The URI Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies congratulates Lauren Smith on winning the Art Stein Scholarship for 2022. Lauren’s passion for law and politics inspired her to get her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. “I have always been outspoken and opinionated. Therefore, the goal of being a voice for others who have no voice or don’t feel strong enough made perfect sense to follow a law path,” Lauren said. This goal also piqued her interest in working for the URI Center of Nonviolence and Peace Studies. 

The two main issues that Lauren helped with during her internship at the Center were misinformation and the housing crisis. To address misinformation, Lauren and the team presented How to be Media Literate Citizens: The Role of Researchers, Journalists, and Students in the World of Heightened Disinformation, Conspiracy Theories, and Hate conference under the mapping misinformation panel at URI. She also helped organize the two-day conference, Get Housing RIght, presented by Jennifer Vincent, under the leadership of the Center director Dr. Skip Mark, which had a variety of panelists that spoke on this pressing issue. Specific attention was given to homelessness and affordable housing for the housing crisis.