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Carl Hobert, Founder and Executive Director
Carl Hobert heads the Axis of Hope Center for International Conflict Prevention based in Boston, MA. Whether Carl and his team are working in Boston, Paris or Rwanda, the approach is the same. He uses role-playing and hands-on practice to help youth explore the many sides of a conflict that might be half a world away. Carl’s lifelong devotion to conflict prevention has its roots in the major societal challenges he experienced as a child. He grew up in Minneapolis during the heyday of busing – a court-mandated strategy to integrate the nation’s schools. He found that his diverse, inner city high school became even more so as youth from all nationalities and religions came together in a proverbial American melting pot. “That really drove home the idea of peaceful coexistence during my formative years,” he said. “I went on to study Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King and Gandhi, and the whole idea of civil disobedience - specifically for me, civil disobedience in educating youth - became a mantra for me.”
As an educator at both Proctor Academy and Belmont Hill School (Andover, NH), his thoughts on the universal nature of conflict and how to prevent it more effectively began to grow and to crystallize.
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“Through the years there have been many instances of people influencing kids in negative ways, from the Hitler youth to young people caught up in Mexican drug gangs to the interahamwe youth who picked up machetes in Rwanda during the 100 days of genocide in 1994,” Carl said. “It’s a timeless issue. But if we give kids positive reinforcement and get them to step out of the box they are in, and practice transparency and peace-building, it can make all the difference.”
Hobert earned a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Tufts Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He has a BA in French and Political Science and an MA in Spanish, both from Middlebury College. He is working with veteran journalist Teresa Barker to author a book entitled Axis of Hope: Teaching Global Responsibility in U.S. Schools. It is to be published by Beacon Press and is expected out next year.
Board of Trustees
- Joanne Hoffman, Chair, Board of Trustees (former Head, Moses Brown School)
- Daniel Kagan, Berman & Simmons
- Will Hobert, Founder, W.H. Trading
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