Partners in Peace: Students confront humanity’s darkest lessons
“I want to tell them to go!”
Some students shook their heads, and others covered their mouths as they learned that Elie Wiesel’s family almost escaped Auschwitz.
In Wiesel’s Holocaust memoir “Night,” a police inspector raps on the window to warn the Wiesels they’re about to be deported. The family misses the message. Hours later, they’re herded onto railway cattle cars — most never to return.
This is a typical moment from San Jacinto College’s honors humanities class based on a new Nobel Peace Center initiative, Partners in Peace.
Launched last spring, the class challenges students to confront the realities of war while learning how to build peace.
A Nobel idea reaches San Jac
Spurred by that energy, the Nobel Peace Center and the council created the Partners
in Peace program, inviting U.S. students and faculty to study Nobel Peace Prize laureates’
approaches to peace.
“Nobel had never done an agreement with another outside group,” said Dr. Eddie Weller, San Jac’s honors program director.
As the council’s president-elect, Weller ensured San Jac numbered among the first 16 institutions to participate — and decided to teach the Partners in Peace class at the College himself.
A life-changing class
Few people would jump at the chance to tackle topics like war, genocide, and inhumanity with 18- and 19-year-olds. But few people are Weller.
The spring 2025 class focused on Wiesel’s Nobel Prize-winning memoir and nominee Erich Maria Remarque’s World War I novel “All Quiet on the Western Front.”
“There’s the saying ‘wars and rumors of wars’ — boy, have we had wars,” Weller said. “This gives students the chance to discuss it nonjudgmentally.”
In more than 40 years of teaching, Weller calls this class his favorite. So do students like behavioral science major Katilyn Busby.
“It spotlighted the importance of treating people with the utmost humanity, no matter who they are and how you feel about a situation,” Busby said. “Always act out of kindness.”
[The class] spotlighted the importance of treating people with the utmost humanity, no matter who they are and how you feel about a situation.
Students also examined pro-peace and pro-war songs — from the Civil War’s “Battle Cry of Freedom” and Vietnam War-era “Ballad of the Green Berets” to anti-Putin songs written by imprisoned Russians.
Through journals and discussions, they wrestled with war’s realities while gaining a new appreciation for peace.
Peace beyond classroom walls
Partners in Peace activities expanded beyond the classroom.
The North Campus held a book club on John Hersey’s “Hiroshima,” while at the South Campus, history professor Dr. Abbie Grubb and fine arts department chair Jeffrey McGee led students in creating and displaying banners featuring American Nobel Peace Prize winners.
The Central Campus also hosted speakers like sociology professor Tina Mougouris on the Holocaust and philosophy professor Thi Lam on the philosophy of war and his family’s experience fleeing Vietnam.
“The beauty of San Jac is the people who are experts are willing to share their wisdom and knowledge,” Weller said.
The semester culminated in a panel of local religious leaders sharing views on war and peace. Some students, Weller noted, came ready to reject certain faith perspectives. Instead, they left with more understanding.
Wrestling with weighty questions
Throughout the class, students raised different views but stayed respectful. Weller laid the ground rules early.
“They had strong opinions, but after listening to one another, they would say, ‘I could see why you would think that,’” he said.
At semester’s end, Weller’s students presented him with a “certificate of excellent teaching.”
“I looked forward to going to class, but they did too,” he said. “They got there early. They did the reading. They were thinking deeply and got down to the deep root issues.”
With Nobel approval, San Jac will continue Partners in Peace this spring. Weller looks forward to more students eager to grow.
“I would love to have students who care that much all the time,” he said. “It was a big part of who they were that semester.”
