In his famed “I Have a Dream” speech, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke about people not being judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. In many ways, the work Dr. Cindy Lepeley does with her students opens a pathway for them to realize the significance of that philosophy.
Lepeley, who has taught Spanish at Heidelberg for 20 years, was the recipient of the community 2019 Peacemaker Award, presented Sunday evening at the rescheduled annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day community celebration.
The Peacemaker Award honors an individual who works within their community – as King did – to build an environment of justice, peace, equality and inclusion.
Through her courses, she has provided opportunities to students to explore cultures different than their own. She teaches “Service Learning on the U.S/Mexico Border,” an annual service learning trip during which students explore the socioeconomic and cultural realities of life along the border in collaboration with a local grassroots organization called ARISE.
Lepeley also has led several service trips with ‘Berg students to Nicaragua through the Alternative Spring Break program. The group has worked with Outreach 360 to focus on education, literacy and community issues as a way to help underprivileged children there learn English.
Lepeley is certified as a court and medical interpreter. Last summer, she accompanied a group of seven students who volunteered as interpreters for asylum seekers at a detention center in south Texas.
For her students, it’s about “lived experiences.” “These are real people, real lives. Something remarkable happens when you look at a person’s face and hear their story,” she said. “When you haven’t had those personal experiences, it’s easy to categorize people.”
Lepeley said she’s proud to share the Peacemaker Award with her students and the host communities. “It’s not just me. I give a lot of credit to our students for stepping outside their comfort zones and learning to look at people not by labels but as individuals. Taking this step, their lives become so much richer.”
The key to student experiences is learning to listen to each other as a beginning step to understanding. “Having a direct experience is the first step. We can’t be afraid of our differences,” Lepeley said.