As Jessica McCoy (BA ’99) learned more about U.S. foreign policy and the conflict in the Middle East, she couldn’t help but want to get involved.

The Elementary Education major had been working in nontraditional educational settings—theater companies, writing workshops, and the nonprofit sector. From 2005 to 2007, she worked with United for Peace and Justice, a coalition critical of U.S. policy in the Middle East, including Israel and the Palestinian territories. She also became a volunteer facilitator with the Alternative to Violence Project, a program that is used internationally and in schools, community groups, and prisons to teach nonviolent conflict resolution skills and bring about reconciliation in communities.

McCoy wanted a job that would combine her educational background, her experience working with programs geared toward youth, and her interest in Middle East foreign policy, theater, and conflict-resolution. “I explored the possibility of developing programs focused on teaching youth leadership, advocacy, and conflict-resolution skills,” she said. “One of my goals is to find a creative way to teach communication skills and use them as a tool to transform conflict and resolve problems through nonviolent means.”

And she wanted to take those ideas abroad.

In August 2007, McCoy began work at the Friends Girls School in Ramallah, a Palestinian city about 10 miles north of Jerusalem, hoping to put her interests and expertise to good use.

McCoy worked with the students, in kindergarten through sixth grade, in the English department as well as through afterschool programs.

The curriculum and teaching methods at the school were traditional, employing primarily recitation and round robin reading, so McCoy found ways to work with students one on one and to provide opportunities for them to practice their English in less-rigid situations. She also managed to make her English lessons play double duty.

McCoy tries on a kaffieyeh, a traditional scarf worn mostly by farmers and villagers in rural areas of Palestine.

“We did theater games and other cooperative games focused on active listening, developing empathy, and basic leadership skills—all of which can be used in situations to resolve conflict,” she said. “My personal goal was to develop a model that was universal. Children experience conflict in all communities—it’s just a question of scale and what the genesis of the conflict is—and they need tools to deal with them. My hope is that if children learn these skills when they are young, they will carry them into adulthood and become more proactive, involved community members.”

Mona Halaby worked with McCoy at the Friends Girls School and said she was impressed with what she saw McCoy accomplish.

“Jessica is a dedicated and conscientious educator. She is kind and sensitive to her students,” Halaby said. “She is an advocate of peace, justice, and reconciliation.”

McCoy returned to the United States in February 2008, and said she looks back on her time in Palestine as both rewarding and challenging.

“I feel like I’ve done something to make a difference, and believe I got more out of it than they did,” she said. “The Friends School had a clear conception of what they wanted me to accomplish with the students and I think I did that, or at least planted some seeds. For me it was not just the experience of the job, it was also the whole experience of living abroad and living in a different cultural environment and the challenges and rewards of that experience.”