2009 International Leadership Award

$100 for both Symposium and Awards Luncheon

$75 for Symposium only

$75 for Awards Luncheon only

$200 for Program Hosts

Thursday, June 25, 2009

8:30 A.M. - 1:30 P.M.

To register for this event

Register on line here or call 207-780-4551

Aaron David Miller Keynote Address Speaker

The half-day morning symposium entitled "Peace in the Middle East: Fact, Fiction, or Fantasy?"  will feature several renowned speakers, including:

Aaron David Miller as the keynote speaker of the symposium. Dr. Miller is the author of the national bestseller The Much Too Promised Land: America’s Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace, and will use his book as a point of departure for his remarks regarding the current state of the Middle East. Mr. Miller’s background as an adviser to six secretaries of state and three presidential administrations, former president of the Seeds of Peace organization, and public policy fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars provide him with a unique political and academic perspective from which to speak.

The symposium will also include a panel discussion and video montage of International and Maine alumni from the Seeds of Peace camp.  Participants will discuss their experiences and the impact the camp has had on how they view the world. 

The final presenter of the symposium will be Jared Willis, one of Seeds most successful alumni.  Jared Willis is President and Founder of Prudent International Research and Consulting, LLC.(PIRC), a consulting firm based in Chicago, Illinois. He manages the firm’s growth and profitability as well as providing strategic direction for the firm’s ongoing client relationships.

Prior to founding PIRC, Jared spent two years working for Seeds of Peace. He served as Outreach Coordinator, based in Jerusalem, from 2003-2005, and was responsible for organizing seminars and conferences in Tel Aviv, Ramallah, Gaza, Amman, Cairo, Cyprus, and New York City for Middle Eastern youth. In this role Jared acted as the sole liaison to the Israel Defense Forces and regularly advised the Israeli Ministry of Education.

In 2002, Jared received a Fulbright Scholarship from the United States Congress to conduct a research study on the political activities of Palestinian students studying in Haifa University. Prior to that, he attended an intensive Arabic course at the American University of Beirut.

Jared graduated summa cum laude, with high honors, from Brandeis University in May 2002, with a B.A. in Near Eastern Studies. He was the recipient of the Doris Bremer Cohen Endowment Award and the Rose and Joseph M. Weissman Prize in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies in 2002, and is fluent in Arabic and Hebrew.

Following the symposium will be the Awards Luncheon to recognize Seeds of Peace as the recipient of the 2009 International Leadership Award from the World Affairs Council of Maine. The award was created in 2008 to honor the achievements of a Maine individual, business, or organization that works to promote peace locally and globally while exemplifying the qualities of dedication, patience, and leadership.

Founded in 1993 by journalist John Wallach, Seeds of Peace firmly believes that peace and coexistence can be achieved by empowering young people from conflict areas with skills in communication, negotiation, and diplomacy so that they may become the leaders of tomorrow. Seeds of Peace operates a variety of programs that focus on the Middle East and South Asia, as well as a Maine Seeds program with a focus on urban areas in Maine experiencing a dramatic growth in diversity.

“Seeds of Peace is an outstanding public diplomacy organization that has been focused on the peaceful resolution of conflict for over a decade and their model should be emulated and celebrated. For Maine, this is yet another amazing example of how our state has a disproportionate influence on a global map” - John LaBrie, Executive Director of the World Affairs Council of Maine.