UPEI psychology students promote pathways to peace to the campus community

Students in Dr. Stacey MacKinnon’s fourth-year Psychology of Good and Evil class wrapped up their fall semester by hosting a UPEI Pathways to Peace Day in late November in the W.A. Murphy Student Centre.

The students spent half of the semester learning about peace from the ground up in partnership with the Mattie Stepanek Peace Foundation. The foundation was created in 2005 to carry on the legacy of Mattie Stephanek, a poet and peace ambassador who died at age 14. Born with a life-threatening neuromuscular disease, he spent a great deal of time in hospitals and was dependent on life-sustaining medical care throughout his life. Rather than focus on his losses and challenges, he dedicated his life to seeking, making, and bringing peace for the world.

Dr. MacKinnon has been involved with the Mattie Stepanek Peace Foundation for 15 years. She became involved because she wanted to create a peace-filled world for her daughter Ireland. As she learned more about the foundation, she thought about the benefits that studying peace could bring to her students, so she incorporated it into her Psychology of Good and Evil class. 

“When I talk about peace, I mean a sense of ‘okayness within,’” she said. “When we take care of our individual needs, we can take care of the basic needs of others.”

Each year, the class chooses a project—and this year’s group decided on the Pathways to Peace Day. 

“We wanted to bring peace to the campus,” said student Callie Getson. “And this was a good time to do, with many feeling the stress of exams and getting ready for the holiday. It was wonderful to see people’s faces light up with smiles as they went from station to station.”

During the Pathway to Peace Day, over 250 students, faculty, staff, administrators, and children from the Campus Kids Child Care daycare participated in activities at four stations.
The first station involved attendees exploring who they are individually and collectively at UPEI. Participants wrote their answers to the prompt “I am…” and added them to a 4x8 foot large mosaic art piece, which will be displayed on campus next semester. 

The second station involved remembering to play after every storm. To that end, the students and the children to the event for arts and crafts, face painting, and storytelling. They also provided resources prepared by students in the course last year that adults in leadership roles could use to guide other adults to play after every storm.

The third was recognition of the importance of fulfilling the basic needs of others as well as themselves. The students served coffee and hot chocolate courtesy of the Fox and Crow restaurant, made friendship bracelets with participants, collected donations for the campus food bank, had UV lights on hand, created playlists of relaxing music and lists of websites for meditation and relaxation, and gave out lavender seeds. They also collected over 200 pounds of food for the UPEI Campus Food Bank, seven winter parkas for the UPEI Student Union’s coat drive, and six bags of books for the UPEI Student Nursing Society’s book drive for the PEI Provincial Addictions Treatment Centre. 

The final station resonated with the message “Peace is a choice.” The station included resources created by this year’s students as well as those in last year’s class and a draw for a self-care bag. The students collected peace quotes, which became a “Take What You Need” feature so people could remind themselves to choose peace. This interactive display will find a new permanent home on campus in early 2025.