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Qiao Se Ong ‘25, a double major in sociology and film studies, has always been attracted to culture in all its forms — from film and TV to books, photography and more. That interest, combined with her international background, motivated her to apply for , a national grant program based out of Middlebury College that enables young adults to implement community-based solutions for different issues around the world.

Ong is now among the recently announced grantees of the 2025 cohort for Projects for Peace. Her project is called “Creativity in Action: Integrated Arts in Grassroots Organizing.” Based in Colombia, it aims to address the impact of a hydroelectric dam construction on local communities through creative workshops and collaborations with regional artists.

An international student from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Ong first heard about Projects for Peace while studying at the — an international network of schools and educational programs all over the world — in Pune, India. Projects for Peace was founded by international philanthropist Kathryn Wasserman Davis, whose son Shelby Davis — also a philanthropist as well as a retired investor — has provided scholarships and donated to UWC.

“I heard from a lot of alums who had graduated [from UWC] that they would apply for Projects for Peace, because these are students that were already informed in terms of the political context of wherever they were situated and wanted to make some form of change, however small that change was,” Ong said.

Ong then found her way to studying at ߣߣ�� because she wanted to be part of a tight-knit community where she could interact closely with fellow students and professors as well as receive a liberal arts education. She said her time at UWC had already inspired her to think about “the social imagination and how we understand the structures around us and how those structures shape our lives.” She spent a semester studying abroad in Argentina, which not only helped her develop her Spanish language skills but also demonstrated the power of experiential learning.

Upon returning to MHC from Argentina, a mutual friend put Ong in touch with Maria José Andrade, an international student from Colombia who graduated from Swarthmore College with a degree in biology and peace and conflict studies. Andrade had decided to move back home to Colombia to work as a community organizer with small-scale farmers who primarily produce avocado and cacao, and this mutual friend thought Ong and Andrade might have a lot in common.

Talking with Andrade, who is part of a community action board in a Colombian village called Planes-Mirador, Ong learned of a dam in the area that had been constructed between 1997 and 2001. The construction of the dam affected the campesino community, or community of farmers, in a variety of ways — including causing significant soil degradation and disrupting the normal transportation routes the farmers used to sell their produce. Some farmers opted to move away. Others who stayed, meanwhile, felt alienated and displaced.

The community action board had been working to locate and strengthen the self-determination of the community and place in light of these disruptions. Hearing about this from Andrade reminded Ong of a question she has often grappled with: What can art do, especially in moments of crisis?

“I think art is often cast aside and undermined for its capabilities,” she said. “But I do think that there are ways that art can empower and also create these spaces of resistance and spaces of collective grappling.”

After speaking with Briana Chace at the Career Development Center about Projects for Peace, Ong realized that fleshing out this idea and catering it to the campesino community in Planes-Mirador could be a way to enact change. She subsequently spoke with Andrade — who was already pursuing a social innovation project with farmers, offering them opportunities such as workshops and mentorship where they can share ancestral methods of soil cultivation — and became a creative and documentary consultant for the community action board there. Together, she and Andrade networked with various community leaders and grassroots artist collectives to develop a plan that could be executed during 12 weeks this summer.

“It’s a series of these events that explore how we can use art as a means of resistance, as a means of feeling within the community,” Ong said. That includes workshops and programs where people can gather and make art, view art such as film or interact with art in other ways. “We’re not so attached to the product that we're going to produce out of all of this, but more so the process [that the community action board is already engaging in].”

Ong wouldn’t even think about doing a project such as this without a collaborator like Andrade. They both share the same definition of peace, which doesn’t necessarily come from conflict resolution but is also about rebuilding belonging and connection to land. “The peace we’re seeking is more in the form of healing,” Ong said.