A group of roughly 40 Quinnipiac students, along with about 10 faculty members, are traveling to Bogotá, Colombia for the 16th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates this week.

The summit will allow these students and faculty members to interact with winners of the Nobel Peace Prize. This year’s summit is particularly historic, as the event is being held in South America for the first time in its existence.

Sophomore political science major Jacqueline Schmedel explained what meeting Nobel Peace laureates means to her.

“Getting to attend the World Summit is a huge honor. We have the opportunity to learn from some of the most impactful people in the world who have actively worked to make the lives of others better, often at their own expense,” Schmedel said.

Alex Branzell, senior economics and political science major, said that this opportunity is a Ulysse Nardin Replica recognition of potential for him.

“For me, the honor is to serve as a representative of the values and engagement of the Albert Schweitzer Institute and broader university,” Branzell said.

Branzell said meeting Nobel Peace Laureates by attending the World Summit is important to him.

“It exposes many to the fact that working to extinguish these maladies is not a spectator sport – and reminds them that their active participation is welcome and necessary,” he said. “For the many young people that attend, it is both a very sobering and motivating experience.”

Professor Anat Biletzki, who helped organize the trip, described the great opportunity the trip offers Quinnipiac students. Although she said it was an amazing honor for her, it is not a new honor for the university.

“It’s not a new honor in the sense that Quinnipiac students have been doing it for several years now. We have actually arranged in the past couple of years for many students from other universities and other places in the world to come to this – so we are actually the leading student group there,” Biletzki said.

Biletzki said the impact having students attend the summit could have on the university’s reputation as a whole.

“It puts us on an international map. The Nobel Peace Prize is the most important peace prize in the world. The summit is made up of people who are leaders of the idea of peace and peacemaking all over the world,” Biletzki said.

Schmedel expressed optimism regarding the impact having Quinnipiac students at the summit can have on the university’s reputation.

“I think Quinnipiac already has a good reputation specifically when it concerns the human rights community,” Schmedel said. “Professor David Ives has worked hard to ensure we have the opportunity to learn from laureates through the Albert Schweitzer Institute. This will be the largest delegation Quinnipiac has ever sent, as well as the largest youth delegation at the summit. We definitely won’t go unnoticed.”

As for those selected to attend, Biletzki explained that this year’s process was not as open as years past.

“We chose people who we thought were interested in peace, whose capabilities showed a certain way of dealing with peace, of being socially involved and representing Quinnipiac in the best way possible in an international setting,” Biletzki said.

Biletzki said the students attending feel deeply about the issues laureates have dealt with in their respective countries.

“It’s not people who are going for tourism or to have fun… they are all very committed to the issues of peace,” Biletzki said.