Two CC Students Win Projects for Peace Award for Bosnia-Herzegovina Proposal - Colorado College

CC’s Antonio Skarica ’12 and Melissa Serafin ’11 are part of a team awarded $10,000 from the Kathryn Wasserman Davis 100 Projects for Peace program for their proposal entitled “The Prozor Project.” The musically-talented team will travel to Prozor, Bosnia-Herzegovina this summer to lead a three-week music camp for youth.
Prozor was one of the first sites of ethnic conflict between Croats and Bosnian Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the rich musical history of the area was nearly destroyed during the conflict. The team, which also includes a student from McGill University and a student from Brown University, hopes to use music to show the campers how producing a project together can build understanding and acceptance. The camp’s 30 local students range in age from nine to 19 and consist of both Croatians and Bosnians, who will work on combining stylistic features from their respective cultural backgrounds. The team will work with five community volunteers from both sides of the conflict. At the end of the project, the team will leave the instruments with the Prozor Youth Organization to encourage continued dialogue and relationships.
The Davis Projects for Peace was launched in 2007 by philanthropist Kathryn W. Davis on her 100th birthday. During the summer of 2009, college students from nearly 100 campuses will collectively receive more than $1 million in funding for projects in all regions of the world. The program is designed to encourage and support students to create and implement their ideas for building peace throughout the world.