Celebrating A Future Secretary of Peace

(Thanks to Wendy Greene for sending this in.)

This article was printed in the Sonoma Index-Tribune. It's a look at how the vision of the Department of Peace inspires and fuels life's greatest dreams. What a beautiful world we have with dreams--and actions--like this.

Here's the link to the original article, which is excerpted below.

Schorr, Jasperse top SVHS grads
Graduation tonight
By Emily Charrier-Botts INDEX-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

Lauren Schorr and Leland Jasperse have grown up together, attending the Sonoma Charter School before entering Sonoma Valley High School, participating in the same after-school activities and hanging out with the same friends.

Today, the pair will stand together one last time when they address their class, parents and teachers as the valedictorian and salutatorian of the class of 2009. Schorr, 17, was named valedictorian during last Wednesday's Senior Awards Ceremony at the school. As with all valedictorians at the high school, she will be giving a speech that looks at the future.

"I finally know what I want to say," Schorr said. She plans to attend Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., where she will major in government with a focus on international relations, a far cry from where she thought she'd take her education.

"I was into biology and zoology," she said. "And I really wanted to stay in California."

But everything changed for Schorr last year when a librarian at the Sonoma Valley Regional Library told her about the Student Peace Alliance, an organization that campaigns to support H.R. 808, a bill seeking to establish a national Department of Peace. Schorr was so enamored of the program that before long she became the city organizer for the group.

"(The experience with the Peace Alliance) completely turned around my plan," Schorr said. "Now, I would love to one day become the Secretary of Peace when the department is created."

Read the rest of the article online.

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