Students earn scholarship for promoting peace

Two leaders of the UCI-based Olive Tree Initiative, which sent students from a variety of backgrounds to Israel and Palestine this year, have won a scholarship awarded for ethics and leadership on campus and in the community.

Students Moran Cohen and Ali Malik are sharing the XIV Dalai Lama Endowed Scholarship, which offers them $7,500 each, as well as a shared $2,500 to promote peace through constructive dialogue. The students plan to use that money to start a yearlong forum on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

On their trip with 12 other students this September, Cohen and Malik talked with academics, activists and, religious and political figures in cities throughout Israeli and Palestinian territories. A talk by participants last week was widely attended. The scholarship was endowed in 2004 by citizens who attended a talk at UCI by the Dalai Lama on ethical leadership and personal responsibility.

— Michael Alexander