Global Unites Founder Visits, Speaks on Unity
Founder of Global Unites, Prashan De Visser, visited campus last Wednesday, April 3, after being invited by Exeter’s own Unites chapter, to impart his knowledge on conflict resolution and its application to Exeter’s community. Speaking about his organization’s work, De Visser shared his vision for healing the deep political, racial, socio-economic and religious divisions in America through Global Unites.
De Visser began by telling his story of growing up amidst the hatred and radicalization of Sri Lanka’s civil war. His experience drove him to search for an alternative to violence in the form of collaborative peace among young people.
Global Unites began when De Visser realized the radicalized divisions within Sri Lanka and acknowledged their effects on his perception of other Sri Lankan groups. “It was one of the key moments of change for me, [from] being a person who was filled with the prejudice and hate towards that community to start thinking maybe I need to question my inherent prejudice,” De Visser said. “I had to question what I had been taught.”
For himself and the broader community, De Visser decided to end these cycles of violence in Sri Lanka by bringing together youth of different backgrounds. The effects were promising. De Visser saw youths who, after being roommates, classmates and friends with others from groups they hated, began to question their biases.
From there, the organization expanded to nine countries, including a budding branch in the United States. Hunter Carroll, head of U.S. Unites, was inspired by De Visser several years back and joined after realizing the divisions in his own country. “I looked at the U.S. culture and particularly the 2016 election; regardless of where you stand on that, I think most people agree that it was a very divisive election and that our country is very polarized. That just didn't settle well with me,” he said.
The idea behind Exeter Unites began a few years ago when upper Alayna Thomas heard about De Visser’s project and its tangible impact. “We had a conversation and I was really inspired by his story,” she said.
This year, Thomas finally established the club and hoped to inspire Exonians by inviting De Visser to speak. “We don't want to be just for people who are members of the club. We want to work towards changing our whole community,” she said. “So I think it was great to see that the people who attended the dinner enjoyed hearing Prashan’s story and were eager to make changes and help to apply his mission here at Exeter.”
De Visser explained his mission as pushing youth to be proximate to others who are different from them. He stressed that with Exeter’s diverse community, it is important to spend time with people who may be different from your regular circle. “Let's try to make conversation, create opportunities and not to try and prove each other wrong or [be] condescending, but to be respectful and to have just meaningful conversations to hear each other out.”
Russell Weatherspoon, faculty adviser of Exeter Unites, echoed De Visser’s call for diversity. “Obviously we have a very diverse school population here,” Weatherspoon said. “One of the reasons why is [that] we hope [that] Exonians will listen those whose stories and opinions are not as readily available where they call home.”
Upper Kileidria Aguilar found De Visser’s message applicable to her participation in several on-campus initiatives with similar goals, such as the Unite! coalition and an Asian women’s affinity group. “Mr. De Visser brought a global viewpoint to the realm of activism that I was never exposed to in depth,” she said. “I did learn that there is a way to solve global problems through a global collective, if only people [would] have the urge to lead together toward a goal that helps one another.”
However, Aguilar questioned De Visser’s belief that educating youth is the only effective way to affect change. “I agree with his message that children should be prepared to face the issues past generations have left us with, but I disagree with his ideology that there is no way corporations and governments can be held accountable for their own contributions to the problems the common people face,” she said.
Despite these questions, Exeter Unites aims to apply De Visser’s message about youth coalition to small, community-level movements. Exeter Unites Vice President and upper Tia Stockwell clarified that “Exeter Unites is starting at a smaller scale, so we’re working within our own community to further unite different social groups because we all know there are divisions; we want to do what we can to diminish the limiting mindsets [people] have.”
The campus is already feeling tangible impacts from De Visser’s speech. Student Council President Ayush Noori, who sees Global Unites’ relevance to the Academy’s mission, hopes to implement De Visser’s example into Student Council’s current initiatives. “It's our duty here to train Exonians who can leave our community and bring to the world values of compassion and being able to see good in other people,” Noori said. “I think that's precisely what Mr. De Visser is doing—training teens to see the world in that light.”
In the future, Thomas hopes Exeter Unites will address these issues with the help of a large body of students. “I hope that [students] see the incredible potential that exists here at Exeter for a mission like that of Global Unites to really build up our community,” she said.
“I hope that they realize that education and betterment of our students includes not only succeeding in the required classes for graduation, but also might include things like gaining [a] better understanding of the diversity within our school community and throughout the world,” Thomas said.