About the Scholarship
Since 2009, 41 scholarships, each valued between $1,000-$1,200, have been awarded to local high school seniors who aspire to a career in peacemaking. Applicants demonstrate their involvement in peacemaking by describing how their activities, studies, and career goals relate to one or more of these six peace-related focus topics:
- Non-Violent Conflict Resolution (for example, by making lethal force truly a means of last resort, stopping the arms race and arms trading, converting to peace-time economy).
- Global Community (for example, by sharing global resources, respecting cultural diversity).
- Social Justice (for example, by promoting human rights, ending discrimination and prejudice, fostering equal access to economic opportunity).
- Ecology (making the connection between the environment and peacemaking- for example, by living more simply, improving air and water quality, working for conservation of resources, respecting wilderness and wildlife, seeking environmentally desirable waste management).
- Population (for example, by respecting human life and diversity while finding ways to manage growth so the human population reaches a sustainable level).
- Depolarization (for example, by building bridges across political divides, calming partisan rhetoric, better understanding and appreciating our similarities and our differences, embracing things that bring us together rather than keep us apart).
The scholarship selection committee looks for applicants who show the most promise to have careers that involve being active peacemakers. Applicants are judged on the basis of 1) their written discussions of how each of three areas of peace-keeping involvement (activities, studies, and career goals) relates to one or more of the six peace-related focus topics (described above); and 2) a letter of recommendation.
Any high school senior who intends to go to college and lives, goes to school, or is active in a faith community in Chapel Hill or Carrboro is eligible to apply for a Peacemaking Scholarship.
Apply
Submit a completed 2025 Chapel Hill-Carrboro Peacemaking Scholarship Application Form, signed by the applicant and a parent or guardian, by March 15, 2025. Send completed form and associated documents by email attachment to Skip Polson, Chairperson, Chapel Hill-Carrboro Peacemaking Scholarship Committee, at skippolson@gmail.com. Shortly thereafter, all applicants will be notified of the results.
Peacemaking Events
A benefit concert for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Peacemaking Scholarship has historically coincided with the Alternative Gift Market. The 2025 concert will be Saturday, November 8.
Each spring, scholarship recipients are recognized during a Festival Worship service. The students and their families are invited to attend the service.
In 2024, led by the Peacemaking Scholarship Committee, UCCH began observing “Peace Sunday” during Festival Worship, on the Sunday closest to the International Day of Peace (September 21).