Interview with Nan Peterson
Nan Peterson is the Director of Service Learning at the Blake School, a K-12 private school in Minneapolis Minnesota. She epitomizes the best as an educator, a mother, and leader. But her work goes beyond simply being a good teacher: she has embodied the spirit of service through her 30 years of teaching. Nan Peterson has brought the Six Billion Paths to Peace alive at The Blake School, using “peace through service” in innovative, engaging and meaningful ways. She has recently been honored by the Minnesota Department of Education for this work, and we are honored to have Nan Peterson as our first 2009 Pathfinders to Peace Award Recipient for Local Service. We were delighted to talk to Nan about her Award and her service.
You were given a Pathfinders to Peace Award today.
Yes!
What does it mean to be a Pathfinder to Peace?
What a wonderful award. What a huge honor. I am so grateful to the Shinnyo-en Foundation for considering me for a Pathfinders to Peace Awardee. To me it means recognition of my colleagues and the students at the Blake School, thinking about service, humility, kindness, and compassion. We talk a lot about Six Billion Paths to Peace, which is a Shinnyo-en Initiative. What if each one of us took a small step towards a more peaceful action? We think a lot about service and peace going together and as Mother Teresa said, “Any act of service is an act of peace”. So the Peacemaker award really does fit with what we do at the Blake School and what we hope encourage in the world beyond.
How did the collaboration between Blake School and Shinnyo-en begin?
11 years ago I went to a service-learning conference and ran into some people who worked with Shinnyo-en and they invited me at that time to come in the summer, to return to Northern California to learn more about the Shinnyo-en Foundation and the Order. It was a wonderful retreat. We came away from it feeling refreshed, renewed, relaxed. During the retreat, all these people, perhaps 40 or 50 of us, talked about service, learned about the Shinnyo-en Foundation and talked about compassion and how service parallels with peace. Since then, I have gone back to the retreat every year and was so delighted to feel filled up both personally and professionally by the things that we did and I learned at the retreat.
How does the Shinnyo-en Foundation’s mission mesh with your own personal mission and with the Blake School’s mission?
The Shinnyo-en Foundation mission and the mission of the Blake School parallel. The mission of the Shinnyo-en Foundation is to promote service and often through youth. The mission of the Blake School is to raise good citizens, with an eye on service for the world.
Over the years I continued going to the retreats and Shinnyo-en was following the work that was being done at Blake School. Several years ago they were kind enough to give a gift to the Blake School and we were able to have two summers of service, two Summer of Service Camps for middle school children where we talked about personal identity, which is big with Shinnyo-en, thinking about what’s important to me, and also going out everyday to do acts of service and kindness. I am so grateful for the support given to the Blake School by the Foundation. We have been able to have retreats for adults and also we were able to work on religious pluralism, working with Eboo Patel, thanks to the help of the Shinnyo-en Foundation.
So it sounds like a natural fit.
I do believe it is a natural fit that the Shinnyo-en Foundation and the Blake School found each other. I am very grateful for the partnership.
What is your Path to Peace?
My Path to Peace is to model and encourage service at the Blake School and beyond.
Thank you
