This month’s reflection has been contributed by Aimee Regan, a 2006-2007 Peacebuilders alumna from Fenwick High School in Oak Park.

Kick It! For a Cure

It was a cold day in late December, the last day of school before a two-week winter break and the entire Nazareth Academy student body was gathered in the Sisters’ chapel adjacent to the school. The room was full of the kind of energy that comes when Catholic school students get an “out-of-uniform” day or when the classes are shortened because of a morning assembly. The occasion for the gathering was the Nazareth Academy All School Christmas Prayer Service. But this wasn’t going to be your typical high school Christmas gathering.

This month’s reflection has been contributed by Cecilia Dueñas, a 2007-2008 Peacebuilders alumna from Our Lady of Tepeyac Parish in Chicago.

When I applied to Peacebuilders, I did not know what I was getting my self into. Many of us referred to it as "Jesus Camp", but we found out while we were there that this was something that would really test us. As I sat with my Theological Reflection group that summer, I knew that my mission was to do something about gangs. I grew up in Pilsen and I saw gang activity all the time.

This month’s article has been contributed by Mary King, a 2008-2009 Peacebuilders alumna from St. Ignatius College Prep in Chicago. She is now studying at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass.

I thought I knew a lot about my city when I joined the Peacebuilders program. While I was raised in Chicago’s western suburbs, I choose to attend St. Ignatius College Prep downtown. While Roosevelt Road and Racine Avenue is a gentrifying community, it was a lot rougher than my corner of DuPage County!

This month’s current events article has been contributed by Billy Nichols, a 2006-2007 Peacebuilders alumnus from Naperville, IL. He is currently studying civil engineering at the University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign.

In all the discussion about the war in Iraq, the stories of ordinary people, who are forced to defer their dreams in order to survive in the wake of the violence, are often lost. However, a project initiated by a former Chicago couple is doing ‘one small thing’ through the Iraqi Student Project to help young people re-start the plans they had put on hold when war was brought to their front doors.