Burcu Munyas is a project manager with Catholic Relief Services in Jerusalem, where she coordinates projects that focus on youth and education. She also works on initiatives geared toward fostering solidarity between people in the United States and the Holy Land. She works closely with Catholic Relief Services' Gaza office.
Born and raised in Turkey, Burcu came to Notre Dame to earn a master's degree at the Kroc Institute. Her Kroc internship took her to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where she conducted research to understand how that country's genocide had affected young people. The results of her study were used to design a new educational program for Cambodian youth, and her research was published in the Journal for Genocide Research.
"My internship was a great stretch and very formative for me," Burcu said. "At the Kroc Institute, we were encouraged to be scholar-practitioners. The fieldwork gave me the opportunity to put that into practice, which shaped my aspirations and my career."
"People working to build peace must have hope," Burcu said. "Hope for me was generated at the Kroc Institute, when I met people who were both idealistic and realistic in looking for alternatives to conflict."
