MAP Student Receives Ephraim Isaac Leadership Award

Dr. Ephraim Isaac, a revered Ethiopian scholar who speaks 26 languages and travels around the world in pursuit of peace, visited the MA in International Peacebuilding (MAP) cohort for three days. Every year since 2022, he has come to give the Ephraim Isaac Leadership Award to MAP students, representing the Fellowship in Prayer, a New Jersey-based organization. 

Fellowship in Prayer supports programs that promote "interfaith dialogue and steps toward global peace" and "empower individuals and groups to explore the rich variety of spiritual resources and practices available to them through the world's religions and spiritual traditions.”

This year, MAP student Rev. Philip Fonjoh was selected to receive the award. 

“The award from the Fellowship in Prayer organization was a big surprise to me. I give God the glory that I was the recipient of this award this year, 2024,” Rev. Philip Fonjoh said. “I sincerely appreciate HIU faculty and Fellowship in Prayer for choosing me. This award will go a long way to assist me in my interfaith peace project in Cameroon.” 

Dr. Ephraim spoke to the students about how his childhood experience of war motivated him to become a peacebuilder, how the traditional intervention of the elders can be a peacebuilding strategy, and how languages should not be used as a dividing force. 

He also had a conversation with Jewish and Muslim students who might benefit from his peacebuilding knowledge.