Cultivating Peace and Collective Harmony Focus of Peace Initiative

The weeklong Peace Initiative at the College of Charleston begins on Monday, March 24, 2025, with a slate of free events.

The director of the Office of Student Wellness and Well-being, Rachael McNamara, and psychology professor Rhonda Swickert started the Peace Initiative in 2018. Over the years, themes during the weeklong series of events have ranged from exploring forgiveness to promoting connection in a fragmented world to using peace as a pathway to well-being. The 2025 theme is cultivating peace and collective harmony. The College Today caught up with McNamara to discuss this year’s slate of events.

What do you hope to accomplish?

For this year, we wanted to encourage our students, our campus and our community to work both on their selves as well as the whole toward cultivating Peace and Collective Harmony. The different events as well as the daily Peace Challenge were developed with this in mind by our group, Jen Wright, director of the First Year Experience; Michael Lee, executive director of the Civility Initiative; Techa Smalls-Brown ’97 instructor in the School of Education; Kelsey Whiting-Jones, associate director in the Office of Sustainability; Lisa Thomas Ross, professor in the psychology department; and myself, director of Student Wellness and Well-being. This weeklong event brings in campus and community experts to explore practices for promoting peace and well-being.

What is different this year?

Almost everything is changed except for the Peace Parade and the Meditation Retreat. We are excited about all the topics, but we did invite people from our community to host some really engaging, interactive events, the Community Transformation Circles and Neurographic Art. Community Transformation Circles provide an opportunity to share personal stories in response to questions and prompts posed by experienced facilitators. The goal is to make new connections or deepen existing relationships, learn from each other’s stories and experiences, take time for self-reflection, practice the art of deep listening and expand our empathy and compassion. Neurographic art will teach and encourage the participants to create a unique piece of art while gaining valuable insight into the process of using art for personal reflection and stress reduction. This class encourages you approach art with mindfulness and creativity, blending the cognitive with the emotional for a profound experience.

The community, CofC faculty, staff and students are all welcome. Just RSVP for the events at https://cofc.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8Dq749y15sfAB2S.

Schedule of Events

Monday, March 24

• All day pop-ups: Musicians Showcase around campus
• 5-7 p.m., RSS 249, Community Transformation Circles – Share personal stories in response to questions and prompts posed by experienced facilitators.
• 1-3 p.m., RSS third floor next to Counseling Center, Zendo – Try a Zendo meditation headband. Zendo is a meditation assistance device to help people instantly quiet their mind and experience what advanced meditators experience. People will be calmer, less stressed and be able to reduce distracting thoughts in just one 20-minute session.
• Daily Peace Challenge: Conversation with a stranger

Tuesday, March 25

• 1 p.m., RSS 319, Sound Bath Meditation with Christian Laine – A sound bath meditation is an immersive experience using the resonant sounds of singing bowls that uses therapeutic sound waves to promote relaxation, healing and mindfulness.
• 1–3 p.m., RSS third floor next to Counseling Center – Try a Zendo meditation headband.
• 4-5:30 p.m.; Beatty Center, Wells Fargo Auditorium; Mexico Border Perception Versus Reality – Join Gil Kerlikowske, former commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, as he shares real-world examples and talks about border security.
• Daily Peace Challenge: Read something you don’t agree with. Find somewhere to sit and be really present with sounds.

Wednesday, March 26

• All day pop-ups: Musicians on campus.
• 1–3 p.m., RSS third floor next to Counseling Center – Try a Zendo meditation headband.
• 2–3:30 or 4–5:30 p.m., Rita 101, Neurographic Art Experience – Neurographic art will teach and encourage the participants to create a unique piece of art while gaining valuable insight into the process of using art for personal reflection and stress reduction. This class encourages you approach art with mindfulness and creativity, blending the cognitive with the emotional for a profound experience.
• Daily Peace Challenge: Try neurographic art online.

Thursday, March 27

• 1–3 p.m., RSS third floor next to Counseling Center – Try a Zendo meditation headband.
• 3:15–4 p.m., Cistern Yard, Awe Walk – Reconnect with nature and enjoy a walk on the beautiful and historic College of Charleston campus.
• Daily Peace Challenge: Practice gratitude. Think of three things that you often take granted. What was something I am grateful to have learned? What are three things that I appreciate about the nature around me?

Friday, March 28

• 9:30 a.m., Cistern Yard, ECDC Peace Parade
• 1–3 p.m., RSS third floor next to Counseling Center – Try a Zendo meditation headband.
• 2–4 p.m., RSS 319, Meditation Retreat – Unwind from the week with a calming meditation retreat. Refocus, recenter and rejuvenate!
• Daily Peace Challenge: Do a TAO meditation. Create a login with your CofC email for free.