The Global Peace Exchange was started in August of 2006 as a student organization at Florida State University to coordinate and expand the service-based exchange opportunities for students throughout the world.
The mission was simple enough—to create sustainable, grassroots development projects through student exchanges. The effect would be two-fold: Not only would local communities receive benefit at the grassroots level, but students would also be exposed to opportunities in the humanitarian field. GPE functions to foster the construction of a new civilization founded on mutual cooperation and understanding to support development and peace in the world.
Building upon a network of linked universities and partners, students travel and work on projects with partners in the various regions of the world. They also participate in activities to provide them with a knowledge of global issues and development ideology. The hope is that students achieve a shared understanding of the common human struggle to survive, a moral and ethical education about the issues affecting a particular area or culture, and the hope to aid in the building of a new “civilization” of humanity. The best way to achieve these goals among the youth of today lies in service, as actions will always speak louder than words.
a. Sustainability
GPE strives for sustainability in our development projects. We partner with local organizations and institutions and work with them directly to meet the needs that they describe. We are here to help our partners with their needs–not vice versa. GPE will therefore only engage in a project 
where our partner asks us to meet specific needs and actively wants to work with us. In order to achieve our standards of quality, a project must be sustainable, actively address a need, incorporate direct and constant communication with partners, utilize students as agents of change, and maintain accountability throughout its duration. Our projects generally incorporate long-term planning through the establishment of permanent resources, promotion of social enterprise, and the provision of student services, when appropriate.
b. Service
We hope to provide university students with a wider range of international service opportunities than their respective universities previously offered. That is, students engage seriously in the design and execution of projects in order to provide them with hands-on service learning experiences. However, as students, we must recognize the areas in which we can be most useful and the skills we are most capable of providing to each project. Part of being responsible is acknowledging when a project surpasses our ability to contribute. Although perhaps limiting in some aspects, this does in fact maximize our ability to make a difference in the projects we do undertake and encourage
students to understand themselves as well as their areas of strength and weakness.
c. Education
GPE hopes to act as an avenue through which our members and volunteers can learn more about being responsible citizens of our global society. Through globalization, we recognize that the people of the world are becoming increasingly interconnected, our lives and hopes becoming further interwoven. As students are our future, it is vital that they recognize this connection. We thus hope through our local and international engagement to foster open-mindedness, critical thinking, understanding, and compassion in our members.
Isabel Callejas, the director of GPE’s Bukomero program in Rwanda, was recently awarded the Boren Scholarship. Isabel, born in Miami and raised in Nicaragua, joined GPE’s team in 2007. She plans to use the scholarship to study Kiswahili in Tanzania. This prestigious scholarship provides unique funding opportunities for U.S. undergraduate and graduate students to add [...]
On assignment from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), Douglass Casson Coutts is a Distinguished Visiting Professor, Department of Nutrition and Food Science, College of Human Sciences at Auburn University. He is developing and teaching Auburn’s first undergraduate course on “World Hunger: Causes, Consequences and Responses,” assisting in designing a Hunger Studies Minor area [...]
The Global Peace Exchange has decided to suspend its Guatemala project due to the devastation caused by the recent Pacaya volcano eruption and passing of tropical storm Agatha through the country. The country is trying to recuperate from these events and it is not a good time for GPE volunteers to engage in a project [...]
Tuesday April 6: 7:30 pm Peace discussion meeting in Dunlap Success
Center, Rwanda Genocide vigil to follow on Landis Green around 8:30
Wednesday April 7: Tee Off For Toilets 10-2 on Union Green: Fundraiser for the new toilet sanitation project in Rwanda with games, an obstacle course, and bake sale.
Thursday April 8: Amnesty concert featuring Dave Tieff, Union Green
from [...]
There are now two separate components to the GPE project in Guatemala, each with its own goals and volunteers. The first of these consists of an exchange program for two FSU graduate students from the College of Education, who will spend a total of six months at the Proesur campus of Universidad Del Valle de [...]