula Ditzel Facci, Amy Knorr, Catherine Barnes, Alena Yoder and Vernon Jantzi provided the positive affirmations to the graduates.

Following the graduate tributes, speakers recognized three faculty and staff members who will be departing ��: David Brubaker, Lindsay Martin and Vernon Jantzi.

The event featured a graduate slideshow prepared by CJP student Maybree Spilsbury with music composed by 2024 CJP alumnus Luke Litwiller; musical performances from Rodrigue Makelele MA ‘20 (conflict resolution) and 2024 CJP alumnus Zua Companhia on drums and from 2024 CJP alumnus Philip Krabill, who sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”; and student blessings from CJP students Doro Maru and Spike Coleman.

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