The Inaugural
Rachel Corrie Memorial Lecture

Click here for the Q&A session!

It was great to announce the recipient of the Rachel Corrie Memorial Scholarship at our Inaugural Rachel Corrie Memorial Lecture as part of this year’s 10th Anniversary of Peace Works!

Left to right: Denver Hatcher (Board Member), Patty Mosqueda (Board Vice President), Sonja Wentz (Board Member), Dakota Rakestraw (Scholarship Recipient), Ilan Pappe (Lecturer), Cindy Corrie (Board President), Craig Corrie (Board Treasurer)

As Sonja Wentz stated, “… [he] was impressive. He was valedictorian at his high school, a transfer student from Centralia College and his area of study is linguistics and international politics and relations with an emphasis on the Middle East and specifically, Palestine/Israel. I believe he is fluent in three languages and is currently learning Arabic. His overall application reflected the spirit, dedication to human rights and creativity that Rachel Corrie brought to the world.”

Dakota, grateful for the opportunity, said “Within this invitation to speak comes a responsibility, not only on me to make sure I am not speaking nonsense, but on all of us to recognize why we are here this evening. Had it not been for the courage and tenacity of Rachel to stand up and use her voice for Palestinians who are in almost every way subject to harsh Israeli treatment, we might not be gathered here this evening. Instead, we might be scattered, each of our voices singularly being drowned out by the onslaught of abhorrent rhetoric that seeks to quell the voices of Palestinians. It is her memory that tonight unites us and it is her dream that inspires me.”