Peyton K.
Graduation Year
2025
Awards Won:
The Dr. Bernard Kaufman Undergraduate Research Award in Jewish Studies
Award Years:
2022
Peyton is a first year undergraduate student studying International Relations, on a full merit scholarship from the Bryan Cameron Impact Foundation. Prior to university, she founded the Global Minds Initiative, a student-led movement combatting cultural intolerance and discrimination in schools across North America. Today, Global Minds operates in 25 schools, as a program of the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh, impacting over 3,500 students each year, and has been recognized by The New York Times, The Today Show, and Scholastic Magazine, as a model for inclusive youth-led education. Peyton is honored to be Forbes 30 under 30, a TEDx speaker, Teen Vogue’s 21 under 21, and a Princeton Prize in Race Relation Awardee.
Overview:
Berlin has seen a recent influx of both Israeli and Arab immigration with remarkable results. These largely young adult communities are not only coexisting, but cooperating, thriving and learning from one another. This new Israeli-Arab symbiosis in Berlin reflects the German capital’s role as a cultural epicenter where diverse peoples continue to embrace new norms of multiculturalism. Our project inquires, how can Israeli culture learn from these ethnically-diverse communities in Berlin, and apply the lessons of positive social psychology and interpersonal contact to promote more peaceful relations in the current state? We investigate both formal and informal interactions between Israeli-Arab communities in Berlin, proceeding to evaluate and then apply their practices to Modern Israel, with the ultimate purpose of fostering peace both interpersonally and in Israel at large.