Kathryn Davis: Visionary for Peace

By Philip O. Geier, Executive Director,
Davis United World College Scholars Program

The Power and Wisdom of 100, 101, 102, 103 and Now 104

In August 2006, Kathryn Wasserman Davis made a momentous decision.  She would be turning 100 years old in 2007, and she was feeling a great sense of urgency.  Urgency about an elusive goal in her long life: peace in the world.  As she reflected on the many years of her life, she felt frustrated that her generation and those that followed had failed in that great quest.

What might she do, Kathryn wondered?  She decided it was time to see what fresh and motivated young minds might do about this perplexing issue.  She decided to use her remaining years to unleash the potential of youth in the cause of peace.  How to do that?

She had been watching with interest a program her son Shelby had started with his own philanthropy in 2000: the Davis United World College Scholars Program which had grown into the world’s largest international scholarship program for undergraduates. Kathryn had met many of these United World College graduates as they had become Davis United World College Scholars matriculating at over 90 American colleges and universities including her alma mater Wellesley and Princeton, where both her late husband and her son had earned their undergraduate degrees.  Given the impressive scope of colleges and universities in her son’s program, it occurred to Kathryn that these would be accessible and dependable places for her to try out her idea of Projects for Peace.

Without hesitation, Kathryn put up $1 million and issued her challenge for any and all students on these campuses – and now to others at International Houses worldwide, Future Generations and the Geneva Institute – to design whatever projects they felt would contribute to peace.  Kathryn was so gratified by the students’ projects in 2007 that she has continued her support for subsequent rounds of projects in 2008, 2009 and 2010. This volume reports on the 2010 projects and demonstrates how Kathryn’s vision has motivated young people and how those young people have drawn inspiration from Kathryn.

A Visionary for Peace

Kathryn Davis has been a lifelong internationalist. She discovered her passion for global engagement on her first trip to Russia in 1929. Shortly after graduating from college, she was travelling with a group through the Caucasus Mountains on horseback, and their horses were stolen. As Kathryn recalls it, “We ate wild berries for breakfast and spit-roasted mountain goat for dinner, and I couldn’t have been happier.” She went on to Geneva where she earned her doctorate and wrote a timely study, “The Soviets at Geneva,” about the League of Nations, forerunner to today’s United Nations which was headquartered in Geneva. Kathryn has returned to Russia more than 30 times since and has become well known to the leaders of that country through its tumultuous recent history. She celebrated her 95th birthday with its former president, Mikhail Gorbachev.

Kathryn is also a lifelong philanthropist, supporting education, the arts, scientific research, the environment and conservation, and various forms of international relations. She has left her mark on a wide range of institutions and countless students. At her alma mater Wellesley College, she has been supportive of numerous projects including financial aid for students, global education initiatives, professorships in Russian economics, Slavic studies, Asian studies, and history. Wellesley’s Davis Museum and Cultural Center is named for her and her late husband Shelby Cullom Davis, as is the International Center at Princeton.

Kathryn has been recognized for her achievements in many significant ways. In 2007, she was given the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. This honor was bestowed on her for having “shown a special commitment to seeking out informed and thoughtful views” and for having devoted herself “to examining the historical background and long-term implications of important policy issues.” In her acceptance speech, Kathryn addressed those she called “movers and shakers of the world” this way: “My many years have taught me that there will always be conflict. It’s part of human nature. But I’ll also remind you that love, kindness, and support are also part of human nature. My challenge to you is to bring about a mind-set of preparing for peace, instead of preparing for war. We don’t know what tomorrow holds, and therefore let us take advantage of today to be as useful as possible.”

Continuous Innovation

For all her achievements, Kathryn was not content to rest on her laurels. Instead she has wanted to do more, and not just more of the same. The wisdom of her years has led her to look to young people for new ideas and fresh energy to improve the prospects for peace. She recalled her own adventuresome youth and what it had motivated her to do since. She reflected on her own unrelenting curiosity, her desire to keep learning, engaging, participating, shaping. She  realized that her life had not been simply a matter of being willing to try things she had never done before; instead, she realized that she had always been eager to do things she (or her parents) had never done before. She also realized that she had been fortunate enough to have those opportunities. She concluded that amidst today’s youth there must certainly be those with her kind of inclinations. They only need be given the opportunity. It would be a bargain at any price if she could set in motion steps toward a more peaceful world.

Kathryn made up her mind to establish Projects for Peace when she turned 100 and has renewed her commitment every year since, saying, “I want to use my birthday to once again help young people launch some initiatives that will bring new energy and ideas to the prospects of peace in the world.”

The Process

Projects for Peace is administered through the office of the Davis United World College Scholars Program headquartered at Middlebury College. Over the past academic year, competitions were held and selections of projects were made on the many American college and university campuses already part of the Davis United World College Scholars Program, as well as through special arrangements with the world-wide International Houses, Future Generations and the Graduate Institute in Geneva, Switzerland where Kathryn had earned her doctorate.  All students on these campuses – to make this as inclusive as possible – were invited to design their own grassroots Projects for Peace which they themselves, if their proposals were among the winners selected, would implement anywhere in the world during the summer of 2010.  Each of the winning projects was awarded $10,000 from Kathryn’s philanthropy, thought each projects’ total budget could expand as enterprising students might raise other funds or partner with existing initiatives or organizations.

Students are invited to give their own definitions to what a Project for Peace should mean.  The idea was to spark the students’ own imaginations and to see what fresh thinking might come forth.  Kathryn wanted to continue to encourage creativity, innovation and social entrepreneurship.  She expected projects would span the globe, that they could take place anywhere, including the U.S.  

Each of the participating institutions was free to promote the competition among its own students and design its own evaluation process for selecting the most compelling proposals.  The idea was to push down the decision-making to the campus level, making it more empowering and engaging for each educational community.  Some college presidents became so captivated by the idea and potential value of this initiative that they ended up funding additional projects beyond what Kathryn’s philanthropy made possible.

Thousands of student proposals were written across the nation and around the world.  The impact on campuses was inspiring.  As one college official reports, “This opportunity and the proposal development process have produced a wonderful, exciting buzz on campus and among our students.” Kathryn’s vision and spirit took root in 2007 and the momentum and participation has expanded every year since. The winning proposals for 2010 were announced in the spring and then it was up to the students to do their projects during that summer – demanding focus, engagement, commitment and a high degree of personal responsibility.