CDH Leadership Academy Students Build Peace Pole

August 13, 2015

Prayers for World Peace Project

Cretin-Derham Hall students have created and installed a specially-designed Peace Pole in the Brothers’ Courtyard this summer. A Peace Pole is a hand-crafted monument that displays the message and prayer:  “May Peace Prevail on Earth.”  More than tens of thousands of peace poles have been dedicated in 180 countries all over the world as a visual reminder to pray for world peace.

CDH students, Megan Ekstrand’16, Halle Sterling’16 and Jack Kemper’16, participants in the Cretin-Derham Hall Leadership Academy, selected the Peace Pole Project as their capstone project.  The Leadership Academy is a year-long curriculum developed at CDH to explicitly teach select students the skills associated with being good leaders. This unique program provided students with an opportunity to complete a project using skills taught in the Leadership Academy.  The students designed the pole.  In addition, they also hand-painted the words on the pole, leaving a personal mark on a structure designed for long-term beauty and personal reflection on the CDH campus.

The Peace Pole at CDH features a four-sided copper pole that features not only the Peace Prayer in English and Spanish, but also highlights the words of our CDH prayer:  “Let us remember that we are in the holy presence of God.  Let us love God and our dear neighbor without distinction.”