If life is like a great sculpture in progress, recent graduate Jim Stallings credits UALR and several key professors for “chiseling” him and his career.

“I know that might sound cliche’ and trite, but it’s true,” he said.

Stallings is programs assistant and project manager for the Colorado-based PeaceJam Foundation, whose mission is to connect Nobel Peace Prize winners with students and teachers from around the world through a service-learning curricula and major events.

The foundation has been nominated for the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and seven other laureates.

Stallings says that working in a nonprofit field requires someone who can adapt to rapidly changing situations and juggle a variety of tasks in order to pull off big campaigns and successful events.

Recently, he helped PeaceJam host around 300 local students and teachers at one of their conferences at Regis University in Denver with the 2011 Nobel Peace Laureate, Leymah Gbowee of Liberia.

Stallings will also be headed to another conference at the University of Oregon with Nobel Peace Laureate Rigoberta Menchú Tum.

Currently, there are 13 Nobel Peace Laureates involved in PeaceJam programs, including the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Laureates will give public speeches, teacher trainings, and high-quality service projects with the student participants.

PeaceJam typically brings in about 300 diverse students, teachers, and college volunteers to each event at campuses across the U.S., Guatemala, the United Kingdom, India, Monaco, Ghana, and South Africa.

“I’d estimate that about one-third of all student participants at each conference gets personal interaction with a Nobel Peace Prize winner,” said Stallings.

Throughout the rest of the year, students’ classes or after-school programs use PeaceJam curriculum to learn the history of each laureate and their country as a way to discuss social themes such as racism, gender equality, or access to natural resources.

Stallings graduated from UALR in 2011 with two bachelors of art degrees (history and mass communication). In 2014, he graduated from the university with a master of arts in public history.

“Working in the nonprofit and education sector requires a person to be genuine, empathetic, and professionally capable,” he said.

“If I ever do anything in my job that reflects those characteristics, it’s because I’m purposefully trying to emulate those professors who invested so much time and energy in me.”