Select members of the Peer Mentors and Anti- Bullying Club gathered at Dean College last Wednesday for the 16th annual Peace Takes Practice Conference. Students from around the area attended to hear guest speakers talk about pressing issues in teenage society, such as drugs, sex, and bullying.

The goal of the conference is to stress that living peacefully does require some practice, but in the end it can really make a positive impact on yourself and the people around you.

“It’s basically an opportunity for students from different places to get together and to talk about issues surrounding not only peace, but bullying and how to live your life properly… how to live in good and peaceful ways.” says Mr. Koch, leader of the Anti- Bullying club.

Attendees did in fact discuss and listen to a variety of topics surrounding peace. Students got to share their ideas, talk about things they do, and programs that they are involved in.

“It had guest speakers who could view problems such as drugs and teen sex… speakers who could view these problems from inside that experienced these things personally, and also from the outside. It was good to get those different perspectives” Nicholas Gnaman

“We are not human beings, we are human becomings. We’re always learning, and sometimes that’s messy. But other people who know right from wrong can teach us how to become better human beings from what they have learned. And that takes practice…

Peer Leaders invited members from the Anti- Bullying Club too not only attend- but to come and wrap things up and speak at the end of the conference. Instead Koch decided that they would make a video, as it would really help tie it all back to bullying.

“The video talks about the importance of if you see wrong, letting someone know what they’ve done wrong, and once you learn, we can teach other people. It also discusses the importance of being positive versus being negative, how it impacts other people, and how it affects you if you are a negative person. It also mentions that you should lift people up instead of put them down.” says Koch.

The video also stressed the significance of standing up and asserting yourself, even though it is much easier to let things pass you by and ignore it.

“When we don’t speak out we hide and don’t think very highly of ourselves, but when we do speak out we are announcing our presence to the world.” believes the peace advocate himself.

Students put together and edited the video, which was shown at the end of the conference. Watch the full video above, or visit this link.