Page 67 - Alumni Horae: Vol. 93, No. 3 Spring 2013

SPOTLIGHT
Alumni Association
Award Recipients
Gauldin ’89
Peace Vigilante
St. Paul’s School was another world for
Andrew Gauldin ’89, far away from his
home on 116th Street in New York City’s
Harlem neighborhood.
“I was away at school as a couple of my
friends had been in some incidents at home,”
recalls Gauldin. “I was powerless to do
anything, and being away gave me time to
start thinking about ways to create pro-
grams to provide alternatives to violence.”
Since that time, Gauldin has become
what some might call a “peace vigilante,”
traveling to 19 states and 39 cities to insti-
tute anti-violence programs in schools
and community-based organizations
through the National Crime Prevention
Council. In 1995, Gauldin embarked on a
career as an independent contractor,
speaking, training, and advocating for
education to avoid the prison pipeline and
to promote self-employment to those with
criminal records. He has worked with the
Children’s Defense Fund, the Harlem
Peacemakers, the Harlem Juvenile Diver-
sion Program, and Mothers Against Guns.
His latest venture is National Peace
Makers (NPMA), an NGO founded to
“empower children and youth to achieve
small-scale change with local compromises
of their own design.” Through NPMA,
Gauldin hopes to give children the tools
to influence behavior and policy toward
non-violent resolutions. Adults will assist
the children in taking those ideas to the
next level.
“The first philosophy is that peace is
not passive,” says Gauldin. “People have
a misconception that peacemaking is
deciding not to fight. I believe meditation
and prayer are active forms of peace-
making; you can be strong by creating a
peaceful environment, strong by inter-
vention without a gun or bullying.”
Gauldin counts himself fortunate to have
been given an opportunity at St. Paul’s
through the generosity of Wadleigh Schol-
ars Program founder and mentor E.E.
Plummer, whose memoirs Gauldin is cur-
rently writing. But he has not forgotten
where he came from. In fact, Gauldin is
known to youth around his home block
on 116th Street in Harlem, where he often
can be found talking with troubled teens
about alternatives to violence.
“St. Paul’s empowered me to go back to
Harlem and say ‘there’s something we can
do other than this, other than violence,’”
he explains. “I had friends murdered,
others in jail for life. You can’t just take
your St. Paul’s diploma and run away. You
have to go back and stop it. I have been
able to mentor young people. They know
I’m from around the corner and that I
chose to come back.”
Gauldin has done similar work further
away from home, including Washington,
D.C., Oakland, Calif., and, currently, in
Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., where he encourages
troubled young people to make better
choices, steering them away from violence
and toward chess, education, and employ-
ment opportunities.
The Alumni Award is the highest honor the
Association can bestow on an alumnus/a
to recognize the excellence of his or her
lifeworks and commitment to the spirit
of community. This year’s honorees
included Andrew Gauldin ’89, Chris-
topher “Kiff” Gallagher ’87, and
David Hunt ’57, who were recog-
nized at an April 3 ceremony
held at the Harvard Club of
New York City. The event
combined the award
presentations with the
Annual Meeting of the
Alumni Association.
JASON HOLMES
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