“What are you thankful for?” This is the question that educator and community organizer Lori Harris always starts her speeches with, like at Shippensburg University on April 12.

Harris went around the room in the Dauphin Humanities Center asking the students of SU what they are thankful for. Their answers ranged from family and friends to as simple as being alive. Harris said she is thankful for her aunt and her past students — they helped her get to where she is today.

Harris runs an educational program called Pillars of Peace, which helps students connect with one another and stay out of trouble.

Harris had a hard time finding a job, at least until she went to Imhotep Institute Charter High School in Philadelphia. She was in charge of the mediator program when she helped create the Pillars of Peace program. Harris described Pillars of Peace as a mentoring and Afrocentric program.

“Afrocentrism means viewing everything through a lens and putting black people in the center of it,” Harris said. She wants to give students this kind of perspective —something that was not taught to students her age when she was in school. In Pillars of Peace, instead of giving students detentions because of their actions, they called it “re-centering.”

During re-centering, Harris had students write down why they were doing their bad actions. After reading these responses, Harris realized that some students were going through things that other students have also been through. She wanted them to realize that they are not alone, she said.

“We don’t make connections with people anymore. We don’t know their story. Everyone is human,” Harris said. Pillars of Peace is all about humanizing. Harris helps young people realize that they are human. She said she knows her program works because people who used to get suspended from school do not anymore, ever since they have been in Pillars of Peace. Harris said in order to create peace with anyone else, we need to create peace within ourselves.

“Once we realize we are connected, we can all work together,” Harris said. Harris plans to put the Pillars of Peace program in more schools in Philadelphia and in more universities because peace is needed.

Harris was a minority all through school. She felt as though people never saw things through her perspective. Once she graduated high school, she did something that she would never believe that she would be doing — she went to college. Harris graduated from Juniata College where she focused on interpersonal/intercultural communication and peace studies. She wanted to get involved in education and work with peace and diversity.

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