Written By Manuel Chimoy

The Peace and Justice Institute held Art and Peace with Student Clubs on Tuesday, September 27th as part of Global Peace Week. The event was held on Valencia College East Campus.

This event included some clubs like the Valencia Earth Studies Association, Muslim Ambassadors for Peace and of course the Peace and Justice Institute. The groups came together with students to make art and foster peace.

“We have many different aspects of it, one of them is on the campus events and the campus events are done through the Peace and Justice Institute, and we put in a lot of workshops like global peace week, in the spring is conversation on justice, and we informed student through workshops about peace issues or justice issues,” said Nicole Valentino, the East Campus Coordinator for the Peace and Justice Institute.

“Art is a very interesting therapy and its kinesthetic meditation, and that means that when we are coloring, or we are creating art like origami or even if we are learning about plants and putting them in the environment by planting them these are all arts of peace and therapy,” said Nicole Valentino.

One of the clubs present at the event was the Muslim Ambassadors for Peace, they had information about misconceptions about Islam, hijabs and much more. “We have members from all over the world; we talked about diversity, religion, ethics, and everything,” said Ahmad Abuzayed, the principle of the Muslim Ambassadors for Peace.

The other club that was in the event is the Valencia Earth Studies Association they had activities like making a butterfly garden. “Well, our mission is to raised awareness in environmental issues then also have fun in the environment and enjoy things like go on hiking trips and Kayaking trips,” said James Adamski a geology professor here in Valencia, who represents the Valencia Earth Studies Association.

See the related video by Voice Contributor Stephanie Sequera here: