Cassidy Diaz
Assistant Editor
In the annual Baha’i Pathways to Peace lecture series, speaker Erica Toussaint highlighted the impact and power of the youth to create a better world both civilly and spiritually.
The lecture took place at noon on April 9, in the Campus Center Ballroom and an audience of roughly 40 attended.
Baha’i community members are committed advocates for the promise of a world of peace, and they have developed strategies to encourage peace through the values of oneness, unity, harmony, justice and the nobility of humanity.
“The Baha’i are working towards the first step to bring unity into the world together but unity is rather complicated,” Toussaint said. “We now have enough experience that I can say without youth we are really going to struggle for humanity to move forward.”
The Baha’i community also believe that the youth aren’t the future, but think of them as the now. Through education, volunteering and contributions the youth are already creating social change.
“From the Baha’i perspective we’re talking about the practical application of spiritual principles in your everyday lives,” Toussaint said. “In the Baha’i teachings faith is defined as first, conscious knowledge and second the practice of good deeds.”
By doing these good deeds, Baha’i implements these principles into their everyday lives of teachings of the Baha’i faith. Their concepts involve a collective of consultation, collaboration, mutual assistance and support is one of those huge pathways to peace the Baha’i believe in.
“Your generation is really drawn to learning how to be collective and to have a normal posture of learning and how to appreciate the diversity amongst you in your thoughts, views, cultural and backgrounds,” Toussaint said.
Toussaint also spoke about how Baha’i can be incorporated into education and mentoring the youth by walking through a pathway together.
“Mentoring happens because one person is one step further down the path, and they’re not going to lecture you about it,” Toussaint said. “They’re going to accompany you as you’re ready to take the next step.”
Dane Sawyer, instructor of philosophy and religious studies, who emceed and organized the lecture series incorporated his course of Honors Colloquium II. The course focuses on strengthening the community through acts of service.
“There is a lot of pain and suffering, but there’s ways in which we can heal it and we can support it,” Sawyer said. “It’s not about making the world better, it’s not about making the world perfect but to have some kind of goal, which is oneness or unity.”
Sawyer’s students have the opportunity to volunteer with the Baha’i community to engage in elevated and spiritual discussions. These conversations help remove prejudice and bias in society.
“Our volunteering is going to events held by the Baha’i and just putting yourself in this community that you’re most likely not I know I’m not so familiar with,” Vivian Orozco, sophomore criminology major said. “We’re all putting ourselves in each other’s shoes and teaching each other things and not being a one-sided conversation.”
Orozco is currently volunteering with the Baha’i Faith and exploring what it really entails and hearing the experiences of those who spent their whole life in the Baha’i faith.
“I really enjoyed just the approach to change and not suffocating the youth from making the changes that we may not think that they’re old enough to make yet,” Hannah Palpant, senior director of advancement services and strategies, said.
Palpant expressed that the teachings and the Baha’i frameworks have allowed her to implement them into her community and job here at the University.
“Alongside walking with people who may be different from us and learning from them and creating change together,” Palpant said.
Cassidy Diaz can be reached at cassidy.diazgomez@laverne.edu.
Cassidy Diaz is a senior journalism major with a concentration in print and online journalism. She is also news editor for the Campus Times, and previously served as an assistant editor and a staff writer.
Amore Mason is a junior photography major with a marketing minor, and a staff photographer for the Campus Times and La Verne Magazine.
