Speaking to a handful of students in the Louis Room in Norris University Center, IIMCR founder Cody Shearer said he started the Washington, D.C.-based institute in 1996 for students who wanted practical training in conflict resolution and international affairs.
Each summer 100 undergraduate and graduate students from around the world are accepted to the program and attend a four-week session in the Netherlands. Students listen to guest lecturers, and engage in conflict simulations and training exercises to gain experience in mediation and negotiation.
“We’re trying to get students from Northwestern to apply to this program and be thrust into a stimulating national program,” Shearer said.
After students complete the program, the institute helps them find jobs or internships where they can apply their conflict negotiation skills.
Vaclav Pecha graduated from the institute’s first program in 1996. He recommended the experience to anyone interested in relief and humanitarian work. Pecha spent the last year in a refugee camp in Kosovo, where he worked to help refugees find new housing after their homes were destroyed by Serbian forces.
He spoke of one elderly Kosovar woman whose husband was shot and killed by Serbian sharpshooters. The woman buried her husband in Kosovo and then fled to nearby Montenegro to live with relatives.
But every day she would walk back to Kosovo to visit her husband’s grave, Pecha said. She wanted to move her husband’s grave to Montenegro, but Pecha said the necessary paperwork would have taken years to complete.
Although it was illegal, Pecha and some of his friends went with the woman to Kosovo to dig up her husband’s grave and transport his corpse closer to her new home.
“It’s pathetic the way the (United Nations) deals with these things,” Pecha said.
Weinberg junior Rodolfo Neirotti attended the IIMCR program last summer. He said he was pleased that students were able to apply what they had learned from the institute’s lectures to practical situations.
“It was theory, but it was also practice,” he said. “The speakers would tell you their theory and practice, and with the simulations you put that to work.”
1998 institute graduate Paul Turner said that although the program was rigorous, he had fun.
“It’s a challenging time mentally,” Turner said. “But it’s really rewarding because of the friends you make.”
Laura MacDonald, a Weinberg sophomore, said she attended the informational session because of her interest in international relations and international law.
“I’m definitely going to apply,” she said. “It sounds really interesting.”
The application deadline is March 16. Students can learn more about the institute at www.iimcr.org.
