It was the ultimate peaceful conflict resolution, and it happened months before Clare-Marie Anderson would be walking through Henrik Ibsen’s Gate 51 and into the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Stockholm.
When the incoming senior on the University of Hawaii volleyball team first learned that she had been selected as one of 16 Peace Scholars the excitement was mixed with regret. Anderson looked at her calendar and realized that the dates of the prestigious program conflicted with the Rainbow Wahine’s summer practices.
“Originally I told them I’m so sorry, but I can’t,” Anderson, a walk-on defensive specialist, said. “Even though the practices are informal and not mandatory, I said I couldn’t miss them.
“When I told my parents, they said I’d be insane not to take this opportunity, that I’d be learning from Nobel Peace Prize winners, that it’s relevant to what I wanted to pursue with my career.”
Logic prevailed. Conflict resolved. Peacefully and with her coaches’ blessing.
Anderson, a Presidential Scholar, is the first UH student selected for the program. She was nominated by her professor Maya Soetoro-Ng, Director of Community Outreach and Global Learning at the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace & Conflict Resolution on the Manoa campus. (Soetoro-Ng is the half-sister of former President Barack Obama).
“I owe everything to her,” Anderson said of Soetoro-Ng. “She’s incredible, such a great inspiration and we developed a close relationship.
“It’s the first time that UH has been invited to be part of this and I feel so very honored and grateful.”
Anderson said taking part in the program “makes sense” with her interest in building peace through global healthcare. She will graduate next June with her B.S. in honors biology and apply to medical school.
“Originally I wanted to take two years off and be in the Peace Corps before med school,” she said. “I realize that I could make more of an impact as a doctor so my goal is to go to med school first, be a doctor in the Peace Corps, or work with Doctors Without Borders.
“I’m looking forward to improving the medical care in underprivileged communities and I want to hone my peace-building skills at the same time by seeing what it’s like in other parts of the world.”
Anderson, a Punahou School graduate, carries a 3.95 grade point average. The only “blemish” was an A-minus received in organic chemistry.
“That was a tough course,” she said. “It was a challenging time with volleyball going on and I did the best I could.”
Anderson leaves Friday and returns on Aug. 5 “just in time for double days,” she said. But volleyball will remain part of her curriculum the next few months.
“I’ve already look up where the closest gym is,” she said. “There are beach volleyball courts next to my dorm. I’ll come back ready to go senior year.”
