Hundreds of students and faculty members packed the Wilson hall auditorium last night, many leaving in tears after four University students shared their personal experiences from living in war-wrought countries.
University student survivors of wars around the world engaged in the third annual "Children of War" panel to educate the University community about the consequences of war and the scars it leaves behind.
"The purpose was to communicate, in personal and real terms, what it means to live through a war," said Faculty Senate Chair Michael J. Smith, last night's panel moderator. "War becomes less abstract when one hears a fellow student -- the person one is sitting next to in section -- and realizes that the person was cowering in the basement when bombs were dropping."
Third-year College student Rebeen Pasha, who is from Iraq, co-moderated the panel with Smith. Pasha, a former panelist, helped organize this year's event.
"The extent of war and violence is beyond our imaginations," Pasha said. "Our highest hope was that we would make it until tomorrow."
Fourth-year College student Sanja Usanovic from Bosnia, first-year College student Nawraz Alan from Iraq, third-year Architecture student Adriana Navarro from Colombia and fourth-year College student Dustin Batson from Spain comprised the panel.
The panelists addressed their fear while they were in the throes of war.
"It's just the feeling you get -- I can't put it into words," Alan said. "All you can do is pray and ask God to get you through this."
Regardless of the violence and terrorism in their countries, the panelists said they felt strong affiliations for them.
"I can't go back and it's hard because it's my country," Navarro said. "Good or bad, war or no war -- it's my country and I love it."
Desensitized students and faculty alike often lose sight of the reality of war, Smith said.
"When the war is on the other side of the world, people have a tendency to see the TV images but forget that this is real life -- these are real people being killed," he said.
University students often take for granted the privilege of American freedom, Pasha said.
"We wake up and think about classes and mundane things and money, but everything we have are privileges we enjoy," he said.
The original panel in 2001 stemmed from a class Smith taught the summer before, during which he asked some students to speak about their experiences.
Camilla Figueroa, one of Smith's students and a 2002 University graduate, lived through El Salvador's Civil War. Figueroa proposed the idea of a panel for war-surviving students to share their experiences with the University, according to Smith.
Figueroa approached William Quandt, vice provost for international affairs, who accepted her proposal and decided to sponsor the event.
"The young people who had lived through various kinds of warfare talked from the heart and evoked a powerful response from the people who were there," Quandt said. "It was a very different experience from day to day life at the University."
The last 20 minutes of the panel were devoted to questions from the audience.
First Year Council President Noah Sullivan said that their was hope in the panelists' stories, in addition to fear and anxiety.
"Children of war really don't have that anger and hatred, and it's sort of the adults' hatred and their war ... luckily that hatred and anger at least has a potential not to be passed down," Sullivan said.
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